SUPER SEVEN FOR ALCUIN SCHOOL

The Alcuin School, a Leeds based independent day school, is celebrating winning an unprecedented seven titles at the biggest chess challenge in the world.
Seven pupils at the Alcuin School have won awards in at the North Yorkshire Mega Final of the UK Chess Challenge and an impressive four pupils have been awarded Suprema and Supremo titles. Rebekah Brown, Hema Shah and Brie Grierson became Suprema champions of the Under 8’s, Under 9’s and Under 10’s girls’ competitions with Wonsoek Jang winning the Supremo title for the Under 11 boys’ competition. In addition, Tyrell Walwyn, Wonjun Jang and Asher Dixon Blair became Boys National Finalists in the Under 8’s, Under 9’s and Under 11’s competitions respectively.
The UK Chess Challenge begins at the start of every spring term and continues over four stages and eight months. Children compete week by week in schools all over the UK and the tournament has more than 75000 children taking part.
All of the seven pupils from the Alcuin School will now take on champions from all over the UK in their age groups at the Giga Finals held at Manchester University on 17th and 18th July. If the pupils win in their categories they will then attend the Tera Final in Sheffield in which the Champions of Champions will be announced.
This latest success follows an award for the Alcuin School by the British Chess Federation (BCF) in recognition of its services to chess. The award is made annually to one school in each of the BCF’s seven constituent units covering the whole of the UK and takes the form of an inscribed wooden chess board and a digital chess clock. The school began its involvement with chess approximately eight years ago by setting up a chess club of eight players and now almost every pupil in the school from Year 2 to 6 is actively involved in chess.

John Hipshon, Headteacher at The Alcuin School, said: “We are delighted our pupils have performed so well at the UK Chess Challenge Mega Final. The competition has tens of thousands of entrants from talented chess players across the UK so we are extremely proud of what our pupils have achieved. We are really looking forward to the Giga Final and wish the children the best of luck!”