The National Inter Schools Chess Championship was held in Christchurch Boys High School on September 24th and 25th , 2010 with twelve secondary school teams of four students competing. The favourites were Auckland Grammar who easily won last year and Palmerston North Boys who placed second last year. The St Paul’s team consisted of Chang Zhai on Board One, James Kennedy on Board Two, Bill Li on Board Three and on Board Four was Edward Tseng. This was a very experienced team with all but Edward competing in last year’s finals where it placed fourth.
The first round the team played the large Auckland school Westlake Boys’ High School. St Paul’s won three games only losing a close game on Board Three.
Round Two was against Logan Park High School who won the Otago regional competition. The result was a win on Boards One and Three, a draw on Board Two and a loss on Board Four.
Round Three saw St Paul’s play last years winners Auckland Grammar School whose Board One player, Andy Chen, is one of NZCF top players. The games were close but St Paul’s only managed to win one game on Board Two.
Round Four against Palmerston North Boys High School, who placed second last year, was a critical game, and all games could have gone either way. St Paul’s won two games on Board One and Four.
The Fifth and last round of the day was against the Canterbury regional winner Christchurch Boys High School. Here St Paul’s had a good result winning three games, only losing on Board Four in a very close game.
After the first day of competition the results were: Auckland Grammar 34, Palmerston North Boys 24, St Paul’s Collegiate 23, Westlake Boys 23, Christchurch Boys 22 and Macleans College 22, Logan Park 21, Ashburton College 20, New Plymouth Boys 19, Onslow College 16, Kaitaia College 12 and Opotiki College 4.
On the second day the first round was agianst Onslow College, the Wellington regional winner. For the first time Chang, James, Bill and Edward all won their games giving St Paul’s a critical eight points. Palmerston North played Logan Park and were outplayed winning only one and drawing another. New Plymouth Boys had an easy round with last place Opotiki College where they won all four games. Westlake Boys played Macleans College and they both won two games each.
The second and final round we played New Plymouth Boys where their Board One player Alan Ansell beat a Grandmaster in a tournament in Australia earlier this year. We only won one game on Board Three. Now we had to wait for the other schools to finish their games.
This last round was difficult for all schools except Auckland Grammar who won all four games. Palmerston North won three games against Christchurch Boys and Westlake Boys' won three games against Onslow College.
Auckland Grammar once again won first place with an outstanding score of 49 out of 56 points. Because of the last round results, what was most unlikely to happen did with four teams finishing second equal on 33 points. The teams had a tense wait for the Swiss Perfect paring software to compute a tie break score. This is what is used in NZCF to decide the final results and who gets the medals and it analysed by taking into account the rating of the team each school played in their seven rounds. Since St Paul’s had to play all the top rated schools with no easy rounds they were placed second winning the silver medal. Westlake Boys' won the bronze medal in third and Palmerston North placed fourth with New Plymouth Boys' placing fifth.
Chang, James, Bill and Edward played every game to the best of their ability against seven teams from schools much larger than St Paul’s. Mr Judkins is very proud of his team and congratulates them on winning second place and the silver medal.
