Chess News

Regional Chess Tournament

On 9th September, Pakenham Secondary College hosted a Regional Chess Tournament with six other schools in attendance:

• Nossal High School
• St. Paul's Anglican Grammar
• Berwick College
• St Margaret's Berwick Grammar School
• Maranatha Christian School
• St Francis Xavier College

The winners of the tournament were Nossal High School, with Pakenham Secondary College and St. Paul's Anglican College tying for second place. 

We are extremely proud of all of our students who competed at this event, with Sebastian Tunjo receiving a Distinction and both Lockie Groves and Sinsarut Chitkanwong receiving Credits. We would also like to congratulate Brad Walker and Hrishav Ghimire for receiving Year 7-8 Bronze Medals and Chloe Dryden for receiving the Girls Silver Medal. 

Chess State Finals

Four of our students have qualified for the Secondary Open Chess State Finals, which will take place on Friday, 11th October:

Sebastian Tunjo Salinas 

Sinsarut Chitkanwong 

Lockie Groves

Calvin Hrang Lung

and two of our students have qualified for the Secondary Girls Chess State Final, being held on Tuesday, 15th October:

Mia Elliott (who won the Girls Gold Medal at the Regional Chess Tournament held in May) and Chloe Dryden (who won the Girls Silver Medal at the Regional Chess Tournament held in September and the Bronze Medal at the Regional Chess Tournament held in May).

Our Chess Coordinator - Mr Sergio De Lima

We would like to thank Mr De Lima, who has spent the past 14 years as an exceptional mentor and coordinator for our Chess Club. Mr De Lima has spent countless hours teaching students how to play chess, as well as perfecting their technique. He has organised innumerable Regional Chess Tournaments - inviting many schools to our College quite a few times over the course of each year, in addition to the many IntraSchool Tournaments he has run. Through his dedication and guidance, many of our students have reached the State Finals,  culminating in tremendous success. This has been due in no small part to his outstanding instruction. Most recently, in 2023, our girls team came 2nd in the Girls Secondary Chess State Finals, and 17 of our students qualified for the Secondary Open Chess State Final - coming in at eighth place out of 298 competitors and 47 schools.

This year, students once again from our College have qualified for the State Finals, which are being held on the 11th October and for the Girls Secondary State Finals, being held on the 15th October. We thank Mr De Lima for helping our students reach such high standards.

We wish Mr De Lima all the very best and a tremendous amount of gratitude. We hope to see him at Chess tournaments throughout the year.