SCOTCH OAKBURN COLLEGE WINS SECONDARY STATE CHESS CHAMPIONSHIP

On Monday 31 October, Scotch Oakburn College hosted students from across the state at the Tasmanian Interschool Chess Finals. Owing to our successes at tournaments throughout the year, the College had qualified to enter 10 students in each of the Secondary and Primary divisions.

Our Primary Team, comprising students from Elphin and Penquite campuses, finished fifth with only a one-point difference between them and the team that placed third. Our best player in this division was Shiv Kataria (Year 6), followed by Bosco Kwong (Year 4), Hugo Clifton (Year 6), Finn Harris (Year 6) and Hugo Clifton (Year 6).

In the Secondary division, the competition for first place was tight, with both Scotch Oakburn and The Hutchins School topping the leaderboard at various times throughout the day; however, Scotch Oakburn finished with a half-point lead and was announced as the 2022 State Champions. Our top five Secondary players were Himash Keerthiratne (Year 8), Harry Lillywhite (Year 9), Addison Djatschenko (Year 12), Mitchell Fulton (Year 11) and Hamish Knowles (Year 12). Himash was also awarded third place as an Individual Player and James Walker (Year 8) was awarded Most Improved Player.

Our Secondary Team has qualified to enter the National Tournament, which will take place at the end of November. This will be the final tournament for our Year 12 chess players and we would like to take this opportunity to thank Addison Djatschenko, Hamish Knowles and Ishani Kataria for their years of commitment to playing chess for the College.

Kate Gard and Anne Jones
Persons-in-Charge of Chess