Interschool Chess

The Toorak Primary Chess Team has had a busy few weeks! We started off by playing in an Interschool tournament at Wesley College on 17 October, where we finished 4th and qualified for the Victorian Semi Finals. We took 12 players to the tournament, a mix of experienced competitors and children playing in their first ever chess competition. There were some outstanding individual performances from our players – Daniel Dessau scored 5.5/7, Grayson Zimperman and Jasper Snell who are only in Year 3 scored 5/7, a fantastic performance having to take on some year 6s!

On the morning of the Semi Finals disaster struck. Half an hour before the start of the tournament I found out that Alexi Missailidis was unwell and could not take part! Alexi and his brother George have been an important part of the TPS Interschool team for the past 5+ years. Luckily Oliver Stirling was able to take Alexi’s place in the team, and Oliver showed why deserved to be there by scoring 4 points and helping Toorak Primary qualify for the Victorian Grand Final! The Grand Final will be held on Tuesday 15 November at Balwyn North Primary School. Well done to the following 5 players who will be representing TPS: Daniel Dessau, Jasper Snell, Grayson Zimperman, Christian Ling and Oliver Stirling.

In the meantime keep an eye out for some chess movies which will be hitting cinemas soon. Magnus, a documentary about world chess champion Magnus Carlsen, and Queen of Katwe, about Ugandan chess prodigy Phiona Mutesi, starring Oscar winner Lupita Nyong’o.

George Zaprudsky
Chess Teacher
george@zedchess.com.au

interschool-chess-1interschool-chess-3interschool-chess-4