On Sunday 25 January our 4 teams of three students went to St. Catherine’s, Bramley to take part in the National Girls’ Chess Championships Southern semi-final.

It was a tough event and after 5 rounds of matches all day it was announced that our A team had finished 7th and our B team finished 9th. Only the top 8 teams out of the 44 teams taking part qualified for the National Finals in March so our A team of Sameera (Upper IV), Vickie (Upper III) and Eshitha (Lower V) have qualified but our B team of Shree (Upper VI), Csilla (Upper V) and Radha (Upper VI) have just missed out, but everyone played very well. Special mention should go to Sameera who was unbeaten on Board 1 of the A team, which is quite an achievement, and Radha who won all her games in the B team.
The C and D teams also played well against tough opposition and Anoushka (Lower VI) in the C team and Oishani (Lower V) in the D team won three of their five games.

Radha and I have been playing in this tournament since Upper III and we qualified for the National Finals for the last two years. We would like to thank Mr. Hills for giving up his time to support and motivate us at all the events, especially the nights we spent staying at St. Catherine’s for the Finals weekends.

Shree (Captain), Upper VI