St. Nathy’s Clinches the Connaught Shield Title In Chess
On the 19th of March, a team of eager young chess players left St. Nathy’s College at 8 a.m. to travel to the Ardilaun Hotel in Galway to take part in the Connaught Shield, the most prestigious chess competition at their level.
St. Nathy’s had not participated in the competition for a few years, but with such a strong crop of players we thought it was worth competing.
The team consisted of Emilis Regan (6th Year), Ryan Geever and Daniel Anderson (5th Year), Ivan Suprunenko (4th Year), Marijus Mazounas, Milosz Szczerbaty, Abdulrahman Arfan and Navya Patel (1st Year). We also had Niamh Curtis in First Year as an alternate if needed on the day, and Ciaran Lavin from 2nd Year would have been on the team if he was not out of the country at the time.
All of our students played exceptionally well, and we won all of our matches against the following schools: St. Jarlath’s Tuam, Rice College Westport, Colaiste Einde, Grange Sligo, and a very tough final against Taylor’s Hill in Galway. In each match, the 8 students from Nathy’s competed head-to-head against the 8 from the other schools, and the total score was counted towards a cumulative total. (Nathy’s finished on 32 out of a possible 40 points, averaging 6 wins per match.)
These wins meant that St. Nathy’s won the Connaught Shield!
Congratulations to all the players involved who went above and beyond in preparation for the event and who all performed brilliantly on the day.
A special thank you to all the students who helped to train in preparation and the teachers who helped when asked.
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