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Chess is Big News!

Fifteen schools and more than 130 kids participated in Super 14 Interschool Chess around the Waikato region this week. From Taupo in the South to Whakatane in the east, and further north to Huntly and Ngatea all had a wonderful time. This comment, from one of the schools that participated at Ngatea was typical:

“What a wonderful tournament yesterday.  The children came back buzzing about the day.  We will definitely be attending again!  It is great to have a tournament for students to play this great game.”

The week started at Taupo, where Tokoroa High School edged out the hosts by just one point, to take the gold medals in the Secondary competition. Taupo Intermediate and Waipahihi were the qualifiers for the national finals in the other divisions.

On to Huntly where Helensville Primary, who had already qualified for the National finals, took a punt on making the long road trip to try to qualify an extra player. They blitzed the field for their third zone win, ensuring they will have a team of 7 at Pigeon Mountain on October 18. In the battle for the other qualifying spot behind Helensville only half a point separated three teams: Huntly College, Kimihia School and St Andrew’s School. In the end Kimihia prevailed on tie-break. Where the scores of the top 4 players in two teams are the same, the tie-breaker is the score of the fifth-highest scorer for each team. Unfortunately for Huntly College they had entered a team of only 4!

The event at Ngatea saw the host school Hauraki Plains College take the Secondary competition, with Stanley Avenue School grabbing both the Intermediate and Primary qualifying spots.

Finally we went to Whakatane where the Sonny Bill Williams of Super 14 Interschool chess was unearthed. Fernanda Sirvian, a foreign exchange student from Brazil, swept the field with 7/7 and led her school to a qualifying spot over hosts Trident High School. Perhaps this will start a trend of schools recruiting internationally for the 2011 edition of Super 14 Interschool Chess!

All the results are at our results page here.

The Long and the Short of it...

The Christchurch earthquake played havoc with everything in that city recently, and Super 14 Interschool Chess was not immune. Our intended venue, the hall at The Cathedral Grammar School was damaged and unavailable. Thanks to Kaye Royle and the team at Windsor School the event was able to go ahead, but all the ructions and the late change in venue saw numbers down on last term. But on to the chess.

The long and the short of it is that the mighty midgets from Lincoln Primary School did it again! Just as they had done in June they outdid the Intermediate team from Cathedral Grammar by 2 clear points. Whereas last time the star of the show was Farhana Halim, who managed 7/7, this time she suffered a defeat and managed “only” 6/7. Her sister Izzah, however, went through undefeated for the top score on the day of 6.5/7. The girls were helped out by younger brother Aiman scoring 5 and Christian Smith 4.5, including a vital last round win against Felix Ellerm-Norton. Had Felix prevailed Cathedral Grammar would have snatched gold on tie-break! As it was Cathedral Grammar Intermediate had to settle for silver, while their Primary team took bronze.

For full details go to our results page here.

Ardgowan Primary School Team

Ardgowan School is the latest school to qualify for the New Zealand National Finals of Super 14 Interschool Chess, after winning the Oamaru Zone held at Weston School on 14 September.

In a tight tussle Ardgowan held a slender lead all day over the host school, and triumphed by 2.5 points. For full details of the National Finals go here.

Weston did not go home empty-handed, however, taking the silver and bronze medals in the team competition, as well as providing the individual gold medallist on the day, in Shane Armstrong, who edged out Ardgowan’s Zac Lay on tie-break. For full scores and details of the Oamaru event go here.

Individual medal winners in Dunedin

Maori Hill School qualified for the Primary Division of the Chess Kids Super 14 Interschool Chess championships by edging out hosts Brockville Primary School in the Dunedin Zone on Monday 13 September.

In the last game to finish in the final round Maori Hill’s Ben Mason defied all attempts from Akatere Atariki (Brockville) to force a draw by perpetual check in a complicated queen endgame. A draw would have been enough for Brockville to hold on to the slender lead they had taken in round 1 and held (nearly) all day.

This was an outstanding effort by Maori Hill, who sent only 4 players to the event, but were brilliantly served by Mason and particularly by Max Lough, who scored and outstanding 7/7. Brockville qualified for the Intermediate national finals, where they were unopposed on the day. For all scores and more details go to our results page here.

Helensville medallists with coach Paul Macdonald

A massive 127 players participated in the Rodney Zone of the Super 14 Interschool Championships held at Waioneke School on Friday 10 September. Helensville dominated the event from the outset, failing by just half a point to post a perfect 28/28. Truman Smith, Kumaa Jayachanthiian and Michael McKenzie all managed 7/7, while Brayden Moris rounded out their top 4 with 6.5 points. Helensville also provided the top girl on the day, with Marianne Birt scoring 6/7.

The battle for silver went right down to the wire, with Parakai School edging out Riverhead by just half a point in a nail-biting final round. Huapai were also in the mix, but missed out on medals this time, finishing a further half point behind Riverhead.

For all the details go to our results page here.

Two recent Interschool Zones have seen more qualifiers for the National Finals, which will be held at Pigeon Mountain Primary School on 18 October (full details here).

At Howick on 18 August Bucklands Beach Intermediate won the Intermediate division ahead of Ponsonby Intermediate, while Pigeon Mountain Primary won the Primary division ahead of Hillsborough and Bucklands Beach Primary School.

At Papakura on 31 August hosts Rosehill Intermediate took the gold medals in the Intermediate division, with Pukekohe Intermediate having to settle for silver and bronze. Opaheke won the primary division ahead of Clendon Park School.  Troy Bencich of Rosehill Intermediate was the star of the day, scoring an impressive 7/7.

Full details of these tournaments are at our results page here.