Checkmate for Yarm School Chess Team

Yarm Prep School pupils have established themselves as under-9 chess champions for the first time since 2003.

The team, comprising captain Miles Page, Can Sezen, Kaira Nalawade and Lolwa Soliman, were crowned the winners in the HMC Chess Championships in Wakefield.

They triumphed over tough competition after displaying impressive levels of concentration and strategic skills.

Can Sezen was singled out for special commendation having won all six of his games and was presented with a certificate to celebrate the achievement.

It was Yarm’s first outing to a chess tournament since 2019 due to Covid restrictions with the school fielding one under-9 and two under-11 teams.

Yarm Prep School Head Bill Sawyer said: “This is a magnificent achievement, and our under-9 team should be immensely proud of themselves.

“It was a superb day of chess and all our pupils, who took part, thoroughly enjoyed it. Due to Covid restrictions, this is the first tournament for eleven out of twelve of our players.”

“Chess is extremely popular with the pupils and as a school we value the strategic and problem-solving skills that chess brings. Every pupil gets the opportunity to learn to play chess and we provide many avenues for playing competitively through a range of tournaments that we host and invite local schools to participate in. I am hugely grateful to our chess coach Sean Marsh and Mr Grundmann who have been coordinating chess here at Yarm Prep for over 25 years”.

The HMC Chess Championships, which took place at Queen Elizabeth Grammar School Wakefield, was the first to be held since autumn 2019.