Briant Poulter School’s Chess League 2011-12
Having been appointed as the ECF Manager for Secondary schools earlier this year, I have now realised that secondary school chess leagues have ceased to run in most of England. For instance, there is no secondary school league in Kent, Middlesex, Berkshire or Essex. Sussex junior chess have been developing inter-school chess in that county and this year there was one 6 board match between 2 schools. The schools league in Surrey is by far the largest, and goes from strength to strength. It is also the only secondary school who submit their results for grading (apart from 1 match in the Birmingham league!). In Surrey there were over 150 secondary school matches submitted for grading – more than in the national schools tournament!
The season started with the Russell Jamboree held at Wilson’s School in Wallington on September 10th. There was an increae in entries this year, with two second teams and a team from outside Surrey playing. The event was won for the third year running by Wilson’s School with 12/16, with Sutton and St Olave’s joint second with 10½, Whitgift won the minor section.
In the league 15 schools from all parts of Surrey took part with players ranging from some of the best young players in the country to those who have only recently learnt to play chess. Matches are played on Friday evenings between teams of 6 players, with sessions being 2 or 2½ hours long. This is only possibly because of the dedication of teachers giving up their time on Friday evenings to manage their teams. By running leagues based on playing strength rather than age (all teams are Under 19) matches are between teams of similar ability and the majority of fixtures are quite close.
One feature that has arisen in the past couple of season is that of Megamatches, with 24 or more players on each team. This has been possible as 5 schools (Hampton, RGS Guildford, Sutton, Trinity and Wilson’s) have had 4 or more teams in the league. League matches started the following week and were all complete by the middle of March. Only 1 match was defaulted, the lowest for many years.
Having won every match in Division 1 last season an unchanged Wilson’s School team would have been expected to easily win the league. In the end it was so, but not after a lot of close matches including 2 draws. Sutton, playing in the top division for the first time in recent years, gained a worthy second place.
Division1 / Played / Won / Drawn / Lost / Points / Games1 / Wilson's / 10 / 8 / 2 / 0 / 18 / 40½
2 / Sutton / 10 / 7 / 1 / 2 / 15 / 35
3 / Guildford RGS / 10 / 3 / 5 / 2 / 11 / 32½
4 / Hampton / 10 / 3 / 3 / 4 / 9 / 30½
5 / Whitgift / 10 / 1 / 2 / 7 / 4 / 24
6 / Wimbledon KCS / 10 / 1 / 1 / 8 / 3 / 17½
The second division was close throughout the season. Hampton 2 went in to an early lead but were finally caught and overtaken by Trinity. Third place was particularly tight as
Division2 / Played / Won / Drawn / Lost / Points / Games1 / Trinity / 10 / 7 / 1 / 2 / 15 / 35
2 / Hampton 2 / 10 / 6 / 0 / 4 / 12 / 32½
3 / Caterham / 10 / 5 / 1 / 4 / 11 / 30
4 / Kingston GS / 10 / 3 / 2 / 5 / 8 / 28½
5 / Wilson's 2 / 10 / 3 / 2 / 5 / 8 / 26½
6 / Reigate GS / 10 / 3 / 0 / 7 / 6 / 24½
Wilson’s 3rd team won Division 3 without losing a match. As in the previous season, Sutton 2nd team won a close race for second place just ahead of RGS Guildford
Division3 / Played / Won / Drawn / Lost / Points / Games1 / Wilson's 3 / 10 / 8 / 2 / 0 / 18 / 40½
2 / Sutton 2 / 10 / 7 / 1 / 2 / 15 / 38½
3 / Guildford RGS 2 / 10 / 6 / 2 / 2 / 14 / 36
4 / Hampton 3 / 10 / 3 / 1 / 6 / 7 / 28
5 / Wallington / 10 / 2 / 1 / 7 / 5 / 24½
6 / Trinity 2 / 10 / 0 / 1 / 9 / 1 / 12½
Division 4 continues to benefit from the format of 2 rapid play games (30 minutes each on the clock). This resulted in more interesting games for the team, and was particularly beneficial when the match was played concurrently with a higher division match. Wilson’s 4th team greatly enjoyed this match format and won every match, Sutton 3 came ahead of Homefield on game points.
Division4 / Played / Won / Drawn / Lost / Points / Games1 / Wilson's 4 / 8 / 8 / 0 / 0 / 16 / 70
2 / Sutton 3 / 8 / 6 / 0 / 2 / 12 / 67½
3 / Homefield / 8 / 6 / 0 / 2 / 12 / 63½
4 / Whigift 2 / 8 / 5 / 0 / 3 / 10 / 55½
5 / Wimbledon KCS 2 / 8 / 4 / 0 / 4 / 8 / 48
6 / Emanuel / 8 / 4 / 0 / 4 / 8 / 42½
7 / Guildford RGS 3 / 8 / 2 / 0 / 6 / 4 / 32½
8 / Trinity 3 / 8 / 1 / 0 / 7 / 2 / 26
9 / George Abbot / 8 / 0 / 0 / 8 / 0 / 26½
Division 5 grew again this year and is now up to 8 teams. This division was set up to encourage those who would not otherwise get a chance to represent their school, and this has been seen by the number of schools forming new teams just to play in this league. The result has been to encourage chess in the schools taking part, for instance at both Wilson’s and Sutton over 100 pupils come to their chess clubs this year. Sutton 4th team proved too strong for the rest and won every match
Division5 / Played / Won / Drawn / Lost / Points / Games1 / Sutton 4 / 7 / 7 / 0 / 0 / 14 / 65½
2 / Caterham 2 / 7 / 5 / 0 / 2 / 10 / 44
3 / Wilson's 5 / 7 / 4 / 1 / 2 / 9 / 48½
4 / Guildford RGS 4 / 7 / 4 / 0 / 3 / 8 / 42
5 / John Fisher / 7 / 2 / 1 / 4 / 5 / 39½
6 / Trinity 4 / 7 / 2 / 0 / 5 / 4 / 38
7 / Hampton 4 / 7 / 2 / 0 / 5 / 4 / 35
8 / Reigate GS 2 / 7 / 1 / 0 / 6 / 2 / 23½
Some schools report having weaker players who would prefer to play long play matches. So it has bee nagreed to have a fourth division next season which will be long play games but less strong players.
Promotions and relegations are made on the basis of the league results, but also on agreement between the schools dependent on how many good players are moving on to higher education or other schools.
The allocation of teams to Divisions for 2012 - 13 is as follows:
Division 1, Guildford RGS, Hampton, Sutton, Whitgift, Wilson's, Wimbledon KCS
Division 2, Caterham, Hampton 2, Kingston GS, Reigate GS, Trinity, Wilson's 2
Division 3, Guildford RGS 2, Hampton 3, Sutton 2, Wallington, Wilson's 3
Division 4, Caterham 2, Guildford RGS 3, Trinity 2, Reigate GS 2
Division 5, Emanuel, George Abbott, Guildford RGS 3, Homefield, Sutton 3, Trinity 3, Wilson's 4, Wimbledon KCS 2
Division 6, Guildford RGS 3, Hampton 4, Reigate GS 3, Sutton 4, Wilson's 5
All the games are graded, a task which involves almost 300 players and 1100 games of chess.
I would like to thank Brian Skinner for regularly updating the Briant Poulter results on the SCCA website.
Various other secondary schools have also expressed an interest in playing matches against other schools and the league has facilitated this by providing contact details. Hopefully in due course these schools will also join the league.
For more information please contact me at or see the SCCA website www.scca.co.uk
Neill Cooper, Wilson’s School