In the term 3/4 school holidays, the LPHS chess team placed 5th overall in the New Zealand National Interschools Finals chess championship, absolutely creaming most of their opposition and ending with one of the best performances of any Otago team in the competition’s history.

The team consisted of the Logan Park High School chess club’s top four members (Alexander Sun, Zishen Fu, Paxton Hall, and Zack Hibbert). They competed against thirteen other teams, each one being the best in its district. The national championship took place at Mt Maunganui in Tauranga. Participants were encouraged to wear face masks during games, and to bump elbows rather than shake hands. The LPHS team placed 5th overall, completely demolishing most of their opposition and ending with one of the best performances of any Otago team in the competition’s history. This followed a string of chess successes and achievements in 2019 and 2020, during which the LPHS chess team established itself as the highest-level secondary school chess team in the South Island.

Earlier in the year, this group competed with another LPHS team (Jack Ta, Nathan Mutch, Ethan Lambeth and Fen McIntosh) and teams from several regional secondary schools in the Otago/Southland Chess Championship. The LPHS A-team and B-team placed 1st and 5th respectively.

Results

v Westlake Boys loss

v Kings College loss

v Bethlehem College win

v Whakatane High win

v Auckland Grammar B win

v Mt Roskill Grammar loss

v New Plymouth Boys win

Otago / Southland Champs

A Team (Alexander Sun, Zishen Fu, Paxton Hall and Zack Hibbert)

Overall 1st - beating Logan Park B, Otago Boys A, Kings X, John McGlashan A, Kavanagh, Waitaki Boys A and drawing with James Hargest A

B Team (Jack Ta, Nathan Mutch, Ethan Lambeth and Fen McIntosh)

Overall 5th - beating Waitaki Boys A and B, John McGlashan B and losing to Logan Park A, Otago Boys A and B.