Pictured above are the John Colet teams (in black) playing at home.
JCS had 4 teams competing on Friday afternoons in Term 2 across the Manly Warringah Zone of the NSW Junior Chess League Primary School Teams Chess Competition. Other schools that competed included Oxford Falls Grammar, St Augustines, St Lukes, Newport, Monavale, Seaforth and many more. The teams were made up of 4 students roughly ranked in order of skill. Given the youth and lack of tournament experience of our teams we performed amazingly well finishing ‘On the Podium’ with 3 of the 4 teams.
Our Junior Rookies came 2nd on 22.5/28 points to Newport with Our Lady of Good Counsel (OLGC) coming 3rd. This team consisted of Saurav and Eshaan H from year 3 , Siddhartha B from Upper 1st and Ryan M from Year 3. Reserves were Isabella G and Ellston C from Year 3. Saurav was our Board 1 player and won 7 matches from 7 while his brother won 5 out of the 6 matches he played. Siddhartha won 4 out of the 5 matches he played and Ryan won 3 out of 5 matches and collected a point from a forfeit. Isabella won both matches that she played. The whole team represented the school beautifully and were a delight to behold, showing amazing maturity and sportsmanship.
Our Rookies came 2nd on 19 points to OLGC (which was a much older team). Our team consisted of Ramakrishna B, Year 3, Michael T, Aidan H from Year 4 and Leo P from Year 2. Reserves were Caitlyn B and Jason N – both of whom won the matches they played. Ramakrishna and Michael only lost one match a piece, while Leo gave a very mature performance losing only 2 matches and Aidan took home two wins and a draw.
Our Intermediate Team came 2nd to Monavale with St Rose of Collaroy coming 3rd. Our team was made up of Mimi P, Leo G, Liam M and Kai P with Paul D and Jason N as Reserves. Mimi lead the team strongly and took 4 points from 6 matches. It was Leo’s first experience of a compeition of this type and he brought home 3 points on a tough Board. Kai won 6 out of the 7 matches he played and Liam took 5.5 points from 6 matches.
Our Championship Team found it pretty tough going and in hindsight (20/20) they probably would have been better suited to the Intermediate Division, so I am taking a learning from that. Wheeler Heights, Newport and Monavale dominated. Our Team consisted of Thomas J, Daniel S, Scout H and Sean G. Reserves were Mimi P and Leo G. They showed great resilience and sportsmanship. A character building experience.
The Club is very grateful to the school and all of the parent volunteers who made this competition possible, providing driving, supervision, scoring, afternoon team and coordination of pick ups etc.
Simone P
Chess Club Coordinator
