The Abingdonian 2019

33 www.abingdon.org.uk Lent Term top player of previous years, FIDE master Matthew Wadsworth, was now at Cambridge, there seemed a small chance of an upset, especially as Ross and Oliver were on such good form. But what we did not know until Reading’s team finally walked through the door, on Friday 8 March, was that they had recruited yet another very strong player. This was FIDE master Richard Mladek, one of the top ten players in the Czech Republic. 1. Ross Tselos (162) - Richard Mladek (209) 2. Oliver Yau (154) - Anthony Zhang (215) 3. Thitipat Ditrungroj (113) - Peter Isaksen (183) 4. Seb Watkins (111) - Shaan Mohan (137 expired) 5. James Beckinsale (107) - Harvey Zhang (158 expired) 6. Jonathan Lee (94) - Branson Rizzo (94r) Abingdon’s players made their Reading counterparts work hard for the victory. Oliver stood better at one point and Jonathan did manage a nicely controlled win, but the match result was never really in doubt. Reading went on to dispatch MCS in the regional final. It is an indication of the Reading boys’ recent strength that Matthew Wadsworth, their first board last year, played on Cambridge’s first board in this year’s Varsity Chess Match and held the strongest female player in the world, Hou Yifan, currently at St Hilda’s, to a draw! The Oxford and District Chess League, whose matches are centrally scheduled from October through to May, was again the main source of competition and development for our best players. After 14 matches, we had finished top of Division 4, having won 12 and lost only 2. Sixteen players were fielded in total. Five turned out for more than half the matches. They were Seb Watkins (7.5/9), mostly on Boards 2 and 3, Jonathan Lee (7.5/8), mostly on Boards 5 and 6, Eric Huang (5/8), mostly on Board 4, Oliver Yau (5.5/7), on Board 1, and Frederick Beneat (5.5/7), mostly on Board 6. The other contributors were Mr English (3.5/5), on Boards 3 to 5, James Beckinsale (2.5/5), on Boards 2 and 3, Thitipat Ditrungroj (1/5), on Boards 1 and 2, Ethan Chui (3/4), Stephen Lin (2/2), Richard Oh (1/1), Henry Riehl (1/1), Mr Barber (0/1), Sam Ferguson (0/1), Charlie Leyland (0/1), and Zander Wallwork (0/1). Having defeated Oxford University 3 away at Hertford College in November, it was rather drole fielding a Lower School side against them for the return match in April. (We had already secured promotion.) Stephen Lin even won his game! Jonathan Lee won the Sam Phipps Trophy for the player in Division 4 with the best game points percentage. There was no simultaneous display this year as Mr Wells was away for a long period on international duty with England’s juniors and we decided that he was better employed getting through the backlog of ODCL game analysis. Next year! The House Chess did take place, however, as normal, on the last Wednesday of term, as part of the inter-house competitions. The Crescent team of Oliver Yau, Ethan Chui and Jason Ng seemed favourites to win, and Oliver’s victory over Ross in the first round augured well. But Austin ultimately took the prize, all three of their players accruing vital game points. The Austin team was Eric Huang (1.5/4), 2. Jonathan Lee (3/4) and 3. Peter Suh (4/4). These are the full results. (Teams are listed first by total match points then by game point difference.) 1. Austin (3, +5), 2. James’s (3, +4), 3. Crescent (3, +2), 4. School (2, +2), 5. Franklin’s (2, +1), 6. O’Doherty’s (1.5, -1), 7. Pygott’s (1.5, -2), 8. Morgan’s (1.5, -5) and 9. Border’s (0.5, -6). The individual knockout tournaments also took place in the Michaelmas Term, though they were not finally concluded until late in March. Colours were decided randomly and each player had 30 minutes on his clock. In the final of the sixth form tournament, a repeat of last year’s final, Thitipat Ditrungroj defeated Richard Oh to win the Harding Cup. In the Middle School final, a particularly tense and exciting encounter, Ross Tselos defeated Oliver Yau to win the Pearce Cup. And in the Lower School final, Zander Wallwork defeated Sam Ferguson to win the Nightall-Jakubovics Cup. Both Zander and Sam did well even to reach this final, knocking out favourites Frederick Beneat and Harutyun Badalyan respectively along the way. All three winners received book prizes. The main event of the Lent Term was the school stage of the UK Chess Challenge, comprising seven weekly rounds of rapidplay. From 30 Abingdon entrants, there were 12 who made it through to the county “Megafinal.” Ross Tselos was again School