Farlington Wins Inaugural Bellevue Chess Battle

After a brief hiatus, it seems that the ancient game of chess is making a big comeback at Farlington. On the morning of 6th March, 40 Farlington students, from Years 3 to 9, gathered in the Trina Mawer Hall to participate in the inaugural Bellevue Schools online Chess Battle. 

The event was run by the 2013 British Ladies Chess Champion, Sarah Longson. Farlington players enjoyed playing against fellow chess enthusiasts from other Bellevue schools from around the country. Sarah also kindly set up a mini-tournament just for Farlington students so that they could have fun playing against each other while the main tournament was taking place. 

In the tense battle of the Bellevue schools, Farlington narrowly won the overall team trophy, just ahead of Elmhurst, who came in second place, with Holmwood House coming in third place. Farlington Year 8 student, Alex, was the player who scored the most points in the entire tournament. Many congratulations to Alex, what a wonderful accolade! Thank you to all of the staff involved for making the event happen and run smoothly. There was certainly a real buzz about chess on the day and there will be more chess battles to come in the future.

Lunchtime chess clubs at Farlington are run by Mr Radford in the Lower School, and by Mr Hope in the Middle and Senior Schools. The sessions are free and open to all students who wish to learn to play chess, which is a great way for children to develop their cognitive skills and encourages an understanding of fair play and respect for others.