Simul in the Sun in York

CSC held a simultaneous display at St Wilfrid's Primary School, York on Tuesday 7th July. Over 60 children took part from schools across the city - Dringhouses, Fishergate, Knavesmire, St Aelred's, St Wilfrid's and All Saints. International Master Richard Palliser and Candidate Master Aaron Rich took on the children. It was a beautiful day and the games were played outside in the playground. Even the wind couldn’t hold us up - our Masters’ memories were up to the challenge of the resetting the positions after a strong gust!

It was great to see some former St Wilfrid's pupils come back from their secondary school, All Saints, to play. Once the simul was over, two children were chosen based by Richard and Aaron to play each other on the playground giant set donated to St Wilfrid's by CSC.

Mr Jones, the school’s Chess Lead said, “It was wonderful to host our first ever chess event at St Wilfrid’s.  The children really enjoyed pitting their skills against Richard and Aaron. This is the icing on the cake on a brilliant year of chess at the school, thanks to our wonderful tutor Dan Staples.”

Richard and Aaron were very impressed at the standard of their opponents’ play, Richard saying: “Fantastic to see so many well-behaved children focussed and enjoying their chess. Standard was pretty decent too - very few silly openings.” Both were delighted to see chess flourishing in York’s primary schools.

Our thanks to Richard and Aaron for their expertise, to Mr Jones for being such a strong advocate for chess, and to our Yorkshire team of Dan Staples and Dom Lodge for all their hard work in the county.