James Cole (OW 2016) captained this year’s Cambridge University team in the 137th Varsity Match, held at the Royal Automobile Club, Pall Mall, London. The Varsity match is the oldest fixture on the chess calendar and has been played annually since 1873.

Former MCS Captain of Chess James Cole, currently at Downing College, Cambridge, played on board 7 of the eight-board team, finding himself facing Oxford’s Merton College Gordon Scott, a player graded some three hundred FIDE points higher. James rose to the occasion, drawing his game, but it was Oxford who seized the day with a 4½-3½ point win.

The match also involved the world’s top woman player, Hou Yifanfrom (St Hilda’s), together with several FIDE master-level players.