Report on the English Schools Finals 27 and 28 June 2024
This year’s finals of the National School Chess Championships were held at the University of Nottingham on Thursday 27 and Friday 28 June. The event took place in the spacious Studio 7 of their King Meadow Park Campus, which was originally built as a TV studio. The 5 round Swiss tournament had 26 teams playing. Of the 26 teams 17 had played in last year’s final whilst most of the other schools had not played in a previous National School Final.
The top seeds, Wilson’s School, had an average ratings of 2160, with both King’s College School (Wimbledon) and last year’s champions, Hampton School, also having average rating of over 2000. All three teams had already played each other twice earlier in the season, in the Briant Poulter League – see https://lms.englishchess.org.uk/lms/league_comp/142996/table
Round 1 went with seeding, though many of the matches were well contested and no team won 6 – 0. The close matches included the second seeds, King’s College School, only just beating King Edward School (Birmingham) 3½ – 2½. Due to long delays on the 9.30 train from St. Pancras both Haberdashers Askes Boys’ School and St. Paul’s School (SW London) were given half point byes in Round 1.
The top 7 seeds again won convincingly in Round 2, including Haberdashers winning the ‘late arrivals’ fixture. They were joined on maximum points by Hampton School who again won 3½ – 2½.
Round 3 was played late on Thursday 27th and saw last year’s champions, Hampton School, beat the City of London School for Boys 4 – 2 whilst King’s College School beat Magdalen College School (Oxford) by a similar margin. Top seeds Wilson’s School (S London) were held to a draw by Westminster School.
The fourth round on Friday morning saw the crucial match of the tournament between Hampton and KCS Wimbledon. In a reversal of the same fixture last year KCS prevailed 3½ – 2½. Other leading winners in this round were Wilson’s, Westminster, City of London, Tiffin School and Exeter School.
In the final round KCS Wimbledon only needed a draw against Wilson’s School to win the championship. The match was very close throughout and it was only towards the end that KCS fought back to win on board 5 and so clinch victory. Hampton School beat Westminster to come second (on tie break from Tiffin School) and be awarded the Richard Haddrell trophy. University College School, London beat Nottingham High School and thereby won the plate which is awarded to the highest place team who lost their first match.
There were lots of other interesting matches. You can find all the results https://chess-results.com/tnr962195.aspx .
An added bonus at this tournament was the use of live board for all 78 games. These games can be found at the following locations:
Livecloud: https://view.livechesscloud.com/#7c4a92b1-c08a-4ce1-81f1-d92f578bed59
Lichess: https://lichess.org/broadcast/english-schools-finals-2024/round-1/YcMvdtWZ
Chess.com: https://www.chess.com/events/2024-english-schools-chess-championship
The ECF wish to thank a wonderful team of arbiters: Alex Holowczak, Hambel Willow, Richard Buxton (who ran the live boards) and Phill Beckett. They also thank the University of Nottingham for a wonderful venue and Nottingham High School for providing a second team at short notice when a team withdrew at the last minute.
Final ranking after five rounds
|
Rank |
Team |
Games |
Win |
Draw |
Loss |
Match Points |
Game Points |
|
1 |
King’s College School |
5 |
5 |
0 |
0 |
10 |
20 |
|
2 |
Hampton School |
5 |
4 |
0 |
1 |
8 |
21 |
|
3 |
Tiffin School |
5 |
4 |
0 |
1 |
8 |
19½ |
|
4 |
Wilson’s School |
5 |
3 |
1 |
1 |
7 |
19 |
|
5 |
Haberdashers Askes Boys’ School |
4 |
3 |
0 |
1 |
7 |
18½ |
|
6 |
Westminster School |
5 |
3 |
1 |
1 |
7 |
18½ |
|
7 |
Magdalen College School |
5 |
3 |
0 |
2 |
6 |
20½ |
|
8 |
City of London School for Boys |
5 |
3 |
0 |
2 |
6 |
18 |
|
9 |
University College School |
5 |
3 |
0 |
2 |
6 |
16½ |
|
10 |
Exeter School |
5 |
3 |
0 |
2 |
