U19 Southern Semi-final

On Sunday 9 October nine girls represented the Abbey in the southern semi-final of the National Chess Championships for Girls held at St. Catherine’s School in Bramley. This event was the first major ‘live’ chess tournament for schools to take part in since Covid prevented such events taking place. The organiser announced that it was the largest chess event for girls’ chess in Europe! The Abbey entered three teams in the U19 section of the Championships and two teams in the U11 section.

In the U19 section Mia, Shree and Radha were in the A team, Eshitha,Csilla and Jigya were in the B team and Joanna, Anoushka and Anna were in the C team.

The A team had good wins against Pate’s Grammar School, St. Paul’s D team and North London Collegiate C team. The B team had very impressive wins against Haberdasher Aske’s A team, Brentwood’s A team and Stroud High School’s A team. The C team won against Eltham College, St. Catherine’s B team and North London Collegiate’s F team.

Radha was unbeaten in all her matches and all the girls can feel very proud of their performances as they were playing against the top girls’ schools for chess in the South of England and Wales.

When the results were announced at the end of the day our A team came 8th out of 36 teams and the B and C teams came 9th.