Chess

Chess Update 2009

The number of players that registered for chess in the first term was slightly lower than in previous years. However what was lacking in quantity was more than made up for in quality with some new foreign signings! Lennart Von Hardenberg, Lennart Berg (Germany) and Jae-Won Kim (Korea) proved to be keen and skillful players. Once again September to December was a time of training and exploring each individual’s strengths and weaknesses. Then in the second term we began our competitive matches.
This year we entered three teams in the ChessZ Cork Secondary Schools league. These consisted of a seniors team in the Champions League, another seniors team in the Girls-Only league and a junior team in the Novices League. The first fixture on Feb 10th saw our novices away to Clonakilty Community College who were new to the league and thus an unknown quantity. Our team was Billy McCarty (capt), Dylan Nunan, Jack Cowhig and Oliver Ind. Our team gave a good account of themselves but unfortunately were defeated 3-1.
Our next match on March 3rd was a double feature as we hosted two teams from Mitchelstown CBS in Room 12 (thanks again Mr. Stanley!). The novices team fared better this time out and won their match 3-1, with only Oliver narrowly missing out on a win. The senior team consisting of Sean O’Regan (capt), Sarah O’Shea, Lennart Von Hardenberg and Jae-Won Kim swept the boards with a 4-0 win over the Mitchelstown seniors C team. This was a very promising start to the season. Their next match on March 31st was away to Deerpark CBS A team. This was a tougher contest. In the end we won by the narrowest of margins. Sean and Jae-Won each won and Lennart held his opponent to a stalemate thus giving us the win.
We next had to play the winners of the other groups in our division, so it was off to Mitchelstown to play their senior A team. Alas they beat us 3-1 ending our run in the competition. All hopes were now on the Girl’s league. In April we travelled to Urselines Blackrock to play them and 2 Regina Mundi teams in a blitz. Our team consisted of Sarah O”Shea, Emily Simonin, Tara Roberts and Sheila Day. The girls played well and were unlucky not to be outright winners, instead they were runners up to the Ursulines team. Interestingly Sheila the newest member of our team won all of her games. We could have gone on to the national finals in Limerick but the date clashed with TY activities which prevented us from fielding a team.
In the summer term we concluded the season with the annual internal school chess competition. At senior level there were some interesting tussles which resulted in an all German final. In the clash of Lennart Vs. Lennart best of 3 it was Von Hardenberg that won the final with Berg quite happy to accept the runner-up trophy. In the junior section several players entered. After some rapid knockouts the final was a best of 3 bout between Billy McCarthy and Jack Cowhig. Against the odds Jack won the competition with Billy a worthy runner-up. Thus another year drew to a close.
My sincere thanks to all who took part in chess this year, especially those that represented the school in competition.
- B.H.