Yearbook 2021

Chess

Our four player squad of Kody Thompson (Yr 12), Ethan Smith (Yr 12), Rylee O’Brien (Yr 12) and Ben Knapman (Yr 9) made it to the Riverina Final of the Country Schools Chess Competition and won! This was third occasion Hennessy had made it this far, so it was very gratifying to finally win. Our talented quartet went on to compete in the Regional Finals but alas, were defeated by St John’s College, Woodlawn (near Lismore). A team from Merewether High School in Newcastle went on to win the competition. Due to the Covid-19 Pandemic and restricted travel, most matches were played online using the Chess.com platform, which worked really well. Our players would set up a physical board close by their computer screen and ‘mirror’ the moves on the computer, which was a good strategy. Did you know that over 600 million people play chess worldwide? Chess.com has over 71 million registered users. You can verse players online that have a ‘higher rating’ than you to improve. Soccer is most popular sport in the world however, approximately 3 times as many people play chess. Food for thought! Chess is a great game. It is a battle of wits. I hope you get involved, especially as we are looking for 3 new players for our team.

All the Best, Mr Peter Smith