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Hunter School of the Performing Arts

Hunter School of the Performing Arts

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Telephone02 4952 3355

Emailhuntperfor-h.school@det.nsw.edu.au

NSW Girls Chess Challenge

NSW Girls Chess Challenge

On Thursday 22nd August a small but eager team of HSPA girls made our annual pilgrimage to Strathfield in Sydney for this year's NSW Girls Chess Challenge. The six girls represented two teams of three - one playing in the Junior Division and the other in the Open division. The Junior division encompasses Yr7 and Yr8 students, whilst the Open grade may include anybody - usually Yr9s up to Yr12s. The 3 players in each team play in order of relative strength form Board 1 to Board 2 and then Board 3. This year we had a very exciting debut being made by the youngest HSPA girl ever to represent us in this tough tournament - Iris Sutherland - and whilst she is only in Yr3, she was faced with the very daunting task of playing Board 3 in the Open grade!

The train ride to Strathfield provides a rare block of time to go through some moves, strategies and tactics - so we made good use of Mr Bon's old travel sized magneti​c chess board to this end. It seemed to shorten the trip - as before we knew it we had arrived at Strathfield Station (a 3min walk to the venue). The short amount of spare time after registrations were completed gave us another opportunity for some practice matches before the start of Round 1 (of 5). A mix of excitement, trepidation and anticipation set in - and for the girls too! :)

The day's 5 rounds produced some unexpected but wonderfully positive results for our still relatively inexperienced teams. By the end the day not one of our girls had failed to record at least one win or better! Beth Sneddon was our top performer on Board 1 of the Junior team. Having lost the first round to an U/13 Champion from Queenwood School for Girls who won the division - Beth remained undefeated for the remainder of the day! - recording an excellent personal best of 2.5/5. Tess Brumfield was not far behind with 2/5, another wonderful result in tough competition. Sienna McHugh's last round victory had her smiling again after 4 difficult rounds (a great pay-off for fight and persistence Sienna, well done!) Thus a respectable 5.5/15 overall total. 

In the Open division though, where all three girls (Jasmin McHugh, Layla Malone and Iris Sutherland) finished on equal points - for an admirable team total of 4.5/15 - the most sensational result was Iris (Yr3) - who had lost her first three games - picking up a magnificent 1.5/5 score by the end, on debut [3 divisions above where she would otherwise play - but no other Primary girls could make it on this occasion - maybe next year?]. Congratulations to all six girls who were a pleasure to take away and also to the parents and grandparent who travel the distances and wake at very early hours to make it all possible.

Thank You All,

Mr Bon

For more photos, please click HERE