SCHS Chess News
SCHS Chess Team Qualifies for Regional Finals♟️🏆
Our Chess Team has once again demonstrated their strength at the NSC Zonal Chess Tournament, held on Thursday 16 July.
Competing against 10 schools, Suzanne Cory secured first place overall, finishing ahead of strong competitors including Werribee Secondary College, Westbourne Grammar School and Keilor Downs College.
Our students also achieved outstanding individual results:
- 🏆 Gian Abriam — Star of the Tournament Trophy and 1st place overall
- 🥈 Kevin Sun — Year 11–12 Gold and 2nd place overall
- 🥉 Simran Singh — Year 11–12 Silver and 3rd place overall
- 🥇 Wyn Li — Girls' Gold
- 🥉 Annika Sharma — Girls' Bronze
This tournament marked the final zonal qualifying event, with our team now progressing to the Regional Finals at Werribee Secondary College on Tuesday 8 September.
Congratulations to all our Chess students on an exceptional performance. We wish the team the very best for the Regional Finals! ♟️👏
SCHS Rapid Chess Championships
The final event of the 2026 SCHS Chess Championships has come to a close, with Daniel Vu taking the title of SCHS Rapid Chess Champion!
The SCHS Rapid Championships were held across Week 4 of Term 3, with the top 20 applicants competing in a 5-round Swiss tournament. Unlike Bullet and Blitz, Rapid chess gives players more time to calculate, plan and think through their moves, making it a demanding test of both tactical ability and strategic decision making.
Daniel Vu and Kevin Sun finished joint first on 4.5/5 points, meaning the championship had to be decided by a tiebreak game. After a tense final battle, Daniel emerged victorious to take the title, along with a $10 canteen voucher and a trophy.
With the conclusion of the Rapid Championships, the SCHS Chess Championships have wrapped up for 2026. Congratulations to our champions!
2026 SCHS Bullet Chess Champion: Gian Abriam2026 SCHS Blitz Chess Champion: Daniel Vu2026 SCHS Rapid Chess Champion: Daniel Vu
A big thank you to everyone who competed in the championships
this year, and also to both our arbiters, and Mr Toussaint, who made the organisation of these events possible. I’m extremely glad our players have received the chance to experience all three time controls, develop their tournament confidence and build relationships across the chess community.
See you all again for the 2027 SCHS Chess Championships next year, because we will be coming back even bigger and better!
Simran Singh (R6), President of the Chess Program
Melbourne Chess Club Winter Festival
Over the holidays, Daniel and I had the amazing opportunity to compete in the Melbourne Chess Club Winter Festival, one of Victoria's largest chess events. The festival attracted players from across the state, with the field ranging from 8-year-olds playing their first FIDE rated tournament all the way to an International Master.
Both of us competed in the 7-round Classical event, and we scored 4/7 points each, finishing joint 1st in the Unrated Section and splitting the $170 prize in half.
Daniel also competed in the Blitz and Rapid events. He scored 7/13 points in the 13-round Blitz tournament, finishing 1st in the Unrated Section and winning another $60. He finished on 4.5/9 points in the 9 round Rapid event.
The tournament is an exciting milestone not just for us personally but for Suzanne Cory Chess as a whole. I’m very excited to say both of us are now Suzanne Cory’s first ever FIDE rated players! Daniel is 1542 Rapid, 1641 Blitz, and 1753 Classical, while I am 1793 Classical only. Beyond the rating, playing a classical tournament is always a very enriching though tough experience, and I highly recommend it as a new experience for our more skilled players.
Another highlight of the tournament was meeting International Master Tedric Li (On the left in the image), who finished second overall with a FIDE Classical rating of 2367. Some of you might recognise Tedric from last year's Northern Star State Finals, where he tied with our own Gian Abriam for first place on 8.5/9 points. Tedric was still a Candidate Master at the time and edged Gian out on tiebreaks, in what remains one of the strongest individual performances by a Suzanne Cory player.
Simran Singh (R6), President of the Chess Program
Daniel Vu (R6), Player Development Coordinator
Suzanne Cory House Chess
Term 3 has been an exciting term for chess, and it started off with a bang with House Chess returning in Week 1!
Each House fielded a team of eight players, with at least two Intermediate players required on every team to keep it balanced. Every day brought a new house match up, with the best in each house being paired off against each other, then the second best and so on. We’ve been reflecting tournament conditions this year with the new 12 minute 3 second increment rapid time control, which led to some exciting games continuing well into the endgame without players forfeiting on time.
After three days of competition, Blackwood ultimately came out on top to claim the 2026 House Chess Trophy! Rothwell finished close behind in second, followed by Kororoit and Apollo in third and fourth respectively.
House Chess is always a niche but exciting part of the SCHS House Program, bringing the competitive spirit of chess into the wider House competition. The team format gives players the chance to come together within their Houses, support their teammates and fight for every point as a House. It’s also a more accessible way to get a taste of competitive chess, with students of varied skill levels and different year levels playing alongside each other.
Congratulations to Blackwood on the win, and a huge thank you to everyone who represented their House and helped make the competition such a success!
Your Whole School Extracurricular Captains and Chess Club Leader,
Vanalika Puri, Saisha Sarin, and Simran Singh