Otago Chess Interschools

On June 22, fifteen teams from Otago came from as far as Oamaru to Logan Park for the Otago Secondary School Teams Championship.

As the defending champions, we wanted to retain our title and qualify for the finals in September, up in Wellington. Logan Park entered three teams, consisting of Naoki Kozakai, Tyne Grant, Ramon Quennell, and Mark Edwards in LPHS A; Daniel Blakely, Aidan Dixon, Eshaan Atre, and Zihan Fu in LPHS B; and Geordie Stephenson, Hayze Belaruby, Roshan Ashraf-McLeod, and Matai Franzbowden in LPHS C.

The first round saw Logan Park justify our hopes against other schools, as Logan Park A, B, and C all won their rounds. The A team defeated Kaikorai College 4-0, while the B team clinched the win against Trinity. This was very impressive, considering Trinity were seeded third. Meanwhile, the C team beat Waitaki Boys three to one, giving every team the match point.

In the second round, Logan Park A continued their good start against Columba College, again winning every game. The B team took points off of another strong team, holding Otago Boys A to a draw, 2-2. Logan Park C did similar, drawing John McGlashan, who were seeded nine places above them.

Round three saw the A team paired against Kings, who easily were the strongest of the other schools. However, with wins on boards one and three, we drew. Meanwhile, the B and C teams were paired against each other, with the B team winning 3-1 due to Geordie defeating Daniel on board one.

In the fifth round, Logan Park A were paired against Logan Park B, while Logan Park C played Kaikorai Valley. Unexpectedly, Logan Park B emerged victorious with a score of 3-1, with Logan Park C getting the same score. This meant that the B Team would likely have to take points from Kings in order for us to win, and we didn’t have to wait long to see this.

The very next round saw LPHS B go up against Kings, who were now in the lead. Despite losing on the top two boards, Eshaan and Zihan won their games to draw the match 2-2. Meanwhile, LPHS A beat Otago Boys B 4-0, and LPHS C narrowly lost to Trinity by half a point.

By round six, the majority of teams vying for first place had already played. This meant that Logan Park B went up against John McGlashan, a match they managed to win 2.5-1.5. The A team also won their match, as did the C team, against Otago Boys A and the other Waitaki team (a combination of different schools) respectively.

The final round was a fairly quiet one. Logan Park B went up against Columba College, and came away with a 4-0 win to finish. Logan Park A looked like they would be defeating Trinity, but a loss on time brought the match to a draw. A tough pairing for Logan Park C meant a 4-0 loss, their only one of the tournament. This meant that Logan Park B came first, on six match points, followed by Kings and Logan Park A, qualifying us for nationals in September. Logan Park C came ninth, ahead of a number of A and B teams.

So as you may have seen in the local ODT newspaper, the top 9 players all want to go to Nationals and are playing each other to decide who the top 4 are. Nationals are in Wellington this year in the holidays at the end of Term 3.