It was a very special day to remember for our elite Somerset chess squad as Australian chess legend and super coach Grand Master Darryl Johansen spent the day with us!
This exclusive Somerset invite-only event was worth it's weight in gold as Darryl shared his journey to GM, his Australian National titles and travels around the world as a professional chess player.
Our super juniors were then treated to a series of lessons from the annals of his more than 40 years coaching experience and stretched our young minds with some crazy, difficult puzzles and challenges that even was even getting my brain to hurt!
Finally, the highlight of the day was a chance to play GM Darryl in a simultaneous tournament of 13 kids (and me). Having found out that Darryl had not lost a game in a simul for seven years, you can imagine the cheers and clapping in the room as he uttered the words "I resign" with a handshake and a smile on his face.
Young up-and-comer William Lai (3H) had defeated the Grandmaster! A student of one of our returned High Performance Coaches, Doug Williams, William has been on a rocket this last year and I'm sure we are going to see a lot more from him as he leads our next generation back to Somerset glory!
A huge thank you to Darryl as well as everyone involved in helping to make this rare opportunity happen. And looking forward to more exciting chess adventures to come.
Go Spartans!
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