TWO Oxford children have been crowned chess kings after claiming victory in a national championship.
Jan Murawski, who attends St Joseph’s Catholic Primary School in Headington, and Kenneth Hobson, a pupil at Cheney School, won in their respective age groups at the British Junior Chess Championships.
The finals of the championships were held in Milton Keynes with 10-year-old Jan now the under-10 champion and Kenneth, 12, the under-12 champion.
Kenneth’s dad Richard said his son has been playing since he was young and the win was the ‘pinnacle’ of years of hard work.
Mr Hobson said: “We were very excited when we saw the winning result and we were very happy for Kenneth.
“I showed him how to play when he was little, maybe when he was three or four, but we didn’t play competitively until he was eight.
“We put him in for a county tournament and he did well enough to get invited to a fairly big county junior group. He got hooked once he started playing against other children.
“We took him to other tournaments and his interest grew, and this win is the pinnacle of it all.”
Mr Hobson said the tournaments offered a platform for father and son to spend quality together.
“Moving up the age groups is what happens naturally – we’ve got no master plan,” he said.
“Our attitude has always been that it’s a hobby and that he enjoys it.
“We’ve not set targets or goals so the next step is no more than to play as long as he wants to play, and help him out.
“I ended up entering some of the tournaments as well so it helped us bond and it’s something we can look back on with great amusement. While he was getting better, I certainly wasn’t.”
Meanwhile, Ola Murawska – Jan’s mother – said the win for her son was reward for consistent high performances in the past.
She said: “We were very happy for him because he’d been playing in competitions and he was near the top, but not at the top.
“It’s not always about the skill, you have to survive emotionally and psychologically through the whole tournament.
“He’s been playing since he was very little as his older brother was playing and going to competitions, so it was his life.
“He knew the rules pretty quickly and when he was in Year 1, he entered his first competition.
“There was no competition between Jan and his brother, and Jan accepted his brother was better but now they’re probably even.”
Jan finished outright first, winning six and drawing one of his seven games, while Kenneth also finished outright first, winning four and drawing one of his five matches.
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