6 |
14 |
|
11 |
Woodbridge School |
5 |
2 |
1 |
2 |
5 |
15½ |
|
12 |
The Latymer School |
5 |
2 |
1 |
2 |
5 |
15 |
|
13 |
St Paul’s School |
4 |
2 |
0 |
2 |
5 |
17 |
|
14 |
King Edward VI Camp Hill School for Boys |
5 |
2 |
1 |
2 |
5 |
14½ |
|
15 |
RGS Guildford |
4 |
2 |
0 |
2 |
4 |
11 |
|
16 |
Bolton School |
5 |
2 |
0 |
3 |
4 |
12 |
|
17 |
Altrincham Grammar School for Boys |
5 |
2 |
0 |
3 |
4 |
14.5 |
|
18 |
North Liverpool Academy |
5 |
2 |
0 |
3 |
4 |
11½ |
|
19 |
Nottingham High School A |
5 |
2 |
0 |
3 |
4 |
11½ |
|
20 |
Queen Elizabeth Hospital |
5 |
2 |
0 |
3 |
4 |
13 |
|
21 |
Hereford Cathedral School |
5 |
2 |
0 |
3 |
4 |
12 |
|
22 |
King Edward’s School |
5 |
1 |
1 |
3 |
3 |
15 |
|
23 |
Bristol Grammar School |
5 |
1 |
1 |
3 |
3 |
10 |
|
24 |
Nottingham High School B |
4 |
1 |
0 |
3 |
2 |
7 |
|
25 |
The Grammar School at Leeds |
5 |
0 |
1 |
4 |
1 |
11 |
|
26 |
RGS Newcastle |
5 |
0 |
0 |
5 |
0 |
7½ |
Live boards
The games will be played on live boards, meaning that they will be broadcast on Chess24, Chess.com/events and Lichess. The links to these can be sent to parents, your schools and others who are off-site to watch the games. These will be distributed to team captains in the week of the tournament.
Team lists and their results will be reported on Chess-results at https://chess-results.com/tnr962195.aspx?lan=1&art=8
Live games can be followed at any of the following locations:
Livecloud: https://view.livechesscloud.com/#7c4a92b1-c08a-4ce1-81f1-d92f578bed59
Lichess: https://lichess.org/broadcast/english-schools-finals-2024/round-1/YcMvdtWZ
Chess.com: https://www.chess.com/events/2024-english-schools-chess-championship
Time and date
The tournament will be a 5-round Team Swiss System tournament. The time limit for each game will be all moves in 50 minutes, plus 10 seconds per move.
Schedule
Round 1 Thursday 27th June at 1300
Round 2 Thursday 27th June at 1530
Round 3 Thursday 27th June at 1800
Round 4 Friday 28th June at 0900
Round 5 Friday 28th June at 1130
Prizegiving Friday 28th June at 1345
Venue
Nottingham University Kings Meadow Campus
www.nottingham.ac.uk/about/visitorinformation/mapsanddirections/kingsmeadowcampus.aspx
Format
26 teams qualified – 24 from the regions, plus 2 from the repechages. The tournament will be a 5-round Team Swiss System tournament, with 2 match points (MP) for a won match, 1 MP for a drawn match and 0 MP for a lost match. The tie-breaks will be:
(a) Extended Sonneborn-Berger for Teams (EMGSB)
(b) Gamepoints
(c) Sum of Opponents Matchpoints.
The time limit for each game will be all moves in 50 minutes, plus 10 seconds per move. As this is standard play all players will be expected to record their moves on the supplied score sheets.
Prizes
1st Championship Trophy
2nd Richard Haddrell Trophy
Plate Plate Trophy (awarded to the highest-ranked team who lost in the first round)
The FIDE Regulations for Captains and Heads of Delegation will apply to this event. The main thing to note is that team captains cannot be involved in draw offers; this must be left to the players to judge for themselves.
Schools who have qualified for the final
Altrincham Grammar School for Boys (Region 5)
Bolton School (Region 4)
Brighton College (Region 23)
Bristol Grammar School (Region 12)
City of London School for Boys (Region 18)
Exeter School (Region 24)
Haberdashers Askes Boys School (Region 14)
Hampton School (Region 13)
Hereford Cathedral School (Region 8)
King Edwards School (Region 7)
King Edward VI Camp Hill School for Boys (Repechage B)
King’s College School (Region 19)
Magdalen College School (Region 10)
North Liverpool Academy (Region 3)
Nottingham High School (Region 6)
Queen Elizabeth Hospital (Region 11)
RGS Guildford (Region 21)
RGS Newcastle (Region 1)
St Paul’s School (Repechage A)
The Grammar School at Leeds (Region 2)
The Latymer School (Region 15)
Tiffin School (Repechage B)
University College School (Region 16)
Westminster School (Region 17)
Wilson’s School (Region 20)
Woodbridge School (Region 9)