By Sarah Tagg
Local boy George Tagg recently represented England at the annual Tournament of Young Talents in Frydek-Mistek in the Czech Republic, after qualifying at the Leeds Chess Congress last November.
12-year-old George, who attends The Hawthorns School in Bletchingley, jumped at the chance to go when he realised his friends Jacob Wynn, Louis Buckland, Arthur Kendall and Aidan Burnside, who attend his chess club, Sussex Junior Chess (SJC), would be joining him.
Alongside them, were Qixuan Han and Emre Balsari (Kent Juniors), Yueyue Sui (Magdalen College School, Oxford), Henri Blin (Hampshire and Sussex Junior Chess), Aditya Mittal and Kanishk Walia (Haberdasher’s Boys’ School, Elstree) Alexander Horwood (Harrow), Mihir Sharma (Northamptonshire) and Shrihan Koppuravuri (Aylesbury Grammar School and Buckinghamshire Juniors Chess).
The SJC group were escorted to the Czech Republic for the tournament, which took place from 28 March to 1 April, by chess coach and FIDE Master Mike Forster, and his wife Debbie. The trip wasn’t just about chess, however: the couple also took the children on outings, went sightseeing and even bought a football, so the boys could stretch their legs before each game.
During the tournament, not only did the England team get to play against famous Ukrainian 2660 Grand Master Anton Korobov in a simultaneous competition, but George and his U15 ‘English Dragons’ team (which was made up of George, Aditya, Knish, Arthur and Yueyue) won against all the other countries competing, including Poland, the Czech Republic, Latvia, Slovakia and Hungary! A brilliant result, especially as many of the boys were more used to one-hour games, rather than the three-hour ones they played here.
Aditya, Shrihan and Kanishk also managed to beat Grand Master Korobov in the simultaneous – an amazing achievement, as Anton is usually paired with the top players in the world, such as Magnus Carlson.
Other standout performances included Arthur and Yueyue coming first and second in the U12 competition, Emre, Alexander and Aidan achieving a top 20 finish in the tournament, and Henri and Aditya finishing in the top ten for the U15s, with excellent points scored by George, Shrihan and Kanishk. Open players Louis, Jacob, Qixuan and Mihir arguably had the most difficult competition as they were paired against FIDE Masters, Candidate Masters and Woman International Masters, showed their mettle and won many games.
When asked how it felt to represent his country in the Czech Republic, George said, “”It felt fine, I wasn’t that nervous. I was a bit tired as we had to get to the airport at 5.30am, but I was ready for the day ahead. Going into the tournament I felt a bit of pressure, but once I started playing it went away in an instant.”
George has played chess since he was about eight years old, and is currently captain of his chess club at school, which is run by Coulsdon Chess Club. He has also been awarded a Year 9 chess scholarship for Caterham School, where he will be starting in September.
