Brentwood Welcomes Budding Chess Talent to the Junior Team Challenge

On 21st November 2024, Brentwood School hosted a Junior Team Challenge tournament on behalf of the English Chess Federation.

The competition is for school teams from Year 7 and 8. The winning school would reach the National Final although the ethos of the competition is equally to encourage local schools and students to try competitive chess.

Brentwood School were joined by Becket Keys, Brentwood County High School, KEGS, Chingford and Hampstead for a 10-team competition across four rounds.

For quite a few students it was their first experience of tournament chess. The whole event was played in the great spirit of friendly competition.

Hampstead and KEGS finished tied on 13 out of 16 points with both schools going through to the National Final in April.

Brentwood School entered two teams with 15 students rotating each round to allow everyone to take part. The students encouraged each other throughout the afternoon and should be proud of their performance.

Brentwood A finished 4th and Brentwood B 8th out of the 10 teams.

Thank you to Riley G in Year 11 for looking after the results and FIDE Arbiter Mr Bowley for running the tournament.

Author: Robin Slade, Head of Chess, Brentwood School