Yarm School’s Under-11 chess team has triumphed at the HMC Schools’ Chess Championships 2016.
The school was represented by two Under-11 teams and one team in the Under-9 section at the tournament, which was held at the Queen Elizabeth Grammar School in Wakefield and featured teams from the North of England’s leading independent schools.
The team, captain Ammar Soni, Adhi Dinakaran, Henry Parker and Yusuf Syed, needed to win their final match 4 – 0, and, after a dramatic conclusion, Yusuf clinched the victory to give Yarm its first under-11 win at the event.
Yarm School has a thriving chess community, recently hosting the 22nd Yarm Chess Championships, which attracted 33 teams with 140 players from across the Tees Valley.
Pupils from both the Pre-Prep and Preparatory Schools can take advantage of lunchtime time chess clubs and pupils have the opportunity to opt to learn and play chess as part of the school curriculum during activity sessions.
Mr Bill Sawyer, Head of Yarm Preparatory School, said: “Chess has significant benefits for our pupils, including developing their capacity for strategic thinking and tactical skills, responsiveness to problem solving and interpretation of others’ thinking.
“Working with Chess in Schools and Communities chess coach Sean Marsh we have teams that compete regularly in internal and external competitions and the school is proud to host a number of tournaments for young chess players from local schools”
“We are all absolutely delighted that the Under-11 team won the prestigious HMC Championship and congratulate them, and all the players who took part and did so well.”