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Posted on July 20th 2016
Erik Yordanov Out Moves Rivals to Become Federation Chess Champion
HABE students put in an outstanding performance at the Harris Federation chess tournament hosted by Harris Academy Morden.
Harris Beckenham emerged triumphantly from the Harris Federation chess tournament at Harris Morden on Wednesday 12th July 2016. HABE came away with a champion, a semi-finalist and three other students with varying levels of chess experience who performed admirably in their first chess tournament. Year 10 student Erik Yordanov stole the show however with a dramatic victory in a very tense final against a Harris Merton student following an all-Beckenham semi-final against year 8 student Ayaz Ghani.
The format of the event meant that the team was split up to face students from other Harris academies in different groups, with only the winner of each group going through to the quarter finals. Rhylie Hobbs-Davidson, Herbie Stewart and Harvey May battled resiliently through a gruelling set of five 20 minute matches in the group stages. They were then on hand to provide support and encouragement to qualifiers from the group Ayaz and Erik who managed to come out of their groups on top and eventually faced each other in a tense match in the semi-final.
The most dramatic moments came in the final when Erik managed to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat against Harris Merton’s year 7 chess prodigy. With the tournament already running over time and many hard-fought matches already having taken place, Erik might have been forgiven for conceding when he lost his queen and many of his other pieces, eventually ending up with just his king and with no way to fend off his opponent. Erik was not phased however and showed amazing resilience and resourcefulness to force his opponent into a stalemate situation and consequently forcing the board to be reset (much to the despair of the tournament organisers!) Erik then went on to win in style by ruthlessly forcing his opponent into checkmate.
Overall the day was a great success. Erik and Ayaz can be very proud of their trophies and the whole team represented the academy magnificently. We look forward to defending the title next year!
Mr Lindsay-Charlton
