Abingdonian 2018

28 The Abingdonian Qualification for the National Schools’ Championship was Abingdon’s first task this season, and our prospects looked much brighter once the quality of the newcomers joining Chess Club became apparent after the initial Wednesday afternoon training session. Unusually gifted players Harutyun Badalyan and Frederick Beneat, already graded 83 and 97 respectively, had joined the first year, and Abingdon’s new best player was Ross Tselos, graded 146, who had joined the third year. Eight Abingdon boys competed in the English Chess Federation’s Qualifying Tournament at Eton on 17 September. Six played in each round, and the time control was 20 minutes plus a 5 second increment. Abingdon succeeded in qualifying by winning three of the five rounds. In rounds two and four we suffered heavy losses to Dublin’s Gonzaga College (0.5-5.5) and The Judd School A (0.5-5.5), but these were outweighed in rounds 1, 3 and 5 by comfortable wins against Mill Hill County High School B (6-0), North London Collegiate School A (4.5-1.5) and RGS High Wycombe (5-1). Surely Abingdon’s best individual result of the day, perhaps of the year, was Ross Tselos’s draw in round two with Gonzaga College’s Henry Li, graded an impressive 215. Justifying their coaches confidence in them were 1. Ross Tselos (3.5/5), 2. Thitipat Ditrungroj (2/4), 3. James Beckinsale (2/4), 4. Richard Oh (2.5/4), 5. Frederick Beneat (0/3), 6. Seb Watkins (3.5/5), 7. John Ong (3/3) and 8. Alfie Luo (0/2). Each player is to be congratulated on his part in a fine team performance. Four months passed before the first regional contest in the National Schools’ Championship, time for players to develop their game both at Chess Club and through town and county representation. On 25 January, six Abingdon players travelled to Surrey to face ACS Egham International School. Each player had 60 minutes on his clock plus a 10 second increment. Abingdon’s team, listed here with the new January grades, was Ross Tselos (143), James Beckinsale (116), Thitipat Ditrungroj (112), Richard Oh (104), Seb Watkins (102) and Jonathan Lee (91). Egham’s Martin Kopernicky (181) and Kamer Yildizli (175) were graded significantly higher than our top two boards, but Abingdon had the edge on the bottom four boards. Ten minutes into the match, it was clear that both Seb and Jonathan had been drawn into playing too fast by their younger opponents, and the chance of an Abingdon victory looked slim. But they both successfully clawed their way back into winning positions and, with Richard looking comfortably in control on Board 4, the match then hinged on Board 3. After about an hour, Seb, Richard and Jonathan had all won their games and Thitipat was clearly conducting a strong attack. When his opponent finally resigned, the match was won, and Ross and James could enjoy their games without having to worry about the overall match result. Both played well - James was indeed a clear pawn up after the opening - but both eventually succumbed to quality play. Next up, on 22 February, were Reading Blue Coat School in a regional semi-final, which was played at home. Our task was made easier by the absence from the opposition side of Ethan and Jake Bains-Gillespie, graded 150 and 134 respectively, who had apparently taken up cross-country running. And by this time yet another talented newcomer had joined Abingdon: third year Oliver Yau from Hong Kong, who seemed in training better than his FIDE grade of 1526 (about ECF 110). Our team for this match was 1. Ross Tselos, 2. James Beckinsale, 3. Thitipat Ditrungroj, 4. Oliver Yau, 5. Richard Oh and 6. Seb Watkins. Abingdon won the match comfortably 5-1. Only Thitipat lost his game, playing Reading Blue Coat’s sole graded player. There was also a reserves match, which Abingdon won 2-0. Our reserves were Eric Huang (106) and Frederick Beneat (98). In the regional final, played on 23 March, Abingdon again faced Reading School, who had got there by knocking out Desborough College and then Eton College. 1. Ross Tselos (143) v Matthew Wadsworth (218) 2. James Beckinsale (116) v Anthony Zhang (216) 3. Thitipat Ditrungroj (112) v Peter Isaksen (166) 4. Oliver Yau (106) v Nikhil Kadambadi (163) 5. Richard Oh (104) v Ryan Wong (156) 6. Seb Watkins (102) v Alex Vanlint (153) Reading this year fielded their strongest available team, and so the disparity in grades was enormous, averaging 65 points. Still, Abingdon’s build up had gone well - four ODCL matches in four weeks - and we were up for the fight. Last year’s 2-4 loss was our best recent result against Reading, who were then National Champions. This time Abingdon again punched above its weight, losing by just 1.5-4.5 to an even stronger Reading team. Oliver Yau scored a spectacular win on Board 4, overcoming a 57 point rating gap, and Thitipat scored his best ever draw, Chess Club