Chess mates gather
By Matthew Williams, Year 5, Our Lady Help of Christians
CHECK! On August 23 at Trinity Anglican School the Term 3 Inter-School Chess Tournament was held.
In total there were 372 students in primary and high school that had come to the venue to compete over the seven divisions (Primary A, B, C and D plus a Primary Premier and a High School Open and Premier).
Students had travelled from Atherton, Mareeba and Ravenshoe as well as local Cairns state, independent and Catholic schools to attend this event.
Each player played seven games of a maximum of 30 minutes.
Some games were won in four moves and other games went all the way until an arbiter (adjudicator) had to come over to check if it was a win for white or black or a draw. The top eight teams in high school and primary school were in premier and their games were played on clocks where each player has fifteen minutes to make their moves.
This division was different to all the others because it was played by team scores (2 points for a team win, 1 point for a team draw and 0 points for a team loss).
So the maximum amount of points a team could get is 14.
The top three primary and two high schools get to move on to the state finals to be held in Brisbane in Term 4.
At the end of the competition a presentation was held to announce who won merit ribbons (4.5 or more points), rankings (first, second and third) and team places.