Brentwood Prep School chess whizzes can’t call it a knight

Brentwood Preparatory School’s young chess supremos took third spot in the English Chess Federation’s Online Under 11 Schools Championships after an epic 7-hour chess marathon.

And what was the first thing the super keen tacticians wanted to do after Sunday’s mammoth national online session…. get back on Zoom that evening to celebrate and pit their wits against each other!

Nine schools took part in the invitation-only event which was held in lieu of an over the board competition. Brentwood Prep received their invite on the back of some stellar recent performances.

The six-strong team included 11-year-old Max Pert on the top board; Jaden Omoruyi, also aged 11, on second board; and then Markos Mouratidis (aged 10); Chris Antonopoulos (aged 9); Dilsher Cheema (aged 10) and Yahya Ferdhaus (aged 10).

The competition was organised by the ECF, the governing body for English Chess, and consisted of eight rounds. King’s College and Westminster finished level after beating everyone else and drawing between themselves. Brentwood Prep beat the other 6 schools to finish in a creditable third place.

Robin Slade, Brentwood School Chess Coach, said: "The boys work very hard on their skills. Junior chess has been thriving in Essex for a number of years and the boys have been at the centre of it.

"Max Pert wanted his friends to play back in Year 3 and has coached and encouraged them ever since. They have also benefited from all the coaching and tournaments organised by Brentwood School, the Essex Junior Chess Association and British Chess. Over the last year they have ridden the wave of a huge growth in online chess including all that is organised by Brentwood Senior School.

"In the tournament itself they produced a consistently high level of chess and held their concentration through an event that ran for 7 hours. Max was unbeaten on the top board and all the boys scored above 50%."

*Nine-year-old Alyssa Omoruyi represented the Essex U11 Team in the Online Association Zone Final (the County Final) which due to some unfortunate scheduling was held on the same day. Essex finished 4th out of 16 teams with Alyssa the 6th highest scorer for Essex out of 24 players.

Mr Slade commented: "She was the only Prep player, although the six boys who played in the school event would have all been in the team. It was genius timing!"

To cap off a super week of chess at Brentwood, Jaden also drew with a Candidate Master while playing for the Senior School on Friday evening - his first positive result against a titled player.

Brentwood School is establishing itself as a beacon for chess and provides the framework to enable keen and talented players to thrive and reach their full potential. Specialist Chess Scholarships are available at 11+.