Junior Chess Champions Battle for Top Honours
48 primary school children from 5 different schools took part in Islington's first ever chess tournament on Friday 9 December at Montem primary school.
"It's amazing. Once it was football, but now they're all mad for chess!" Commented award-winning headteacher Sue Seifert.
8 teams, with six children on each team, from Canonbury, Clerkenwell Parochial, Hargrave Park, Yerbury and Montem, battled for a winners' trophy. Gold and silver medallions were also awarded to the members of the top two teams.
The students played four 15-minute games of chess, each against a different opponent. If check-mate had not been reached in the 15 minutes, an adjudicator decided who had won or whether the game was drawn.
The top-scoring team was from Yerbury, followed closely by one of the three teams from Montem taking part. Montem's chess club was recently started by acting headteacher Matthew Kleiner-Mann, and has proved so popular that the school has been granted extra funds by LBI's A1 Borough project to install a giant chessboard and chess pieces in the playground.
Budding chess-ace Stephen Li, 9, from Montem's top team explained the attraction of the game "Chess is exciting because it's a battle - it's like having a fight with somebody but not hurting them."
11-year-old Luke Ames-Blackaby from the winning Yerbury team enjoys the challenge "Chess is hard. You have to focus and concentrate - but that's what makes it better when you win."
Ends
For more information, please contact CEA@Islington's Communications Department: