This weekend the Wetherby chess team travelled to Prestatyn in North Wales for the semi-final stage of the National Primary Schools Chess Championships. With over 400 teams competing in the various stages of the event the standard is as high as it gets. Last year was Wetherby’s first time in the competition and at the Under 9 level we finished as the second highest placed school in the whole country. We had our reputation to defend and prove that it wasn’t a fluke. Despite losing half our team from last year to other schools we had managed to rebuild. This year we had two under 9 teams through to the semi-final instead of one. We also had an under 11 team through for the first time ever.
It was nonstop action, over 400 children, 16 Wetherby boys, 2 days, 1 BBQ, and nearly 1500 games of chess!
Four boys from Wetherby School, Sam, Will, Kamran and Max formed part of the Under 9 B. With two rounds to go they were actually in 3rd place and managed to finish an amazing 8th out of the 30 teams playing. Most schools can only manage to field one A team. The A and B team all play in the same group so a very good result for them indeed, they were also very young so the future looks bright!
