Somerset Chess Interschool State Finals

The Queensland Interschool State Finals were held across 8 to 10 October with a group of Somerset students taking part.

On the Friday the Girls State Finals were held. As defending champions in the Secondary Girls, Somerset was expected to do well although with such a disjointed year, it was always going to be anything but straightforward. After dominating the early rounds, Somerset 1 (Lyanna Chan, Jennifer Yeung, Melody Yang, Debby Kuo) gave back some ground in the middle of the event and had to work really hard to come from behind. With the final round completed, it was only by the narrowest of margins (count-back) that Somerset prevailed! This means the team will now go forwards to represent Queensland at the Australian Schools Teams Championship in December.

In the primary section, our #1 team (Tamar Chester-Haviv, Annika Lim, Paris Liu, Angela Yuan) battled hard in the Premier division against more experienced opposition, and produced a solid result finishing in =sixth position. In the Primary Open division, the #2 team (Kitty Pallister, Alvina Shen, Evie Wilson and Chloe Li) finished in third position, whilst Emma Cordner of Tteam 3 also performed very well on the day!

The weekend saw the Open Interschool State Finals with Somerset sending a primary and two secondary teams. The Primary team of Calen Tang, Alessandro Martinese, Oscar Credland-Ballantyne and Harrison Qu all performed very well to finish = fifth, above their seeding. Oscar was our star performer with 5/6 which nearly claimed the board prize for Board 3.

The Secondary division was one of the closest competitions we’ve seen in a long time, as aside from Churchie who won with clear air, the next five teams were only separated by one point! Our Somerset #1 team of Byron Morris, Kenny Ming, Eason Wang and Oliver Yang held Churchie to a 2-all result and held on to claim second position on count-back from Toowoomba Grammar School. Eason Wang won the Board 3 prize with 4.5/6. The Somerset #2 team of Jason Li, Charlie Liu, Jared Consiglio-Cockle and Lyanna Chan were only a point behind finishing in sixth position, performing well above their starting seeding.

There have also been a large number of recent events where Somerset students have taken place. The Nell Van de Graaff Classic was held at the start of the holidays, with Byron Morris coming = third with 5/6 and performing well above his rating. Calen Tang, Jared Consiglio-Cockle, and Aarav Rawlley all played in this tournament with all performing above their rating. In the under 1200 section, Oscar Credland-Ballantyne scored 5/6 to finish = first! Youngsters Harrison Qu and Angela Yuan both took part and scored some good results.

The Leo Wilkinson Memorial event was held in the middle of the holidays at Redcliffe, and again Byron Morris performed superbly to score 5/6 to grab a share of third position. Kenny Ming, Jared Consiglio-Cockle, Alessandro Martinese, Harrison Qu also all took part.

On the final weekend, Byron Morris took part in the Queensland Championships, and finished = sixth to cap off a fantastic run of results across the holidays. Jared Consiglio-Cockle took part in the Under 1600 division and finished = 13th.

In the one day Spring Cup during the holidays, a number of Somerset students took part. Jared Consiglio-Cockle finished 3rd on count-back with 6/8, whilst Lyanna Chan and Jennifer Yeung scored 5.5/8 for = seventh. Melody Yang, Alessandro Martinese, Harrison Qu and Angela Yuan all scored 5/8 for = 10th. Debby Kuo, Kitty Pallister, Paul Sang Yum, Marcus Wong, and William Zhao also all took part and gained valuable match practice.

Don’t forget on Friday afternoons from 3.30pm to 5.30pm, the Somerset Chess Club meets in the Chess Room above the library. This is a great opportunity for all students in Years 1 to 12 to gain extra experience and practise, whilst working to improve, or get, their rating. Students undertaking regular match practice will improve the most and also gain the most benefit from the benefits of chess.

Registrations for the Somerset Chess Club can be done via The Hub for students in Years 1 to 3 and directly with me for Years 4 to 12.