On Thursday 18 August two teams from the Heaton chess club entered the Interschool Chess Competition at Te Hapu Halswell. Congratulations Max, Ryo, Oscar, Izzy, Annelyse, Izzy, Maisie, and Kate who represented Heaton against 14 other Canterbury schools in our Year 7 and Year 8 grade. 

A total of 212 players, 53 teams representing 34 schools filled the library. Ex Heaton high school students came and wished us luck. We played 5 rounds using clocks under the watchful eye of arbiters. The competition was tough, we won some games, lost some games and there were lots of stalemates. We didn’t place but learned a lot more about strategy and challenging ourselves. We showed good sportsmanship and are no longer Rookies. For some of us, this was our first competition experience at a chess competition and we performed admirably. Our goal for the day was to have fun and used some openings attacks and defence strategies we had been practicing at the chess club. Spares and forking kings were helpful techniques. 

Thank you Mrs Boyle for coaching and taking us in the school van to this competition. By the end of the day, we all agreed we had fun and all learned a lot with the opportunity of a great experience.

Heaton team