On Friday, the 14th May our chess members- two teams of four went to Avonhead School to participate in the Christchurch Regionals for the annual Chess Power Tournament.

We were very excited because for some of us this was our first tournament. We left at 8.30am in the school van and arrived in plenty of time to get used to our surroundings and have a quick practice. I could feel the pressure mounting up as 7 rounds passed and chess clocks clicked. Each draw was printed out after each game and we saw our names slowly creep up the list as we progressed through the day. In between games there was time to eat and reflect on our game. There were also fun activities to keep us amused like building a tall tower using chess pieces and challenges like Hungry Knight, Knight Tour and Knight Walk, where you had to take all the pieces off the board by just moving the Knight. There were also chess badges to earn for different moves during each of the game.

We won some and lost some and there were some stalemates too. We used great openings and closings to test our opponents. The competition ranged from Primary school students, Intermediate students and High school students. We meet some new chess friends and look forward to our next tournament.

We are incredibly proud of how well we played and represented Heaton. Our Chess Team came 3rd in the Canterbury Chess Tournament. Members of this team have also been invited to the NZ National Chess Championships! This is an outstanding achievement considering it was a first tournament for some of us.

Thank you, Avonhead School for hosting, thank you Bruce from Chess Power for your orgainsation on the day and a big thank you to Mrs Boyle for coaching and taking us to the Chess Tournament, we had a great day, it was lots of fun. I am looking forward to more checkmates next time.

Heaton Chess Tournament members: Miguel, Siradj, Rocco, Charlie, Christian, Max, Veeraj and Tom.