Tuesday, December 30, 2008

2008 Canterbury Summer Swiss

The 2008 Canterbury Summer Swiss was held at Box Hill Chess Club (it seems everything is being held there) from the 27-30th of December. There were 8 rounds played over 4 days. The field is reasonably strong, with the top seed being Samuel Chow (2328).

Bobby Cheng (2085) came first with a stunning performance on 7/8. He was leading the tournament the whole way.

Samuel Chow (2328) took 2nd place with 6.5/8. 3rd-5th place was shared between Carl Gorka (2011), Eugene Schön (1931) and Cedric Antolis (1889).

The results can be found on the official Chess Victoria website, under CV-approved Tournaments.

Monday, December 8, 2008

Australian Schools Teams Championships 2008

The Australian Schools Teams Championships 2008 was held on the 6th-7th of December, 2008 at Rostrevor College, Woodforde, Adelaide, SA. This year's field was very strong, however Scotch College managed to pull off the feat of winning every game except one draw.

We stayed in the boarding house of
Rostrevor College, which was exceedingly clean and well organised, although I could not find internet access at the venue. There was also opportunity to play table tennis and squash. The food was also quite good, especially the sausage sizzle on the first night. The playing hall was spacious, allowing lots of room to move around. The organisers did a very professional job, especially considering the sudden withdrawal of the NT team.

On the last day, we also went off to the beach and with the help of a four-man team, we dug a lake called "Lake Eugene". It was implied that Nicholas Liu (1464) went to KFC, after mentioning that he really wanted to go there multiple times.

The Scotch Team (VIC) consisted of:
1. Zhigen Lin (2104)
2. Eugene Schön (1931)
3. Derek Yu (1810)
4. Nicholas Liu (1464)
5. Richard Owen (unr)

I won't mention who drew the game which prevented a full score.

Here are the standings:

Secondary Open
1st Scotch College, VIC
2nd Sydney Grammar, NSW
3rd Hawker College, ACT

Secondary Girls
1st Somerset College, QLD
2nd North Sydney Girls High School, NSW
3rd-4th Presbyterian Ladies College, VIC (3rd on countback) and Daramalan College, ACT

Primary Open
1st Penshurst West Public, NSW
2nd Somerset College, QLD
3rd Greythorn Primary, VIC

Primary Girls
1st Somerville House, QLD
2nd-3rd Summer Hill Primary, NSW (2nd on countback) and
Curtin Primary, ACT

Team standings and individual results can be found on the Australian Schools Teams Championships website.