Chess

The school A chess team competes in the local Lancaster, Morecambe & District adult league, playing each of the other teams twice in a season in a league competition.  Both A and B teams part in the knock out cup and quick-play competitions.

The A team won the league competition several years ago and have competed strongly in subsequent years. In the quick-play knock-out competition, in which each player has only 30 minutes for all of his moves, the boys’ younger, more nimble minds have been particularly successful, with the A team winning the competition three times in the past six years, including 2007-08.

In the end-of-season jamborees the schools’ teams have enjoyed considerable success in recent years when the generous handicapping system has often meant that our relatively inexperienced C team has emerged as the overall winner of an enjoyable evening’s not too serious chess.

A number of our stronger players have also played in recent years in the league’s individual competitions with some notable success.  Nick Townley-Wells won both the under-90 and handicap competitions in 2007.

At schools’ level, LRGS has taken part for many years in the National Schools’ Chess Championship. The team has won the North West region of this competition seven times since 1995, with our greatest moment arriving three years ago when we reached the last four in the whole country, losing to the eventual winners, Nottingham High School, in the semi-final.  In the two subsequent years Manchester Grammar have narrowly beaten us in the regional stage of the tournament, but we are hopeful of turning the tables on them again this year.

Brian Cornish