A team from Coromandel Valley recently took part in the Southern Zone Interschool Chess Tournament.  12 students representing the school - Amelia, Eddie, Eliza, Finn, Hamish, Jackson, Oliver, Piper, Sahishnu, Shravenn, Tyler and Walter.

With over 60 students taking part, the Southern Zone tournament always has some very strong schools taking part, but this term the competition was even tougher.  While the final team results were based on Primary and Secondary divisions, the two divisions were combined for individual games.  It was quite daunting for our students to have to play some of their games against students who were much older and more experienced, but they gritted their teeth and took on the challenge.

Despite having the odds stacked against them the Coro team were very competitive across the whole tournament, finishing on 15.5 points to take 2nd place, with our top 4 competitors winning silver medals.

The entire Coro team did a fantastic job and I was extremely proud of both their efforts and sportsmanship.   5 of our 12 players either equalled or set a new personal best tournament score.

Special mention goes to

- Eddie, Eliza and Oliver who were all competing in their very first tournament

- Hamish who was our highest placed competitor, finishing in 16th place with 4 wins and a draw from his 7 games. 

- Amelia who was the highest ranked female competitor for the tournament with 3 wins from her 7 games

- Eliza who was awarded the Fair Play Award

- our four Year 2 students, who were amongst the youngest competitors at the tournament and who all had to face opponents from Secondary Schools

A huge thanks to Carrie Julian, Opal Greenwood and Rob Warncken for assisting in transporting the team.

The Chess Club continues to meet on Monday lunchtimes in Mr Johnson's classroom and anyone is welcome to come along.