The Abingdonian 2019

32 The Abingdonian Chess Right at the start of Michaelmas Term, when the furniture in the new and newly refurbished chess room in Big School had barely been arranged, we enjoyed a visit from Rafi’i Al-Akiti (OA 2016) and Ray Ren (OA 2017), both former first team players, now at university in Nottingham and Bath respectively. It was pleasing, for the coaches at least, that last year’s newcomers Ross Tselos and Oliver Yau had the measure of them in skittles games. Abingdon’s National Schools’ Championship campaign got underway, as in previous years, with eight boys competing in the English Chess Federation’s rapidplay qualifying tournament, held again at Eton, on Sunday 23 September. Six played in each of the five rounds, and the time control was 20 minutes plus a 5 second increment. At the end of the fourth round, Abingdon were well placed to qualify, having defeated King Edward’s B (5-1), lost to Eton (2-4), defeated St Thomas More High School (6-0) and achieved an excellent draw with a very strong Wilson’s School A (3-3). But a tough draw in the final round against King Edward VI Grammar School A, resulting in another loss (1-5), left Abingdon short by half a point (2.5/5). Fortunately, as some players had already guessed, Abingdon had qualified anyway for the regional stage of the Championship by virtue of the Club having six members with ECF grades averaging 125 or more. The individual results at Eton were 1. Ross Tselos (4/5), 2. Oliver Yau (4/5), 3. Thitipat Ditrungroj (3/5), 4. Seb Watkins (1/3), 5. Eric Huang (2/3), 6. Ethan Chui (1/3), 7. Frederick Beneat (1/3) and 8. Harutyun Badalyan (1/3). Ross, Oliver and Thitipat on Boards 1 to 3 were mightily impressive, scoring between them 11/15. Over four months passed before the first match in the regional stage. On Tuesday 29 January, Abingdon played Eton away from home. Each player had 60 minutes on his clock plus a 10 second increment. What on paper should have been a severe test, proved to be an easy win 5.5-0.5, largely because Eton’s top two players were absent sitting the Physics Olympiad. 1. Luke Eadie (134) - Ross Tselos (162) 2. Roland Bourne (137) - Oliver Yau (154) 3. Oliver Shaw (101) - Thitipat Ditrungroj (113) 4. Harvey Lin (120) - Seb Watkins (111) 5. Patrick Huh (119r) - James Beckinsale (107) 6. Barnaby Wreford (91r) - Eric Huang (106) James’ aggressive attacking play paid off handsomely, and he won quickly against a bamboozled opponent. Seb also outwitted a higher graded Eton player. But Eric got into trouble after the opening, losing a couple of pawns, and only turned the game around with a rook-winning skewer. Somehow the outcome on the top two boards never seemed in doubt. But Thitipat made sure of the result with an intelligent draw offer whose acceptance cost Eton the match straightaway. We had hoped to play Desborough College in the regional semi-final, but MCS, back in the fray after a long absence, were gifted this easy route to the final while Abingdon had once again to face National Champions Reading. Reading had defeated Aylesbury Grammar School 5.5-0.5 in their first round match. Given that some of Reading’s best players were inactive and that their