Chess Club - 

All the right moves

Vernon Clarke

Chess Club - Cocurricular Program

BSC Chess Club, a feature of the BSC Cocurricular Program, draws many students from across all year levels who enjoy and want to improve their skills art playing chess.    

Chess is a fabulous companion to academic learning. Not only does it provide for friendly play and interaction, high-level competition and strategy skills, it is also proven that playing chess can increase your IQ, improve memory function, help to develop creativity, exercises both sides of the brain simultaneously, and increases a student's problem solving skills! Chess Club is just one excellent example of how the BSC Cocurricular Program enriches and enhances the student experience at BSC.  

The Chess CCP has enjoyed upgraded resources this year, with the Parents' Association generously funding addition chess sets this year,  so that more students can be actively involved.  We look forward to welcoming even more players in the future.

This term, the BSC Chess Club hosted an Interschool Chess Tournament.

The event was  run by the Northern Star Chess, and our students welcomed large teams from Coburg High School, Preston High School and Reservoir Secondary School. It was  a battle for Inner North supremacy! 

Since Term 1,  the BSC Chess Club team had been training hard. Meeting once a week, they have been coached by  Juztyn Starc and Raidyn Café (both of Year 10). The Chess Club comprises mostly of Year 7 and Year 8 students, so Juztyn and Raidyn ran lessons and practical demonstrations to teach the younger students the fundamental elements of opening a game, mid game moves and winning strategies. Juztyn and Raidyn have have shown great responsibility, commitment and teamwork to mentor students and to prepare them for competition. Their efforts are highly commended.

Home Turf

The tournament started well, and using the 'home ground advantage' BSC prevailed through the first two rounds!   The first row of tables in a Chess tournament is organised such that the best players, (winners on the day) are playing against each other. It is pleasing to report that through the first five (5) rounds of play there was at least one Brunswick student at each table in the top row of players!  As Round 5 of the tournament concluded, Brunswick were on top of the table having won the most games. 

Time to get serious!

In a tournament, Round 6 is where competition begins to get tight. With a few critical games in the balance, the score going into Round 7  was a draw between Preston High School and BSC.  This round started  with  the top 4 tables occupied by a BSC player vs a Preston High School player. Whichever team won the most out of these 4 games in Round 7 would take victory in the tournament. Until this point,  Juztyn Starc had won every game he had played, and was in the individual lead with 6 wins to his tally. His opponent in the last round had 5 wins and a draw, so Juztyn only needed a draw to win the entire tournament.

Juztyn's commitment, effort and determination throughout the tournament, as well as his ongoing support of the BSC Chess club throughout the whole year, was well-rewarded as he earned the coveted  Star of the Tournament Trophy. Preston were victors in 3 games of the last round, so the BSC Team earned overall second place in the tournament - a fantastic (and very close-run) effort.

Congratulations 

Congratulations to the entire BSC Chess team, and to the following students who also played so well and  have also qualified to compete in the State Final.

We'll be cheering you on!