Student Achievements

North Shore Secondary School’s Chess Competition

On 31 July and 7 August, six boys travelled to Marsden High School and Abbotsleigh Girls School, representing our school in the North Shore Secondary School’s Chess Competition.

Boyu Luan, James Tan, Marcus Leung and Jimmy Sun travelled to Marsden, near Ryde, nervous and anticipant. During the journey, Boyu even said, “Our opponents will be Grandmasters or International Masters, so prepare for 4 losses.”

What happened at Marsden was the complete opposite. Within the space of an hour, all four boys had won their games. Though Marsden’s representatives put up a challenge, Killara came home with a 4-0 start to their chess competition.

The following week, Boyu, James, Ari and Cai Berman headed to Abbotsleigh, braving the cold and wet conditions. Everyone was excited and ready to play their best.

It was like a repeat of the previous week. Killara came back home with wide smiles and another 4-0 win. Boyu’s opponent was easily the best player on the Abbotsleigh team. Quoting Boyu,” Within the first 8 moves, I was losing. Luckily, she blundered, otherwise, I would’ve been out”

The Killara team was set to play against Chatswood High in the Lion Library at Killara High but inter-school activities are not allowed to go ahead. So, the successful Killara chess team was withdrawn from the competition. We were all disappointed but hopefully the team will be able to compete next year when the pandemic ends.

Overall, it was an impressive effort from everyone.

James Tan, Year 8