St Cuthbert’s produce giantkiller upset in schools cup

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(Newcastle Chronicle, 19 January 2024)

As many sports teams have found to their cost, the knockout can be a brutal form of competition. Just because your team has a higher ranking, it’s no protection against an early exit.

The equivalent of the FA Cup in junior chess is the ECF National Under 19 Schools Championship. For the last few decades, RGS School Newcastle dominated the North East regional qualifiers – until 2022, when St Mary’s Catholic School, Longbenton, beat RGS in the regional final. In 2023, St Mary’s were again in the ascendancy, finishing ahead of RGS in the National Finals.

But in 2024, a new school may win the North East regional final – as this week St Cuthbert’s High School, Benwell, defeated regional champions St Mary’s A 3.5-2.5 in a thrilling quarter-final.
St Cuthbert’s and St Mary’s were neck-and-neck on 2-2 with just Boards 1 and 2 to finish. Unfortunately for St Mary’s, a 3-3 tie would be broken in St Cuthbert’s favour, due to wins on higher boards. When St Cuthbert’s Board 2, Daniel Tong, defeated St Mary’s Jinwoo Lee, the match was effectively over. A subsequent draw on Board 1 between Tom Weinstein (St Cuthbert’s) and Joel Dyter (St Mary’s) merely underlined what an upset had occurred.

In the other schools match played this week, St Mary’s B beat Dame Allan’s 5-1. St Mary’s could therefore still reach the regional final.

In the other two quarter-finals, RGS travel to Longridge Towers near Berwick, while Jesmond Park take on Bede’s, Blyth. Who wins the regional final is now anyone’s guess, as all teams remaining in the draw are closely matched.

The North East schools competition has expanded rapidly since the pandemic, with 16 teams now taking part. The higher level of participation is thanks to the hard work of St Mary’s Paul Richardson, the competition’s regional organiser, who has encouraged many new teams to enter.

Full results:

St Mary’s A 2.5-3.5 St Cuthbert’s
1 Joel Dyter 0.5-0.5 Tom Weinstein
2 Jinwoo Lee 0-1 Daniel Tong
3 Otto Nemeth 0-1 Isaac Lancaster
4 Daniel Francis 1-0 Joseph Lesser
5 Feitong Wu 0-1 Aazmeer Ansari
6 Hyunwoo Lee 1-0 Jan Ericho-Briones

St Mary’s B 5-1 Dame Allan’s
1 Daniel Clark 1-0 Oliver Savin
2 Aveesha Mapalana 1-0 Ethan Pattinson
3 Jan Siemens 0-1 Edward Cottam
4 Karthikeyan Nandakumar 1-0 Mo Chen
5 Alistair Craggs 1-0 Ben Thompson
6 Jiatong Wu 1-0 Nuo Li

This week’s puzzles are from the Four Nations Chess League last weekend.

Puzzle A: Julia Terbe (Black) to play & win

Puzzle B: Jon Speelman (Black) to play & win

Puzzle C: Daniel Fernandez (Black) to play & win

Puzzle D: Can Durak (White) to play & win

Answers:

A: 1…Rd2! 0-1 if 2 Qxe6+ Kh8 3 Kh1 Rxg2! 3 Kxg2 Rd2+ forces checkmate.
B: 1…Qa7! 0-1. The pin wins a piece.
C: 1…Kf3! 0-1. If 2 Ke1 Nd3+ 3 Kd1 Ke3 4 Ba4 Rd2 checkmate, or 2 Kg1 Rb1+ 3 Kh2 Ng4+
4 Kh3 Rh1 checkmate.
D: 1 Rxe6! Kxe6 2 Bd8! 1-0.