Chess Club Report

Interschool Chess Tournament Report

On Wednesday the 30th of April, Vermont Secondary College participated in its first Interschool Chess tournament organised by Northern Star Chess and hosted at Heathmont College.

We were represented by an enthusiastic contingent of 21 students from years 7 to 10. They were up against four other schools: Heathmont College, Kambrya College, Koonung Secondary College, and Luther College for a total of 80 participants.

Our students showed great resilience in the face of defeat on the board. Naman V of 8M2 was down a queen, the strongest piece in the game, but held out hope and didn’t give up. He caught his opponent off guard in a moment of overconfidence and clutched victory from the jaws of defeat won with a classic back rank mate! Well done Naman!

Sehar K of 8H2 also showed an amazing amount of grit and determination in a losing position. She never gave up, forcing the opponent to show that they were the better player. Moving her pieces back and forth, she embodied the classic saying “it’s not over until it’s over”. She clawed it back and managed to secure a stalemate, ending the game in a draw. Fantastic effort Sehar!

And of course, no chess article would be complete without a few puzzles.

Jayden C of 8S1 managed to obtain the 

following dominating position as white. With white to play, what is white’s best move?

Similarly, Rhea M of 105 obtained the following dominating position as black. With black to play, can you find mate in 6?

With stunning play from all participants, the results of the tournament fell into two categories: individual performance and school performance taken from the top 4 players from each school.

Vermont Secondary College came in 3rd place with 20 points narrowly missing out on second place which went to Luther College on 22 points and the winners of the tournament, Koonung Secondary College on 23 points.

And finally, a list of our participants and their scores after 7 rounds and a maximum score of 7 points. 

Chern Jun K: 5.5 points and the bronze medal for Years 7 – 8

Aritha W: 5 points

Johar K: 5 points

Emmanuel N: 4.5 points

Matthew L: 4 points

Jack N: 4 points

Dhairya S: 4 points

Jayden C: 4 points

Naman V: 3 points

Henry M: 3 points

Jasper T: 3 points

Michael Z: 3 points

Rhea M: 3 points

Rohan M: 3 points

Adrian L: 2.5 points

Finn W: 2.5 points

Apporva L: 2.5 points

Rohaan A: 2 points

Darsh M: 2 points

Varad P: 2 points

Sehar K: 1.5 points

With scores of 4.5 points or higher, Chern Jun K, Aritha W, Johar K, and Emmanuel N have qualified for the state tournament to be held at Xavier College in Term 4. 

Congratulations!

Thank you to Michelle Cutler who took this wonderful photo of our students and provided enormous and invaluable support on the day.

Well done to all of our participants. We hope to see you again next year!

Minhtu Nguyen 

Chess Club Coordinator