During the recent term break, Cedric Koh (10/MA) and William Tao (10/KL), two of our intermediate Chess players, participated in the NSW U18 Championships.

Both Cedric and William have represented the school in a number of significant events including being members of last year’s outstanding Intermediate team that finished as runners up in the Sydney New South Wales Junior Chess League (NSWJCL) Metropolitan Final. While in this team, they only lost one match throughout the whole season.

Both have played in GPS representative teams and in teams representing the school at Independent events such as the Terry Shaw Shield and the Scots Invitational.

Cedric provided a very interesting account of the competition.

The NSW U18 Junior Championship is the main tournament of Chess for U18 in NSW. The competition is stiff, with the main competitors being the current U12 National Chess Champion – Kerry Lin, the current U14 National Chess Champion – Rishi Dutta, and the NSW U18 Country Junior – Paul Russel. I had lost early on in round 2 against Kerry; trying too hard to push for a win in a drawn position, however, a few rounds later I defeated the top seed Rishi Dutta, and was leading the tournament. The next round Paul Russel, beat me, and two rounds later, there was a 3-way competition between Rishi, Paul, and myself. Paul Russel lost his chance for victory as he lost to my sister, and in the final round I was set to play her, the most difficult match of the tournament. Luckily I survived the battle with her attempts to go ballistic and go King hunting eventually failing, and I was ready to enter the playoffs against Rishi to determine who would earn the title. However, Rishi suffered a surprise loss to Kerry in the final round, a game he was easily winning due to time pressure; and with that I had a full point lead and won the title.

As a result of this win Cedric has been nominated as the primary candidate from NSW in the Australian National team to compete in the World U18 Championship in South Africa in September.

Congratulations Cedric!

Mr Graeme Downward
Chess Co-ordinator