Head's Newsletter 11 February 2022

CHESS ROUND UP This half term has seen continuing successes for Tiffin ’ s Chess teams both online and finally, after a couple of years ’ hiatus, over the board.. A record 4 teams qualified for the knockout stages of the National Schools Chess Challenge. The A team, led by Ron, enjoyed an early win against King ’ s Wimbledon ’ s U13 team. Ron Usharovsky and Sagnik Chatterjee, both opted to sac the exchange early on to get their opponents out of prep before outplaying their less experienced opponents in the complications and converting rook endgames. Isaac Lam, in Magnesian fashion, ground his way through a drawish bishop

endgame to emerge with a full point when his opponent eventually blundered, meanwhile Samvrit Subin won a sharp, tactical shootout in the French. Lastly Anixton Linton ensured the 6 - 0 whitewash (board 6 was defaulted) winning a king and pawn endgame 2 pawns up and avoiding the stalemate traps. They now face old rivals Hampton in round two. Tiffin were then able to host their first over the board classical fixtures in two years. The C team played against Eton ’ s A team and Tiffin ’ s winning easy appeared to be continuing after Fardeen playing his beloved Caro Kann, defended competently on board 3 and emerged up a piece, victorious. However it was not meant to be. The more experienced Eton players won nice games on boards 1 (puzzle above), 2, 4 and 5 though Ivan Kuzmin did hold, finding the right coordination of his king and pawns to prevent the black king from infiltrating. The next day, the D team played host to St. Paul ’ s Girls ’ school. Despite losing 6 - 0, the boys played well, particularly the year 7s. Vanya Smolyakov was holding a double rook endgame for a long time (puzzle 3) and Shriyans Muddana survived 76 moves against one of the top junior girls in the world. The B team ’ s fixture was forfeit by Guildford County school so they join the A ’ s in round two, though they are facing RGS Guildford ’ s A team. In the Ivan Gromov Online league, Tiffin continues to excel. Our A and B teams both have 9 points and sit at 1st and 3rd only separated by chess ’ equivalent of goal difference. The week after the A ’ s beat the B ’ s 6 - 0, Tiffin ’ s A team beat Wilson ’ s B 5.5 - 0.5. Ron Usharovsky is now +4 in the competition with 5 wins and a solitary loss. Tong Wu also played a lovely positional game in a closed position to win a monster game that lasted over two and a half hours. Meanwhile the B ’ s beat Eton C ’ s 3.5 v 2.5, the clutch draw coming at the very end as Jack Spicer demonstrated everything Ron has taught him about king and pawn endgames. Tiffin ’ s strong U13 team set off to King ’ s College Wimbledon for the JTCC. Samvrit Subin, Johan Mathew, David Varghese, Shriyans Muddana and Yichen Wu battled through the likes of JAGS (3 - 1), KCS C (4 - 0), KCS B (2 - 2) and St Paul ’ s (3.5 - 0.5) to be in pole position after 4 rounds. However at this point they came up against KCS A, who, in spite of Samvrit ’ s win on board 1, beat us 3 - 1. In the final round, as a result of their quick start to the tournament, they faced Wilson ’ s A. Shriyans played a fantastic game against the two knights Caro but it was in vain as Tiffin lost 3 - 1 in the end. Tiffin finished up 4th behind St. Paul ’ s, Wilson ’ s A and KCS A but still a great result as all of the boys scored at least 50% in a field containing 15 of the top hundred u13 players in the country (3 of whom are at Tiffin)