Inter-House Chess, State Finals Prep

The winner of the 2019 Somerset Junior School Inter-House Chess Championship was Franklin. Andrews was equal first on match points, but Franklin won the tie-breaker by individual points.

Our representative teams are busy fine-tuning their game for the State Finals coming up in early Term Four.

JS Inter-House

Final team standings:

Thirty-one Somerset Junior School students battled it out in our new chess room, SSH 2.2. Congratulations to the winning team of Franklin: Sophia Ahern, Sasha Hanford, Michael Rossiter, Alessandro Martinese, Bobby Long, Chris Sui, Caspar Crampton and Danielle Svoboda.

Congratulations also to individual board winners: Eason Wang (4/4 on Board 1 for Laver), Kona Baldock (4/4 on Board 2 for Andrews), Elijah Hadikusumo (3/4 on Board 3 for Andrews), James Kirk (3/4 on Board 4 for Veivers), Liam Hartley (3.5/4 on Board 5 for Laver and Lachlan Mathieson (2.5/3 on Board 6 for Andrews).

Gold Coast Primary Inter-School Final

Our top team has successfully defended the title of Gold Coast Primary Inter-Schools Teams Champion, ahead of Emmanuel College (second) and King’s Christian College (third). Congratulations to the winning team of Eason Wang (6.5/7 and individual gold on Board 1), Anson Qu (5/7), Melody Yang (6/7 and individual gold on Board 3) and Kona Baldock (7/7 and individual gold on Board 4).

Our second team also did well in the Premier division, placing sixth: Sasha Hanford (2/7 on Board 1), Calen Tang (3/7 on Board 2), Michael Rossiter (5/7 on Board 3) and Alessandro Martinese (4/7). Crucially, both teams qualified for the State Finals!

Our top performer for A Division was Elijah Hadikusumo on 5.5/7, equal third and narrowly missing the bronze medal. Ken Wu also did well in A Division on 4.5/7. They also just missed the team bronze by half a point. In B Division, Oscar Credland-Ballantyne earned an individual bronze with an excellent 6/7, while earning ribbons of merit were prep student Harrison Qu (5/7) and James Hartley (4.5/7). In C Division, Lachlan Mathieson won a ribbon with 5 points.

In E Division, our 12th team won the gold by a margin of 2.5 points: Nate Van Den Brink (6/7 and also individual bronze medal), Rafael Brand (5), Kush Veeramachaneni (5), and Oscar Goetz (4). In H Division, Paxton Stewart and Jacob Pudlyk both earned merit ribbons with 5 points and Liam Hunt also won a ribbon with 5 in I Division.

Full results: Premier / Open A / Open B / Open C / Open D / Open E) / Open F / Open G / Open H / Open I

Gold Coast Secondary Inter-School Final

In the Secondary Gold Coast Inter-School Teams Final, Somerset finished second behind King’s Christian College while TSS finished in third. Our second team finished fourth, also ensuring a place in the State Finals. Well done to our first team: Byron Morris (4/7 on Board 1), Kevin Song (4/7 on Board 2), Oliver Yang (5.5/7) and Kenny Ming (7/7 and individual gold). Well done also to the second team: Jason Li (5/7 on Board 1), Jack Luke-Paredi (5.5/7 on Board 2), Charlie Liu (5.5/7 on Board 3) and Lyanna Chan (3/7 on Board 4).

In Division A, our third team won gold with a combined 21/28: Jennifer Yeung (6/7 and individual silver), Aaron Lim (5), Angus Cheung (5) and Rick Hu (5). Also scoring ribbons were Nina Varcoe (4.5), Kei Naito (4.5) and Ethan Chant (4.5). Our fifth team won gold in B Division: Hugo Chan (5), Hamish Folliott (5), Debby Kuo (5) and Laurens Brisbane (4.5).

Full results: Premier / Open A / Open B

Junior Masters/ One Day Challenge

Term Three Junior Masters was won by Year 9 student Charlie Liu with 6/7. Oliver Yang (Year 8) finished second with 5.5/7. In the One Day Challenge, Aaron Lim did well with 6/8 (equal second).

State Finals Preparations

With two teams qualifying for each of Primary and Secondary State Finals – to be held 18 and 19 October, plus a few teams for the Girls’ State Finals 17 October – our students are working hard to be in top-notch form for these events. Extra coaching sessions are provided for the representative teams, and lots of chess events over the holidays.

Byron Morris, Year 9 student and board 1 for Senior School, will be representing Australia (again!) at the World Youth Championship (Under 14) from 1 to 13 October in Mumbai, India. Byron’s experience from last year should come in handy, when he represented Australia at the World Cadet Championship (Under 12) in Brazil.

Upcoming Events

• Nell Van de Graaff Classic (Saturday 21 and Sun 22 September at Hinterland Hotel, Nerang – advanced players)
• Leo Wilkinson Memorial (Saturday 28 and Sunday 29 at Redcliffe, Organised Trip by invitation only)
• Gold Coast Spring Holiday Program 30 September – 2 October at Somerset College (all levels suitable)
• Gold Coast Spring Cup 3 October at Somerset College (all levels suitable)• Queensland Girls’ Inter-School State Finals (Friday 18 October at Tingalpa SS)
• Queensland Inter-School State Finals (Saturday 19 October and Sunday 20 October at St Joseph’s Gregory Terrace)
• Gold Coast Individual Age Championship, Wednesday 30 October at Emmanuel College (Prep to Year 12)

Enrolment for Term Four Junior School co-curricular lessons is open through the My Somerset Community (Electives tab). For Senior School students and intermediate/advanced Junior School students, the Thursday After School Chess Club runs 3.30 pm to 5.00 pm in SSH 2.2.