Chess News
State Finals
Monday 31 October
Prospect’s qualification for the State chess finals represents a significant step in the post-pandemic rebirth of the game at the school. (Not that we are out of the COVID woods yet of course…) This coincides with the observation I gathered on the day that chess is experiencing a boom in Tasmania at present – particularly northern Tas.
Scotch Oakburn College was the venue for a convergence of some of the sharpest young chess minds from around the state. The all-day event was split into secondary and primary camps and featured nine rounds of 15-minute games, timed by proper chess clocks.
Competitors were entered into the Tornelo database and ranked according to their cumulative results. The more rounds they played, the more evenly matched their opponents. It was a great taste of a professionally run tournament and a commendable achievement for Prospect’s five selected representatives, all from Year 9:
Liam, Travis, Marco, Ash and Wilfred.
During the day, players had access to coaches with decades of experience. They were able to be immersed in the “culture” of chess, as well as meet competitive peers from around the state. Another strength of chess tournaments is the level playing field: students from a wide variety of schools mingle and study strategy informally together in between games.
The event was the perfect opportunity to develop strategies to compete at a higher level under pressure. Competitive chess has endless potential to extend learning faculties and brain power. These include critical and creative thinking, pattern visualisation and higher order concentration skills. Like with athletic ability in sport, these cognitive abilities approach their peak when players are still in their youth.
Our students rose to the challenge. Prospect finished 9th out of the 11 competing secondary schools, a fine achievement given that we were the only public high school in Launceston and that it was the first state finals experience for this cohort. All have the opportunity to represent Prospect as Year 10s in 2023 and go one better – individually and as a team – if they want it. Emerging players at Years 7 and 8 this year are hugely encouraged to take the next step next year as well.
Liam emerged as our leading player on the day with a 5:4 ratio – a tremendous result. The other players were not far behind, each recording several wins.
Thanks is owed to James Briant, tournament organiser and facilitator; the Scotch Oakburn middle school community for offering their space and finally, Prospect’s tireless admin team in their support of all the logistics.
All seven pictures capture the day’s focus!
St Patrick’s College “friendly” / “derby”
On Wednesday afternoon 2nd November, fourteen students from Years 7-9 accepted the invitation to visit our neighbours “over the road” (St Pat’s) for a friendly, informal chess tournament. The session was most of all serving the wider purpose of building a shared culture of chess and love for the game between the two neighbouring schools. We hope to continue this next year. The afternoon lived up to its theme of “friendly” interaction over chess and a fun session was had by all. We hope to reciprocate the hosting next year and continue building the local chess alliance!