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ACT TEAMS AT THE 2002 NATIONAL SCHOOLS CHAMPIONSHIPS

Report from Jenni Hi all, First of all the GOOD news - Kaleen Primary came back with 3rd place in the Open Primary - first time the ACT has won an Open Primary placing! Mirabelle should be congratulated on all the work she has put in for her team. Thanks should go to the coaches at the Saturday morning coaching and esp to Peter Simpson who has put in a lot of work with the kids and was available all weekend via phone to talk to the kids and help them. Sartaj Hans also deserves a big thanks as he has been coaching the team (for free), for a number of months. The kids put their whole hearts in all weekend and got some good results. Kaleen caused a stir in the first round, when they beat the eventual winners, Chatswood, 2.5 to 1.5. Sherab beating Raymond Song (Raymond was up 2 pawns, but then left a rook hanging!) and Thomas drew with Angela Song (should have won as well!). This left Worongary looking pretty good, but Chatswood crept back up. In their face to face game Chatswood crushed Worongary 3.5 to .5 - Angela beat Amy Evans in about 9 moves, with an opening trap. More drama occurred in Kaleen's game with Worongary, where Sherab was winning against Steven Cooke. Steven Cooke fought back with a fierce attack on the king and started checking Sherab's king - it was looking like a perpetual and Steven offered a draw, which Sherab accepted. Sherab then calmly pointed out to Steven how he could have won. Steven realised that he had missed it and after a few choice words, dissolved into tears. Coming into the last round Kaleen had to play St Peters. Kaleen were ½ point ahead of St Peter's and needed 2 points to guarantee 3rd place. The pressure on the team was enormous, particularly as they were almost guaranteed to lose Board 4 and Sherab had a hard game against James Obst on Board 1. Kaleen did lose those 2, reasonably quickly, so the pressure mounted on Thomas Ung and Luke Allerton. Thomas got the win and it was then up to Luke. At this point Mirabelle banned the rest of the team from going anywhere near Luke, to try to reduce the stress on him and Luke did come up with the win! So congratulations again to Sherab Guo-Yuthok, Thomas Ung, Luke Allerton, Emma Guo and Alexander Mitchell. Girls High Daramalan fielded a team of enthusiastic girls and it was wonderful to have a High Schools Girls team again. Tony Oliver and Shannon Oliver were their coaches. The girls tried really hard and learnt an enormous amount from the weekend, coming 5th. Vanessa Lau 0 Sophie Heath 2 Sarah Norfor 3 Eva Li 1 Girls Primary Chapman had a pretty new girls team, with most of the previous team having gone to High School. They struggled a bit this time, but also learnt a lot. They did manage to go 3-1 against the winning team in the last round. Essex Heights displayed a little bit of arrogance and it nearly came unstuck for them. They only needed ½ a point to win the competition, so decided to let the reserve play against Chapman. However instead of dropping their board 4 player and putting the reserve in, they dropped their board 1 and moved everyone up one place. Natasha Lauder very quickly got the 1 point they needed, so the final 3 games were irrelevant, however the Chapman girls tried their hardest and came up with 3 points - if they had managed to get a 4th point, Essex might have found themselves coming 2nd. Never underestimate the opposition in chess! Bit unsure of exact scores - I know Erin Rooney did well - probably 3 points, or maybe even 4. Katie Logan got 1.5. Unsure of Aimee Arnold and Heather Cupitt (sorry girls!). Kincoppall (headed by Adelaide Soltysik), came second and Worongary 3rd and Chapman 4th. Open High Bit sad this one - I think the team didn't totally believe in themselves and so there were some missed opportunities. Melbourne High was the surprise package here and a little unlucky not to get a higher place. They beat Churchie 3-1 in the first round. Amir Nissen was playing board 1 - he hasn't played much in the last couple of years, but was a very good player. Sylvester Urban was on board 2, Vikram Palit on board 3 and then 5 more players, including Richard Saw. Radford also started well with 3.5 against St Peters. Melbourne and Radford played in the second round and it went 2 - 2, which kept Radford in the lead. (Gareth beat Amir, Andrew drew with Sylvester and Shannon drew with Vikram). Unfortunately Radford played Churchie in the third round, when the kids were a little tired, but that applied to all teams. Gareth achieved a crushing position against Michael Davidovici very early and Shannon was winning against Sean Karita. Jesse Maguire was struggling on Board 4, but trying to hold to a draw and Andrew was even on board 2. Unfortunately all 4 positions were lost - Gareth said he just played every bad move he could think of and Shannon popped a piece. Gary said she was still winning, but of course she didn't think so and disintegrated. So a 4-0 loss against Churchie, when it should have gone 2-2, or perhaps even 2.5 to 1.5 Radford's way. The kids went in against Sydney Grammar very disheartened. Kuan beat Gareth in the opening, Shannon beat Marlon in a very nice game. Charles Li beat Jesse - the only game Charles won! Here Jesse's nerves showed - he just didn't play his natural game. Going into the last round Radford had a theoretical chance of 3rd - it required a 4-0 result against WA and Sydney Grammar to go 3.5 against Melbourne - neither of these were likely! Gareth won very easily, Jesse lost in time trouble (2 pieces up), Andrew drew and Shannon managed a draw after being destroyed in the opening. At this point it has to be said that the WA team is totally lacking in any chess manners. The rather gentle Radford team were making lots of noises afterwards about WA and most of the comments seemed to be directed at the physical violence they should have used after various remarks had been made by WA. A shame really, as all the other teams displayed good sportsmanship and friendship. Presumably WA thought they were better than they were and didn't like coming last, or maybe its just the way they do things in the West. Thank-you to Radford coach Gary Lane, who did a great job. Churchie won again, Sydney Grammar 2nd, Melbourne High 3rd and Radford 4th. Gareth Oliver 3 Andrew Fitzpatrick 1.5 Shannon Oliver 3 Jesse Maguire 1 Rumour has it that the next ASCC will be in WA - making it very hard to send teams. WA has until early January to make a bid.

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