Connor Adair: a member of the senior chess team.

The Garneau senior chess team played its first match on Tuesday against Georges Vanier Secondary School. The team won the match 3-2. This was seemed an incredible feat for a team barely put together with no substitutes a few days before the deadline, but somehow it was done. Chess club was now “a thing.”

Most of the members of our team had quite an easy run at Vanier.

“I thought they knew what they were doing,” said Josh Tham, the team’s strongest player.

“Guy took so long to make his moves,” said Armin Askari, referring to his opponent. “Trapped his queen in a corner. That was about the end of the game.”

Not every player on the team had such an easy run, however. The first game finished was lost, and the captain of the senior team, yours truly, lost his game, despite gaining a large material advantage in the beginning.

“I blundered a rook,” I explained. “That kid knew his endgame and I couldn’t convert being up two pawns into a win.”

While the senior chess team won its first match, the junior chess team was not so fortunate, losing 3-2 to Victoria Park Collegiate Institute the day after.

“It was a very close game, however we lost,” stated Zameer Bharwani, president of chess club and the junior team captain. “The junior team will make a come back against Stephen Leacock CI,” he added optimistically. The junior team’s next game will be this Tuesday at Leacock.

The senior team’s next game will be the first at our own school, playing Albert Campbell on Tuesday the 22nd.