Thanks to our new maths teacher, Dr Al-Murani, Haberdashers’ Adams has been reviving an interest in chess.

During the second World War, chess was encouraged as part of the emergence of a Junior library. Later, teacher Ryan Palmer, who was the Jamaican National Chess Champion of 1992, instigated a highly successful period of chess in the school - under his guidance, the class of 2008 included Thomas Pym, who won the British Junior Championships in 2002 and 2003 and represented England on the international stage. It also included ON Chris Lewis who has been a member of Newport Chess Club since 2001. Together with Adams pupils Gavyn Cooper, Alex Taylor and the Baulf brothers, they formed the first junior team at the club in 2004.

Chris now captains the club’s A team. In 2021, Chris became Head of Junior Chess for Shropshire and in the past three years has really grown chess in the county. This was recognised in 2023 when he was awarded the English Chess Federation’s Contribution to Junior Chess award.

Chris started the current revival - forming an Adams School team at the local club which represented Adams at the Eton ECF Secondary Schools Rapidplay tournament in October. In November, ten members represented Adams at an ECF National Schools Championships qualifier in Walsall. The team qualified and will now play in a regional zone knock-out competition.

Adams students have also had recent success in individual tournaments, most recently at the Staffordshire Junior Championships where Ruya K in Y7 was crowned Staffordshire U12 female champion.

Dr Al-Murani, who joined the maths department in September, has further encouraged this renewed interest. First, there was House Chess which wan won by Darwin, but more recently he also organised an in-school Swiss-system tournament on 4th December, with the winner, Thomas in year 11, lifting the inaugural Chess Cup.