Hammersmith teamed up with the 4NCL Sharks (featuring several of our strongest players) to play in the UK Team Open tournament, a part of the Global Chess League Season 2: with Magnus Carlsen, Hikaru Nakamura, Alireza Firouzja, Hou Yifan, the sibling duo Praggnanandhaa and Vaishali, and many other top GMs gathering in London, it was an amazing atmosphere to play chess!
On Saturday 5th of October, the teams gathered in Friends House near Euston for a prompt start at 1:30pm, following some introductory words from the GCL CEO Sameer Pathak, and tournament organiser Peter Hornsby who explained the rules. Even though we were all together in person, the tournament was to be played online in a 3+2 Arena format. This would ensure more games for everybody and the top 2 teams with highest total scores would then play each other in an OTB Rapid (10+5) match.
And off we went! Almost immediately, our own IM Peter Roberson (playing on his phone, while most people were using laptops!) took a clear lead over the rest of the field, which he safely kept until the end of the scheduled 90 minutes of play. It was fair to say our team had most of the strongest players, but other teams had brought many more people than us and the standings would be decided by total points, so we all had to stay focused the whole time!
In the end, we took first place in the Arena by 45 points, and had 5 of the top 6 individual scores (aforementioned Peter, IM Tom Rendle, Gaston Franco, FM James Moreby, and Zain Patel). An amazing performance! We were keen to know who we would play against in the final match, only to find a rather unlikely tie for second place! It was decided that Eton College and Alpha Chess would play an OTB rapid match as well as a sort of semi final to determine who would play against us.
Alpha Chess won the playoff, and the final match started, played over 10 boards. Our opponents were all juniors, but not without strength or experience, and all the games were extremely challenging! Our players were up to the task and achieved a 6.5-3.5 victory, with GMs Gawain Jones and Kateryna Lagno presenting the prizes – we’re the #1 Chess Club in London!
Even leaving the results aside, it was an extremely enjoyable afternoon for everyone involved. Many thanks to Peter Hornsby for organising and to our captain Tom Rendle (who also made an appearance on ITV London News later that day) for bringing together such a strong team. Looking forward to further success stories for Hammersmith Chess Club!
Gastón Franco