Contact: Phill Beckett Email: dep.manager.secondary@englishchess.org.uk

The Final

Imperial College saw the culmination of the Team Problem Solving Competition

The final was held concurrently with the Team Chess Challenge event, and upon arrival all the teams from both competitions were presented with a collection of six chess puzzles and given an hour to solve them. Most of the schools got close to finishing them but all present enjoyed the challenge.

This was followed by a talk by OTB and Problem solving GM Professor Jonathan Mestel who related his experiences at the recent European Team event and demonstrated the intricacies of some of the problems.

Lunch followed – then the serious business of the problem solving began.

Four schools qualified for the final, having scored full marks in the two preliminary rounds. An unfortunate clash of holidays meant that Oundle could not take their place in the final. The three teams that attended were – last year’s Champions King’s Grantham with Dan Southern, second placed junior in the adult final; Hampton School, last year’s runners-up, who had Theo Diaz, winner of the Junior prize in the adult final; and new finalists Sevenoaks.

The competition consisted of five rounds of problems with three in each round. The first three rounds were uneventful, with all three teams scoring virtually full marks. The pivotal round proved to be round four, where Hampton misread the problems and only supplied a single solution, where two were required. This proved decisive when Kings gained the lead, and Sevenoaks found this round difficult, scoring badly. In the last round Hampton gained some ground on King’s but fell short by a single point. The final results —

1st – Kings Grantham 60
2nd – Hampton School 59
3rd – Sevenoaks  53.5

To download a zip file of the problems and their solutions in PDF format [2MB], click here

Round 2 Problems – click here

Round 1

Congratulations to the following schools for scoring full marks —

Hampton School
Kings Grantham
Oundle
Sevenoaks
St Marks, Hounslow
St Pauls
Tudor Grange, Solihull

Click here for 2016 Round 1 problems (PDF)
Click here for 2016 Round 1 solutions (PDF)

Individual Problem Solving

Three juniors were invited from last year’s finalist to compete at the British Final of the Problem solving Championship at Eton College 21/2/16
The problems were of an extremely difficult standard as the event had been elevated to a leg of the World Cup of the 50 competitors 16 were overseas titled players!
Although the Juniors struggled there was a tremendous enthusiasm and the experiment of inviting them is likely to be repeated next year!

http://www.bstephen.me.uk/index.php/current-year-2015-2016/420-the-final-results

http://www.bstephen.me.uk/index.php/current-year-2015-2016/421-the-final-problems-and-solutions

Any school or sixth form college can enter, teams of between 2 and 4 pupils. Postal rounds in autumn and spring terms. Final at Imperial College, London on Wednesday 20th April 2016.

This competition is unique in two ways – firstly, there is no mention in Problem Solving history of a consultation team solving event; secondly, the preliminary rounds are held at the school’s own premises.

The final is held in conjunction with the team chess challenge at Imperial College, and consists of four rounds of problems (one move mates, two move mates, selfmates and helpmates) for teams of between two and four pupils.

The preliminary rounds are accessible to all schools, and there is no limit to either the number of pupils who can contribute, or how long a school takes to reach their solutions. The only essential things are that the solutions are submitted by a member of staff using a school-designated email, and they are submitted by the deadline as stated on the problem sheets. Hard copies of the problems could be available at some of our other events. The leading school teams will be invited to the final.

A report of the April 2015 final can be found at http://www.englishchess.org.uk/english-schools-team-problem-solving-championship/

To register your interest please email Phill Beckett – details above.

We are grateful for the support of The British Problem Solving Society for the preparation of the problems – http://www.theproblemist.org/