STUDENTS from Court Fields School, Wellington, made the short journey to Millfield School at Street for the second round of the Delancey UK Chess Tournament.

To qualify for this county-level competition players must have competed in their school chess tournament, winning sufficient points to be invited. Each of the eight students had achieved this in the Court Fields tournament, either winning their age group section or gaining the necessary number of points during that tournament.

The annual tournament at Millfield is attended by the best young players in Somerset and provides a searching challenge for keen chess players. This year was no exception, with the students facing higher graded players across all the age groups represented on the day, none more so than Year 10 Lauren Troake whose opening match was against a Year 12 opponent who plays for the Great Britain youth chess team.

It was no surprise the Court Fields students found points hard to come by but, after a long day playing six matches each, Lauren returned home with the Year 10 Girls’ winner’s trophy, Cara Schultz the Year 7 Girls’ runner-up medal, and Valentin Ungureanu and Adrian Adamiec won bronze medals in their respective age groups.