This week has seen the return of Inter-School chess competitions and Somerset Spartans were at the forefront of competitions!

Tuesday saw the Hinterland Primary zone take place in the Great Hall, with Somerset sending over 50 students to take part. The standout performance was Calen Tang who scored a perfect 7/7 in the A division to claim first place individually. Together with Calen, Alessandro Martinese, Harrison Qu and Paris Liu formed Somerset 1 and they clinched the Term One title!

In the B Division, our top performers were Paul Sang Yum, William Zhao, Zhander Griffiths and Hayden Li who all scored 5/7 to get Merit ribbons, whilst Kush Veeramachaneni and Asha Kowalczuk scored 4.5/7 to also get Merit ribbons. 

Somerset 4 (Paul, William, Kush and Jeremy Zhang) finished the day in second place, whilst Somerset 3 (Zhander, Hayden, Ethan Kelly Correa and Sehaj Gill) finished in third place.

In the C Division, Ashton Jennings scored a perfect 7/7 to claim first place individually. Merit ribbons were collected by Elli Dirckze (5.5/7, =third), Thomas Chudzinski and Arjun Rai (5/7), and Kobi Brittain (4.5/7).

Our top team in this division was Somerset 9 (Ashton, Arjun, Kaius Ho, Samuel Hosking) who finished second, whilst Somerset 15 (Elli Dirckze, Kobi Brittain, Austin Liu, Johnny Ratcliffe) finished in fourth place on count-back.

On Wednesday it was the Gold Coast Secondary event where teams were impacted by school camps and exam block. Somerset had teams scattered across all three divisions, and in the A Division, Somerset 1 (Byron Morris, Oliver Yang, Jared Consiglio-Cockle, Lyanna Chan) finished in third position despite missing a collective five rounds due to exam clashes). Byron finished = first with 5.5/7. Somerset 2 (Jennifer Yeung, Oscar Credland-Ballantyne, Aarav Rawlley, Ruahara Mapabandara) finished in fourth position.

In B division, Somerset fielded a young team who worked super hard to finish in sixth position.

In C division, Laurens Brisbane made a triumphant return to the chess board with a perfect 7/7 for first place individually. The Somerset 5 team finish in sixth position, with only three players.


Chess Opportunities

Somerset Chess is back up and running with our co-curricular lessons in the Junior School running each day along with the following opportunities for all students to play at lunch time:

  • Year 1 and 2: Monday, Wednesday, Friday in Year 1 classrooms
  • Year 3 to 6: Monday and Tuesday in the Chess Room (above KIP)

We also have a Friday afternoon club which is open to all students in years 1 through 12. This club runs from 3.30pm to 5.30pm every Friday and involves five tournament games. Informal coaching is given between games by experienced Gardiner Chess coaches. To register for this, please follow these steps:

  • Year 1 to 3: Register via The Hub and select chess as the activity
  • Year 4 to 12: Register HERE.


Upcoming Events

Gold Coast Junior Rapid: Sunday 3 April (for all junior players)
Queensland Reserves Championships: Saturday 9 and Sunday 10 April
Gardiner Chess Holiday Program: Monday 11 to Wednesday 13 April
Gardiner Chess Easter Cup: Thursday 14 April
Cookies Chess Rapids: Saturday 23 April


In External events, some of our Somerset students have been performing well in the Cookies Rapids events. William Zhang won the Under 550 QJ section in March, whilst the February edition saw Jared Consiglio-Cockle finish =third overall, with Paul Sang Yum and Harrison Qu sharing =3rd in Rating Group A and William Zhao won the unrated division.

For more information about anything chess at Somerset, please contact me via email.

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