BOYS at a Bournemouth school have gone chess mad with more than 70 pupils studying the demanding game.

In just two years the number of pupils playing chess at Harewood College has leapt from just four and their practice paid off when they sent a team to a prestigious national tournament held at Eton College.

It was the first time they had taken part in such an event and found themselves against teams from top private schools such as the hosts at Eton, Winchester College and the winners, Haberdashers’ Askes’ from Hertfordshire.

Team members, who only took up the sport two years ago, were invited to play in the English Chess Federation’s Rapid Play Chess Tournament after winning the Bournemouth Senior Schools Cup.

Harewood College was the only school from Dorset to take part in the competition. The team – Cameron Battle, Chang Liu, Grant Dimond, Connor Duburguet, Jiahao Zhang, Dominik Bihari and Aidan Cuttler-Crawford – did really well and at one point were even ahead of Eton College. Overall they finished a respectable 33rd out of 38 in what was their first tournament of this scale.

Executive headteacher of Harewood College, Debbie Godfrey-Phaure, said: “This is the first time the boys have competed on a national stage and it is testament to their growing reputation that they were asked to take part.

“The competition was held in Eton’s magnificent hall and it was filled with more than 200 players from schools across the country.

“But the boys were not fazed at all by the occasion and they not only did Harewood College very proud, but the whole of Dorset as well.”

The school’s popular lunchtime chess sessions are supported by two dedicated volunteer chess coaches – Eric Sachs from Poole Chess Club and Paul Errington from Bournemouth Chess Club, who give up their time to help coach the boys to become national competitors.