North East schools chess booming
(Chronicle Chess 17 November 2023)
Imagine the scene: a school cafeteria packed with more than 80 teenagers. But for nearly three hours, you can hear a pin drop. This was the serious atmosphere this week at St Mary’s Catholic School, Newcastle, where a total of 14 school teams were battling it out in a struggle for chess supremacy.
Secondary schools chess is booming in the North East, with the regional qualifier for the English Under 19 National Schools Championships attracting the highest level of participation of any event so far in the national championships.
This is a radical improvement on a few years ago, when St Mary’s had to struggle to find even a single North East school to compete against in a qualifier, and the regional knockout stage had only two or three schools taking part.
The upsurge in entries is due to the efforts of St Mary’s Catholic School, which has marketed the tournament far and wide across the North East,
particularly among state schools. The schools this year came from as far afield as Ashington, Hexham, Boldon and Durham.
St. Mary’s B team won all three matches to progress to the knockout stages of the competition. Also qualifying for the first time for the knockout stage were Jesmond Park A, St Cuthberts, Dame Allan’s and Boldon.
Two school teams had already qualified for the regional knockout stages – St Mary’s A and RGS Newcastle – by virtue of playing in the national
finals this summer.
Scores in full:
1 St Mary’s B 6;
2-3 Jesmond Park A, St Cuthberts 5;
4-5 Dame Allan’s, Boldon 4;
6-9 Ashington, Durham CSF, Queen Elizabeth Hexham A, Ponteland A 3;
10-12 Jesmond Park B, Queen Elizabeth Hexham B, Hexham Middle A 2;
13-14 Ponteland B, Hexham Middle B 0.
School students will also be competing later this month in a tournament organised by Northumbria Junior Chess Association. The event will take
place at RGS Newcastle Junior School Cafeteria, Lambton Road, Jesmond, on Sunday November 26 from 10am to 4pm. Entry costs £8 and is open to all players under the age of 18. Online entries are being taken at: https://njcachess.co.uk/
The growth in schools chess is also due in part to coaching by Tyneside’s three junior chess clubs – Gosforth, Jesmond and Forest Hall.
Gosforth Juniors meet at Gosforth Empire Club, 32-34 Salters Road, on Saturdays from 10am-12 noon. Contact: mickriding@hotmail.co.uk for
more details.
Jesmond Juniors (part of the newly formed Newcastle Chess Club) meet on Sunday afternoons from 2:30-4:30pm at Jesmond Library, St George’s Terrace. Contact: timpeterwall@gmail.com for full info.
Forest Hall Juniors meet at Forest Hall Ex-Servicemen’s Institute, Crescent Way North on Fridays from 5pm-7pm. Info: https://www.foresthallchess.org.uk