The fourth annual Brian Collum memorial chess tournament took place in Newtownforbes today(9th march).Four hundreds and eighty primary school children from 4 counties took part in a 5 round team event making it the largest event of its kind in the country.

The photo on the left was taken from the stage and is a view of the sports hall with the 480 primary school children, 120 teams of 4 players from 5 different counties, beginning their second round matches. The winners of the event, Summerhill A team, were the only team to win all 5 matches and only dropped 2 points from 20 on their way to first place.

All participants went home with a medal, county cups for the top school in each county and Summerhill Athlone won the Brian Collum Cup. Summerhill also won a trip to Tayto Park for 30 children in a draw which was drawn at random, I guess it was just their day. The full standings of each team can be seen in the link at the end of this article, congratulations to all the children involved.

The event is sponsored each year by McCarrick Bros Longford Ltd. and relies on a huge voluntary effort to move tables and chairs for 480 in and out of the hall by friends and family of Brian Collum. Special thanks to Newtownforbes sports hall and Clonguish Gala club for the free use of their hall.

For a list of the final standings, click here