13 Dec 2019
Thursday, 14 December, saw all four of the Annual HSPA Internal Chess Championships contested in our Library. The Champions for the HSPA ‘A’ Grade, Open Grade and Girls Championship were resolved for 2019, as well as our Primary Chess Championship – which produced joint co-Champions this year.
A record number of players had registered to play – and but for a few needing to pull out at the eleventh hour for other important engagements around the school – we would have reached our optimum number of 40 participants! As it is, the 36 that actually played was still a record number for our school. There were 9 first-time participants with 8 of those in the Primary division – the youngest starter from Year 3 (Benjamin Khay) recording points in their first ever tournament (A win and a draw (1.5)). Well done to Ben and all the other first-starters – the best performed of them, Henry Stephens (Yr5), recording an impressive four wins on the day!
Whilst everybody seemed to enjoy the experience of the day’s Chess in the new Library venue for this year, there were some unexpected twists and turns that left a few players bemused and wondering what went wrong? An exceptional day for Nolan Sobel-Read (Yr7)(last Year’s Primary Champion and Open Grade favourite) saw him in front of all four of the ‘A’ Grade contingent with only 2 rounds to go! Whilst he did get run down in the subsequent two rounds, his outstanding 5.5/7 secured him as our most worthy 2019 Open Grade Champion. Simon Gordon (Yr12now), three time previous winner, was a clear favourite in the ‘A’ Grade and seeking an elusive “picket fence” result (7/7). His shock loss to Nolan in a variation of the old 4 move checkmate put him in doubt of an outright victory. Only a sensational last round end-game blunder by fellow ‘A’ Grader Connor McKay (Yr9) against second seed Oskar Sutherland (Yr10) gifted Simon (6/7) the outright ‘A’ Grade Championship and a fourth entry of his name on the perpetual HSPA Chess Trophy. In the meantime, sisters, Jasmin McHugh (Yr10) and Sienna McHugh (Yr7), who showed a fierce sibling rivalry on the day following their controversial round 4 clash, were both frontrunners for the Girls Champion title. Sienna lost the last round and could only watch on as Jasmin battled against Eli Fotheringham (Yr7) in her final match – a win would see her leap-frog her sister to claim the title. Alas, Eli, who had had a tough day himself, bounced back creditably to the winners list and thwarted Jasmin’s chance – Sienna claims the HSPA Girls Championship! Beth Sneddon (Yr7) could have joined Sienna for a share of the title with a win in the final round, but Kian Meijnen (Yr10), who just had one of those days, was able to lift himself up off the canvas to narrowly avoid (for him as an ‘A’ Grader) an embarrassing 3/7 humbling. [4/7].
In the Primary Championships Ryan Keo (Yr4) announced himself as a formidable force going forward with a very impressive 5/7 result – this saw him finish in 3rd spot outright – a fine effort indeed! The two players ahead of him, both had a fantastic tournament, Hugo Sutherland (Yr5) and Marley Burke (Yr6) both finished with a brilliant 6/7. They are the 2019 joint-Champions in this year’s HSPA Primary Championship.
A big congratulations to these students and all who participated – well done!
That concludes our 2019 HSPA Chess year – until the Pizza and Pieces presentation early next year where all trophies and certificates (and free pizza!) will be presented.
As a short footnote – our top 4 HSPA Chess players were eliminated from the NSWJCL 2019 Country Secondary Schools Teams Chess competition by Callaghan College Jesmond Campus in the 6th round 1.5 to 2.5 following two unfinished matches being sent to the Arbiter in Sydney. As expected – we were awarded one of the matches – but we needed to also secure a win on the other contested board to progress. Unfortunately, the best we could get was a draw – we missed by 0.5 points! Congratulations! to the team for another fine effort in 2019.
Thank you –
T. Bonjekovic (HSPA Chess).