Warinder Juss MP Supports Schools Chess

The game of chess has many supporters in the Houses of Parliament. Indeed, no fewer than three prominent members of the current UK Government were among the strongest junior players of their generations in their youth. However, there can be no parliamentarian more interested in chess than Warinder Juss, MP for Wolverhampton West. Warinder is a mainstay in the parliamentary chess team and a keen supporter of the work of CSC.

We were delighted when Warinder recently asked us to help run a chess tournament for the schools in his constituency. The competition was held in the fantastic setting of the Victoria Hall at The Royal School, Wolverhampton, with nearly 60 children from seven different schools taking part: St Peter's, St Regis, Aldersley, Smestow Academy, Aurora Cedars, West Park, and of course, The Royal School itself. After a warm-up session with some of our CSC tutors, the tournament began mid-morning with primary school children and secondary school students all competing in the same event. Six hard-fought games of chess later and we were ready to award medals for the highest individual scores and trophies for the winning teams: West Park as the leading primary school and The Royal School as the top secondary. Every child left with some chess goodies and plenty of enthusiasm to continue their chess learning back in school.

Warinder kindly attended throughout the day helping out with the scoring, and even joined in the tournament for a couple of games against some of the children. At the end of the day he spoke to the children about his love of the game and helped hand out the prizes.

Our huge thanks to Warinder and his team for organising the event, for all their support for chess, and for making it such a memorable tournament for all the children who took part. There are already plans afoot for next year’s event and we look forward to seeing a lot more chess played in Wolverhampton West in the coming years.