At the end of the Spring Term, several chess players from The Blue Coat School made their way to Twickenham Prep School to take part in the IAPS Chess tournament. We were certainly represented well by Siyuan and Siyao Ou, Kevin Ge, Toby Agadagba and Kingsley Chen.
 
In the Championship section, Siyao, Siyuan and Kevin secured 2nd place overall, a fantastic achievement, and well deserved. In addition, Siyuan scored highest among all the girls and was awarded a trophy for “IAPS Chess Championship Girls Winner”. In the Under 10 section, Kingsley and Toby also obtained brilliant results. This came as no surprise to me, as they had both been impressing me recently in the club at school with their knowledge and skill.
Toby came 2nd on Day 1 and won a silver medal. He received 1st on Day 2 and won a gold medal and trophy. Kingsley came 3rd on days 1 and 2, winning bronze medals. Well done boys!
 
On the 28th May 2022, 6 chess players from The Blue Coat School made the trip to Nottingham High School to take part in the semi-final of the National Primary Schools Chess Teams Competition. Our team, taking part in the Under 11 section, was Siyuan and Siyao Ou, Kevin Ge, Toby Agadagba, Nihal Rai and Kingsley Chen. After a storming start of 2 wins in a row, Round 3 saw a well-fought match against Hallfield end in defeat. The team then showed their character to bounce back with a win in Round 4, leaving everything to play for in the last round. In a tense Round 5 match, a magnificent 3.5-1.5 win was wrapped up, leaving the team in 2nd place and qualifying for the final in July! An absolutely brilliant achievement. Each and every team member played their part in this excellent result, but special mention must go to Toby Agadagba playing on Board 4, who won all of his games to score 5/5, beating one of Hallfield’s top players on the way, along with several other strong opponents. This is an incredible performance, well played Toby! And indeed, well played everyone, and a huge thank you to all the children and parents who took their time to participate and help out on the day. The final will be comprised of 8 of the top chess teams from around the country. Bring it on!