Diary of a schoolteacher: How a chess match made me and my students mates [Independent.ie]
- Published: 16 February 2011
'Well, lads," I called over my shoulder while motoring along the highway, "we're going to see how the other half lives!"
It was a couple years ago and for some reason the deputy principal, that under-qualified but overworked flunkey, had designated me chess teacher.
All those Tuesday lunch breaks when I had conveniently doubled-up corridor duty with chess class had set us on the road to round one of the ESB Chess Competition.
Yes, the ESB; they're not just all about bills and blokes eating breakfast rolls while reading the Daily Star in a van all morning. They also play their part promoting the intellectual and noble game of chess.
Anyway, the ESB were running an inter-schools tournament and plain old St Wayne's was pitched against the crenellated aristocracy of Sterling Park, my name for a well-known posh school that produces barristers, politicians and engineers from the sons of barristers, politicians and engineers.
I had four fantastic young men, drawn from third and fifth year, all enthusiastic and chatting away unreservedly with me on the two-hour trip to the mighty Sterling Park.
Needless to say, my team were drawn from the ranks of tilers, odd-job men and the unemployed, nothing of which meant that they weren't decent chess players.
Eventually we arrived at the gates of the castle and its glorious grounds, the driveway stretching and turning towards the castle. I stopped the car so they could look, expecting to hear groans of resentment.
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