The Primary Chess Club entered two teams into the annual Interschool Chess Competition organised by the Sunshine Coast Independent Primary Heads Association. It was a whole day of chess hosted by Suncoast Christian College. Two teams of four students played seven games of chess each. Many of the competitors had substantially more experience than the GCC students which made our success even more remarkable. The competition consisted of 23 chess teams, a total of 92 students. The GCC novice team made up of Jackson Mueller, Cooper Beavan, Bryce Stout and Isaac Choi won their division and received their medals on the day. In addition to this first place, Cooper Beavan was the individual winner of the Novice Division with six wins from his seven games. Bryce Stout received a Merit award for winning five of his seven games. In the Open Division, students from Year 6 faced tough competition from some of the Sunshine Coast’s best school chess players. The team consisting of Matthew O’Shea, Archie Cruise, Alex Stout and Philip Kasselman did a tremendous job to take out 5th place in the competition. The team captain, Matthew O’Shea, did extremely well, achieving third place in the individual competition, missing out on first place by only half a point.
These students were congratulated at our assemblies this week along with the winners of our inaugural Glasshouse Christian College Chess Competition. This competition is run at Chess Club on Wednesday lunchtimes for students in Years 3-6. Our winners for Term 1 were:
Novice Division (Year 3/4) Gold: Bryce Stout. Silver: Cooper Beavan. Bronze: Isaac Choi.
Master Division (Year 5/6) Gold: Matthew O’Shea. Silver: Alex Stout. Bronze: Archie Cruise and Luther Capps.
Highly Commended Certificates were awarded to students who demonstrated a commitment to Chess Club and to improving their skills and strategies. The recipients were Zinnia Rzoska, Penny Ritter, Joshua Neideck, Emillie Pearce and Aaron Newell.
Congratulations to all the budding chess players who came to Chess Club for a wonderful start to the year!
Jeanette Roach and Shalene Geldenhuys
GCC families can see all the photos on Pixevety here and here.