Broughton High Chess Competition 2026
This year, the school bought into the Delancey UK schools’ chess competition who play a Swiss-system tournament, which is a non-eliminating competition made up of 7 rounds. Pupils met one-on-one in each round and were paired using rules designed to ensure that each competitor plays opponents with a similar running score but does not play the same opponent more than once. There were 3 points for a win, 2 for a draw and 1 point for a loss.
26 pupils from all year groups entered the tournament and games became more competitive as the weeks passed by, as they were playing a similar standard opponent. By round 5 there were only 2 players who hadn’t dropped a point, so a vital match was played between Muxuan Chen (8C) and Oliver Cooper (7N) with Muxuan winning the closely fought contest.
In the final round Muxuan, who had still not dropped a point, was up against Ted Ogden (9H) who had been steadily picking up points. If Muxuan won this match, then the title was his, otherwise Noah Mayers-Smith (9S) had a chance to draw level if he beat Oliver in the final round. Both boys won their match, meaning Muxuan is the 2026 champion winning all his games, with Noah the runner up, only dropping points to Muxuan when they met in round 3. In joint 3rd place, winning 5 of their games, were Lucas Thompson-Amrith (7N), Oliver Cooper and Noah Heke (11N). A special mention must go to Nishi Thakkar (9C) who represented the girls well, winning 3 and drawing 1 of her 7 games. All pupils won a badge and mascot and those with more points were able to choose a prize from the lucky dip.
Well done to all involved, it was a big commitment to turn up for 7 weeks in a row.
Mr Starkie
