Recently we held our School’s Annual Primary Chess Competition. Fifty nine Children competed, 30 of whom are not active members of the School’s Chess Club. Overall, 13 were from Year 3, 17 from Year 4, 13 from Year 5 and 16 from Year 6. They all played 7 Chess Matches each. Tim Priest our Sydney Academy of Chess Coach of our Senior class presided over the competition. Nine competitors have official chess ratings. Besides myself and Tim, Leo G, Mi Mi P and Daniel S also assisted as Arbiters, if their matches were completed. In between matches the children went outside to play.
The trophies and prizes were as follows:
1st – Leo G (6R) 6/7
2nd – Mi Mi P (6C) 6/7
3rd – Saurav H (4J) 5.5/7
4th – Eshaan H(4D) 5.5/7
5th – Daniel S (6R) 5.5/7
In 6th place and Best 6th grader – Callum H (6R) 5.5/7
Best 5th grader – Caly H (5T) 4/7
Best 4th grader – Ramakrishna B (4D) 4/7
In 9th place and Best 3rd grader – Morgan A-J (3K) 4.5/7
In 10th place 3rd Grader Victoria M (3S) 4.5/7 – Girls Prize
Leo G will be presented with the School Chess Champion Trophy on Speech Night.
Children on the same points are separated by a complex algorithm which looks at the difficulty of each of the opponents that they faced. Amongst our medal winners only Caly from Year 5 is not in the Club.
I feel I should give a special mention to Rory M (6R) from our Intermediate Class who has shown amazing improvement in his game this year and had a great day, scoring 5 points to come 7th Overall. The best performance from a student who has not been active in the Chess Club for the last couple of years was William W who scored 4.5 points and came 10th Overall.
Tim was very impressed by the spirit in which the tournament was played, especially the generosity of the more able players towards their opponents.
Special Thanks to Mrs Renshaw who hosted the event in her Classroom and supervised along with Miss Cipollone and later Mrs Dunn and also Mrs Tomicki who let us take her desks and chairs and Mrs Moor who was understanding about the children arriving a little late to lunch. And also to Mr Wilcock who came along to present the Trophies and Medals.
Quite a few children from outside the Club spoke to me about how much they enjoyed it and about how they could get involved in the Club next year. I would encourage you to have conversations with your children about Chess Club over the summer and maybe even give them a chance to play ‘in-person’ or online. If you need any recommendations please do not hesitate to contact me.
More Photos of the event and information about the Club can be found on our Closed Facebook Group “John Colet School Chess Club”
Yours in Chess, Simone
