Published on: 15 June 2016


The 10-year anniversary of the Four (Northern) Schools Chess Tournament was held at Scotch College last Friday. Having won the four previous tournaments, the Christ Church team were keen to achieve their fifth consecutive win with a squad which shows age has little bearing on ability:

Board 1 – Liam Tien (Year 11)
Board 2 – Eric Pan (Year 9)
Board 3 – Jiayi Mu (Year 12)
Board 4 – Joshua Fry (Year 8)
Board 5 – Jesse Zhou (Year 11)
Board 6 – Nicholas Pizzino (Year 12)
Board 7 – Ethan Koh (Year 10)
Board 8 – Julian Kam (Year 9)
Reserve – Lucas Hogan (Year 7)

The first two rounds set the tone with Christ Church securing 7.5 to 0.5 and 8 to 0 victories over rival schools. Although the four remaining rounds were less one-sided, Christ Church proved far too strong for Hale, Scotch and Guildford Grammar. 

Notable performances came from Liam Tien and Eric Pan who won all six of their games, demonstrating incredible ability and concentration.

“The chess was played in good spirits and Nicholas Pizzino, Captain of Chess for 2016, was eloquent yet humble in his victory speech,” said Dominic Hodnett.

“This bodes very well for the main event later this year, defence of our title in the PSA Chess Tournament. No doubt competition will be fierce to secure a place in the six-man squad.”