Abingdonian 2017

64 The Abingdonian How long Abingdon’s top team remains weakened will largely depend on the determination and desire of the young talent currently emerging at Chess Club. It will very soon be time for some boys to step forward and show their mettle in major tournaments. (Ideally, our top six would be like the Persian “immortals” of old, instantly back to strength when any number is lost.) On Monday 10 October, four Lower School boys played a friendly match against the Dragon School, whose pupils are coached by Banbury chess player and chess journalist Carl Portman. Abingdon’s team was 1. Fran Trotter, 2. Will Riddell, 3. Louis Trotter, 4. Matthew Fowler. Abingdon lost 4-0 in the closely fought rapidplay games but afterwards reversed this result in the blitz games. Matthew Fowler was probably Abingdon’s best performer. This enjoyable foray into North Oxford was a suitable warm up for the Junior Team Chess Challenge, held at MCS on Friday 4 November. The same four boys were in action but in a revised team order, Matthew moving up to Board 2. After four rounds of rapidplay, 12.5 minutes on each clock, Abingdon finished sixth, ahead of MCS C and Cherwell B. The other schools present were Horris Hill, the joint winners, and Christ Church. Abingdon’s individual results were Fran Trotter 2/4, Matthew Fowler 1/4, Will Riddell 2.5/4 and Louis Trotter 1/4. The highlight was Will’s win in the match against MCS B. Middle School boys were in action at Radley on Wednesday 23 November for the open Team Chess Challenge. Abingdon entered two development teams of roughly equal strength. Team A was 1. Thitipat Ditrungroj, 2. Sebastian Watkins, 3. Alister Jamieson, 4. Dashiell Hathaway/Lawrence Putt. Team B was 1. Richard Oh, 2. Jonathan C. H. Lee, 3. Tong Tong Sukamongkol, 4. Luke Ffrench/Ashwin Tennant. After three rounds of rapidplay, 15 minutes on each clock, Abingdon A finished third, behind the two teams from MCS, who had fielded their top players. Abingdon B finished fifth, behind Cherwell, and ahead of the three Radley teams. Abingdon’s individual results were Thitipat Ditrungroj 1/3, Richard Oh 1/3, Jonathan C. H. Lee 2/3, Alister Jamieson 1/2, Tong Tong Sukamongkol 1/2, Sebastian Watkins 2/3, Luke Ffrench 1/2, Dashiell Hathaway 0.5/2, Lawrence Putt 1/2 and Ashwin Tennant 0/2. On 30 November, Abingdon’s coach Grandmaster Peter Wells (231) took on 18 boys and 2 members of staff in the annual simultaneous display. After two and a half hours of play, the final result was a win for Mr Wells by 20-0. The games were written down and subsequently analysed by Dr Burnand, and later by Mr Wells. Abingdon’s top performers were Upper Sixth players Ray Ren, Joseph Truran and Daniel Savage. Ray was the last boy left playing, but it was Joseph who won the £5 best game prize. And last of all to lose was Mr Poon. Abingdon’s full team was 1. Ray Ren, 2. Joseph Truran, 3. Nicolas Markham (substituting for Jeff Abraham), 4. Louis Brosnan (substituting for Jerry Yang), 5. Daniel Savage, 6. Thitipat Ditrungroj, 7. Richard Oh, 8. Jonathan C. H. Lee, 9. Tong Tong Sukamongkol, 10. Alister Jamieson, 11. Saxon Supple, 12. Lawrence Putt (substituting for James Beckinsale), 13. Sebastian Watkins, 14. Dashiell Hathaway, 15. Luke Ffrench, 16. Louis Trotter (substituting for Matthew Fowler), 17. Fran Trotter, 18. William Riddell, 19. Dr Jeffreys, 20. Mr Poon. On Wednesday 14 December, the popular inter-house chess competition took place alongside the other inter- house competitions. After four rounds of Swiss rapidplay, the winners were Crescent (4/4), led by Jerry Yang, who defeated School (2/4) in the last round to wrest the trophy from holders James’. These are the full results: 1. Crescent 4/4, 2. Franklin’s 3/4, 3. James’ 2/4, 4. Austin 2/4, 5. School 2/4, 6. Southwell Sander’s 1.5/4, 7. Morgan’s 1.5/4, 8. Border’s 1.5/4, 9. O’Doherty’s 0.5/4. (Teams tied on match points were separated first by game point difference, then by head-to-head results, and finally by points scored on Board 1.) Crescent’s 2-1 win over the favourites Franklin’s in Round 2 was really the decisive result. Over the course of the afternoon, Ray Ren’s impressive 4/4 on Board 1 for Franklin’s was effectively neutralised by substitute John Ong’s 4/4 on Board 3 for Crescent. Thanks to arbiters Dr Burnand and Dr Jeffreys and to scorer Mr Poon for ensuring the smooth running of the competition. The individual knockout tournaments, though begun in the Michaelmas term, were not finally concluded until Wednesday 1 March, when all three finals were played on the same afternoon. In the Sixth Form tournament, Ray Ren defeated Joseph Truran to retain the Harding Cup. In the Middle School tournament, Sebastian Watkins defeated Jonathan C. H. Lee to win the Pearce Cup. And in the Lower School tournament, Fran Trotter defeated his brother Louis to win the Nightall-Jakubovics Cup. Winners received book prizes. Just getting to the final was a significant achievement. There were 20, 72 and 30 entrants respectively in the Sixth Form, Middle School and Lower School tournaments. The main event of the Lent term was the school stage of the UK Chess Challenge, comprising seven weekly