VENUE AND DATE

2nd of May 2021, Mount Lawley Primary School, 92 Second Avenue Mount Lawley

REPORT

Central Zonal 2021 Schools Chess League Tournament

On Sunday, 2nd May the second 2021 Schools Chess League tournament (the Central Zonal) was held at Mt. Lawley Primary School. Considering it wasn’t until just before the start of the tournament that it was clear that we had go ahead, there was an excellent attendance of 76 players (53 Primary students and 23 Secondary students), The 7-round allegro style tournament continues to be very popular.

Primary Student Division

The 53 players were from 12 different schools and like the previous Northern Zonal, this was very closely contested from both a school and individual player perspective. Mt. Lawley Primary had the largest contingent of players (13) and came 6th. Midland Home School with only four players came 5th and Carmel Primary also with a large contingent (11) narrowly missed being in the top three with 18 points and came 4th.

The top three schools all had the same score 18.5. In a situation like this, the Vega software discards the top-scoring player for each team and then calculates the placings on the basis of the total of the next three players totals. Consequently, Oberthur Primary came third, Nedland’s Primary second and the winners were St. Paul’s Primary. Needless to say, this is a somewhat arbitrary method of deciding placings and after a CAWA Council, meeting the following day it was decided for the purpose of the Schools Chess league to award all three teams, St. Paul’s, Nedlands and Oberthur 10 points each (for first place). This should not detract from what was an excellent performance by the top four players of St. Paul’s, Maxwell Castalanelli, Finian Jordan, Darcy Jordan and Jose Adaikalam against some very strong opposition.

The individual contest was equally close. Going into the last round the leaders were Daniel Levin and Issa Majidi on 5.5 points, closely followed by Eric Deng and Oscar Gao on 5 points. In the last round Daniel drew with Anthony Nguyen, Issa lost to Eric and Oscar beat Asten Sulak. This meant there was a three-way tie on 6 points between Daniel, Eric and Oscar. In a situation like this, the Bucholz score is used to decide the placings. Consequently, Eric was third, Oscar second and Daniel first. This was an excellent performance by Daniel who was the only player to beat Oscar, (the highest rated player and favourite to win the tournament). Nithuli Liyanage with 5 points was the Best Girl competitor, (also a very good performance).

List of School Prize Winners:

1st: St. Paul’s Primary School

(Maxwell Castalanelli, Finian Jordan Darcy Jordan, Jose Adaikalam and Harriot Castalanelli: the first four players as the best school performers received trophies).

2nd: Nedlands Primary School

(Issa Majidi, Nithuli Liyanage, Nizam Majidi, Ryan Florence, Olivia Hua and Kaviru Perera: the first four players as the best school performers received trophies).

3rd: Oberthur Primary School

(Oscar Gao, Francis Lopez, Angus Chen, Adam Chung, Jo Gao, Jeremy Li and Alex Song: the first four players as the best school performers received trophies).

List of Individual Prize Winners:

1st: Daniel Levin 6/7

2nd: Oscar Gao 6/7

3rd: Eric Deng 6/7:

Best Girl: Nithuli Liyanage 5/7

Secondary Student Division

The 23 players were from 12 different schools with the two largest contingents from Bob Hawke College and Shenton College. These two colleges were engaged in a two-horse race to determine the winning school. In the end, Bob Hawke College triumphed by half a point, Shenton College was second. Kingsway Christian College was third.

Kundan Dharmapuri (Trinity Collge) dominated the individual contest and won with a picket fence score of 7 from 7. Newcomer, Kyle Pearce (Belridge Secondary College) was second and Celine Ong was third and also won the Best Girl prize.

List of School Prize Winners:

1st: Bob Hawke College

(Iker Hernandez Mendez, Samuel Lee, Kealan Dhepnorrarat, Ablai Devine, Finn Andrews and Morgan van Droffelaar: the first four players as the best school performers received trophies).

2nd: Shenton College

(Tom Freitag, Max Campbell, Siddarth Balamurugan, Christopher Loh and Casey Florence: the first four players as the best school performers received trophies)

3rd: Kingsway Christian College

(Celine Ong and Enrico Reyes).

List of Individual Prize Winners:

1st: Kundan Dharmapuri 7/7

2nd: Kyle Peacre 5.5/7

3rd: Celine Ong 5/7 (and Best Girl)

Special thanks to the following people; Dennis Holland, Chief Arbiter; John Pimenov for managing the Vega software, which includes data entry, round draws and final placings, Joli Mendez for general organisation, coordination and liaison with the Mt. Lawley Primary School, JC Kong for registration, Faith Tee for general assistance and various representatives of the Mt. Lawley Primary School for providing an excellent venue for this competition and assisting us with its smooth running.

Alan Wolstencroft