Monday 10 December 2007

Alfed Deakin High win "National" Interschool Chess Championships

More success for ACT junior chess with Alfred Deakin High winning the Junior Secondary ChessKids National Interschool Chess Championships. The team score 22/28 to finish 2 points clear of Brighton Grammar School.
Canberra schools were also represented in the Primary Section with Radford and Curtin Primary finishing 8th and 9th respectively. Full results here.

** Before I get bombarded with "clarification" comments I'll explain the quotes around "National". The ChessKids National Interschools Chess Championship is organised by the ChessKids business, and is in no way connected with the Australian Chess Federation's Interschools Championship. The ACF is very strong in making this distinction (including objecting to the use of the word "National"), while ChessKids is not so strident in making the distinction clear.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

This is the third year that I have been involved with teams attending and again it was a really fun event and is run very well.

The standard is not comparable to the "official" ASTC but it provides for a wider base of participation, attracts teams from Tasmania (which the ACF can't manage) and incorporates a "middle years" section that works well for ACT schools (notably the public schools with their split for 7-10 and 11-12).

I was very chuffed with the Curtin kids. We had a very inexperienced team and our lead player (Angus Gruen) had pantomime commitments that meant he missed 2 rounds. But the kids did particularly well with Aelfric Gardiner-Garden and Emma Dunstone especially finishing well ahead of expectations.

Prior arrangements around the ASTC meant that our Brisbane girls (from Curtin) were not part of the team so we've got plenty of depth and loads of enthusiasm at the school right now.

At both events I think the secret is to have a team of chessplayers as opposed to having a team of children who play chess at school.