Closed Play Tournament

 This year QMGS hosted the "closed play" tournament for the first time. The tournament was a "Jamboree" format with 9 teams from the Birmingham Junior League taking part.

The eventual winners where King Edwards Edgbaston, with King Edwards Camp Hill a close second.

Queen Mary's managed a middle of the table finish, with most players managing to win at least one game.

Well done to Amaron Bhatti for winning all of his games!

QMGS1 1.5 KES1 4.5 QMGS2 2 KES3 4

Last Friday saw the first team and second team in action against the always formidable King Edwards Edgbaston. It was a difficult night for both teams against tough opposition, however there were definitely a few success stories. Tim Crooks won his game with a clever sacrifice leading to a pawn to queen promotion and eventual check mate with literally seconds on the clock. Dhiren Bahia managed a draw in his game; a player who is beginning to establish himself as a first team player against the best schools in the league. Finally, Fahim got back to winning ways with a victory against the highly graded King Edwards board one player.

Lightning Tournament - KES

Last Friday a team of year seven students and a senior team took part in the Lightning tournament at Kings Edwards Edgbaston.

The tournament is an exciting, rapid play fixture with most of the teams in the Birmingham Junior Chess League taking part. Although QMGS did not manage to win a team trophy a number of players did win board prizes. Well done to Ammaar Ashraf, Amanraj Grewal and Farshad Mohammadi.

QMGS v King Edwards Five Ways

Last Friday saw the first team in action against King Edwards Five Ways. It was another tough fixture for the first team, with all boards being very equally matched. In the end the it was another close loss for the first team, who eventually lost 4 games to 2. Well done to Sarvesh and Karthick for winning their games. Commiserations to Fahim Nasiri who lost his first game in the Birmingham Junior chess league for five years. (if my records can be trusted, but believe me it's been a long time!) Although disappointed Fahim was philosophical and will doubtlessly use defeat as means to improve rather than waste time with negativity and making excuses.

QMGS v Wolverhampton

After a heavy defeat to a very impressive Bishop Vessey's team the year sevens bounced back with a win against Wolverhampton Grammar. After an hour of chess consisting of two games per player QM eventually won 8 games to 4. Well done to Sulaimn Shafiq for winning both his games in his debut performance and to Piotr and Sujjan for both winning and drawing in their games.

The fourth team were also in action against Wolverhampton and eventually lost 4.5 games to 7.5 games. Well done to Vincent, Amanraj, Gabriel and Arjun who all managed to win a game.

QMGS v KES

After the national fixtures of the previous week, attention returned to the Birmingham league and another tough fixture against arguable the toughest opposition in the league King Edwards Edgbaston.

This fixture involved the first team and the first outing for the year sevens.

The year sevens eventually lost 8 games to 4, well done to Sujjan, Piotr, Shivansh and Kieran for managing to win a game against very tough opposition.

After a tough games on boards 4,5 and 6 the first team found themselves 3-0 down!

Impressive performances on boards higher boards managed to turn things around, but unfortunately qmgs couldn't quite manage a draw. Eventually losing 3.5 to 2.5. Well done to Fahim, Sarvesh and Dhiren Bahia.

Especially well done to Dhiren Bahia who is quickly becoming an established first team player in year 9! I'm sure this rapid ascension is at least in part due to his extra curricular commitments at Bloxwich chess club. Who are always looking bright young players. http://www.sjca.org.uk/bloxwichjunior.html

KES - U18 National Tournament

Last Saturday the first team played in a national final at Kings Edwards Edgbaston. Some of the best school teams in the country were present, including Nottingham High School, Hampton and RGS Guildford. It was a tough day for most of the QMGS team, however most players
managed to win or draw at least one game.

The big success story of the day had to be Fahim Nasiri's performance. Fahim has been the schools best chess player for a number of years now, though has never competed in a graded tournament before and hence entered this tournament with a grading of zero.

It, therefore, caused considerable surprise amongst the spectators when, after a very close game, he managed to beat the Nottingham High Schools board one player who had a grading of 184. He followed this breath taking performance with another impressive win over the King Edwards board one player who had a grading of 176.

Fahim finished in joint second place, amongst the other board one players. He shared this position with a player with a grading of 201. The tournament organiser has passed me the details of an "International Chess Master" who captains a team in the "four nations chess league" and told me and would be very interested to hear of Fahim's performance today.