Round One of the Gold Coast Secondary Inter-Schools Teams Chess was won by Somerset, with the second Somerset team also scoring team bronze. The home court advantage seemed to help the 23 Somerset Senior School students against a field of 107 students from seven high schools across the Gold Coast.

The star performer was Kenny Ming (Year 7), who won all his seven games in his debut for the Spartans’ Senior School team. College Captain and Chess Captain Kevin Song achieved individual silver with 6.5/7. Byron Morris scored 6/7 (equal individual third, fourth on tie-break) and Oliver Yang finished on 5.5/7 (fifth).

Other notable individual achievements included: Raphael Atia (5/7), Jason Li (4.5/7) and Jack Luke-Paredi (4.5/7).

Full Results

A Division

B Division

Tin Cup/ Queensland Reserves

In the Tin Cup/ Queensland Reserves tournament played over the weekend of 23 and 24 February, Byron Morris had an outstanding tournament, finishing equal first with 5.5/6 (five wins, one draw and no losses). This netted him $450 and he thereby qualified for the Queensland Championships held later in the year. A field of 74 adults and juniors also included these Somerset students: Ben Atia, Eason Wang, Raff Atia, Kenny Ming, Sophia Ahern, Alessandro Martinese and Calen Tang.

Sydney, Eason Wang (pictured) is Somerset's best performer, lying third equal in the under 12s with 5.5/7.

Australian Junior Championships and Oceania Youth Championships

A big congratulations to these Somerset students for participating in the Australian Junior Championships in Sydney during the summer holidays: Byron Morris, Oliver Yang, Ben Atia, Eason Wang (finished sixth in U12), Raphael Atia, Lyanna Chan, Jennifer Yeung and Melody Yang. These students also represented Australia in the Oceania Youth Championships in Auckland in January: Byron Morris, Oliver Yang and Melody Yang.

March Ratings

In the new Queensland Junior Rating List, several Somerset students made a substantial increase in their rating:

  • Byron Morris +125 1754 (number one rated Somerset player)
  • Sasha Hanford +67 799
  • Oliver Yang +63 1497
  • Aadi Rai +61 713
  • Raphael Atia +52 1133
  • Ben Atia +49 1347
  • Melody Yang +48 950
  • Tamar Chester-Haviv +42 667
  • Kenny Ming +27 1470

Well done also to Noa Chester-Haviv, on achieving a new rating of 506.

If you would like your child to start receiving co-curricular lessons, enrolments are still open for Term One (partial) or from the beginning of Term Two. Lunchtime chess clubs are free and don’t require signing up, running this year every day for Years 3 to 12 and three days per week (Monday, Wednesday and Friday) for Years 1 to 2.

Upcoming Events

  • Junior School Interschool: Wednesday 27 March at Robina SS
  • Junior Masters: Saturday 30 and Sunday 31 March at Hinterland Hotel
  • One Day Challenge: Sunday 31 March at Hinterland Hotel 
  • Doeberl Cup (Canberra) Thursday 18 April – Mon 22 April

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