The Gold Coast Primary Interschool Chess – Hinterland zone was held recently, with 46 Somerset students taking part in the event. This was down from previous years, due to a cap on participation numbers.
In the A division, Somerset Team 1, featured Calen Tang (5.5/7), Alessandro Martinese (5/7), Oscar Credland-Ballantyne (5/7) and Harrison Qu (4/7) finished in second position on the day, with Calen Tang taking home the third place individual medal as well. Three other students who performed very well on the day were Tamar Chester-Haviv, Kitty Pallister and Shih-Yang Lin who all scored over 50 per cent in a very tough competition. Somerset Team 2 finished in fifth place with a team of Tamar Chester-Haviv, Dylan Hu, Shih-Yang Lin, and Aden Webber.
In the B Division, Somerset teams performed well, but were outgunned (and outrated substantially!) by King's Christian College. Our top performer in this division was Arthur Chou who scored 5/7 to finish in fourth place.
In the C Division, Somerset did very well, with Franklin Yang scoring a perfect 7/7 to claim first place! Joshua Thompson scored 5.5/7 to finish fourth (=third), with William Zhao and Angela Yuan scoring 5/7 and Jakub Pitura scoring 4.5/7 as all four players received ribbons of merit. On the teams' front, Somerset Team 8 (Franklin Yang, Benjamin Blashki, Levi Wilson, Gary Fei) finished in second and Somerset Team 9 (Joshua Thompson, Alexandra Smith, Aaron Wang, Paxton Stewart) finished = third.
On the recent Queensland Junior Rating list, Somerset students had some impressive increases with Eason Wang +67, Calen Tang +63, Harrison Qu +36, Dylan Hu +24, Byron Morris +20, Alessandro Martinese +20, Zhander Griffiths +20. New students to gain ratings were Jared Consiglio-Cockle (930), Zayya George (577) and Ishaan Baswal (553).
The best way for students to improve, or get a Queensland Junior Rating is to play regularly at the lunch clubs or the Friday afternoon tournament each week, as well as external events such as the following upcoming events:
Cookies QLD Rapids: Kings CC on Saturday March 13. Open to all adults and juniors.
Gardiner Chess Junior Masters: William Duncan SS on Saturday 20th and Sunday 21st March. This event is designed for players over QJ800.
Gardiner Chess One Day Challenge: William Duncan SS on Sunday 21st March. Event designed players rated under QJ800 and unrated players.
For any questions about chess opportunities please do not hesitate to get in contact, Andrew FitzPatrick.
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