The Varsity match

Anyone who has attended the Varsity chess match knows that an online version just wouldn’t be the same. The annual event is held in great style at the Royal Automobile Club in London’s Pall Mall, and has tradition at its heart.

This year’s, the 139th edition, could not be held at the usual time in March, but it took place last weekend, to coincide with the RAC Chess Circle’s Annual Dinner. Since the 2020 edition also took place just weeks before the onset of the first national lockdown, the mighty tradition of the Varsity match remains uninterrupted by the pandemic. (The last year without a contest was during the second world war.)

Unfortunately, Cambridge’s top board Ryan-Rhys Griffiths was unwell and had to drop out, and Oxford capitalised with a convincing 5.5-2.5 victory. (Cambridge remain narrowly ahead in the series with 60 wins to 57, with 22 matches drawn.) Oxford’s second board Filip Mihov, who studies Computer Science at Balliol, was awarded the brilliancy prize for this game.