Chess is played across the school, coached by the experienced Mr Stewart, who gave us this update:
Chess at Westbourne House is booming and going from strength to strength. 40 children attend the Tuesday chess club in the Prep School, a lot of whom have represented their school in the annual Sussex-school wide Primary and Butler Cup and, next week, will see the final round of the Preliminary stage of the Delancey UK Chess championship (the largest junior chess competition in the world) where we will crown our junior and senior winner.
"Best of all, the children in the Pre-Prep have also begun their chess journeys with 14 children attending chess club where they have been learning all about this wonderful game. The summer term will bring more competitions, more learning and more fun!"
Mr Stewart
Chess vs Goldstone and Oakwood Prep
Our quartet of chess players arrived full of confidence, ready to take on Goldstone and Oakwood Prep schools. However, an unprecedented performance from Goldstone meant a clean sweep and winning the tournament without drawing or losing a single match. This being said, the Westbourne team did not lose a match vs Oakwood Prep and were worthy runners up.
Andrew was unlucky to only draw one game. Against Goldstone, he was excellent and pushed them all the way. Angus played a very attacking form of chess and won his first game by catching his opponent off guard with some clever offensive moves. Charlie and Emma also won a match each and were unfortunate not to celebrate more success.
Going forward, the key focus for the children is to learn to finish the opponents off when in control of their matches by keeping focus and taking their time before forcing checkmate. Overall, the four of them can be very proud of their chess performance.
