Chess Tournament

By Charlotte Rennie | Posted: Tuesday May 18, 2021

Miss Kirk took Casebook students along to the chess tournament last Friday held at Avonhead School.

Last Friday Miss Kirk took 17 Casebrook students to the Term 2 Christchurch Regional Chess Tournament. The event was the first on-site chess tournament most of the students had ever attended. There were 123 students and 10 schools competing in four divisions - Casebrook competed in the Intermediate division.

Students played seven games each throughout the day, they used a chess clock which allowed 15 minutes per player (a maximum of 30 minutes total for a game). At first they were matched at random, and then by their ability based on wins and losses throughout the day. Every player won at least one game. Our top four players for the day were Alex Yao (Room 16), Oliver Clark (Room 13), Marcel Somerville (Room 10), and Liam Patterson (Room 11).

The event was one of two qualifiers for the Nationals which will be held in Rotorua in Term 4. To qualify for this, our team needed to come out in the top three for our division (The score was based on the combined scores of our top four players). It was very close - the last round was the decider and unfortunately we were knocked back from third to fourth place by Heaton. We will have another chance to qualify at the next regional tournament in Term 3.

Miss Kirk said it was an absolute delight to watch the chess team compete, they represented Casebrook very well. 

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