Monday, March 15, 2010

Inter-School Tournament

Jen here. Roy approached the principal and parents of our ISF Academy chess students with the idea of forming a team of students and Roy coaching them as they compete as a school team in local Chess tournaments. All parties being on board, a team was organized and a special team class began in mid-January. Their first team competition? The HK Inter-School Tournament, hosted by HKCF, held Sunday, February 28th (why all day on Sunday? The world may never know...).

I went with Roy to help in any way and to support him--and because I just love to be with him! I know many of the students on the team and am an assistant coach to many of them.

We taxied to the school and arrived at about 8:15am. The tournament room was a large auditorium/gym, and upon inquiring, we discovered they had no rooms available for skittles (aka: a place for students to go when they finish their game, hang out, go over their games, etc). We scouted the open-air hallways for a spot to set up a home base (Thanks to Mike Skidmore for setting such an example for Roy in coaching!) and found one on the floor above the tournament room--4 picnic tables close to the door to the balcony overlooking the gym. As students arrived Roy organized his 12 ISF kids and the rounds began. I've never attended such a tournament; in this one, four kids make up a team and you play a team, sitting shoulder to shoulder with your fellow teammates. Having brought 12 kids, we had three teams.

Between rounds the students reported back to our home base to go over their games, eat a snack and chill. After a while, the parents began hanging out and chatting at our home base (HKCF provided seats to sit inside the tournament hall, so some of our parents were in there for the first few rounds) and I got to meet many of them. They were so excited their children were competing in Chess and growing as a team. Throughout the day they expressed how united the team was and really appreciated Roy's role as coach to the students. :)

The day was long, as the tournament was delayed, finishing an hour or more behind schedule(primary school award ceremony finished at 7:30, secondary had to wait longer). But the kids had a fun time, won many games and grew as a team. The end placing: Our A team earned Second Place, and two students earned trophies for placing in their respective boards. Way to go, ISF Academy!

Nowadays the team is preparing for the first large tournament put on by Chess4Life: The ISF Academy 2010 Chess Open, which will be held March 27th, hosted by the ISF Academy. What an event it will be...please pray for Roy as he is the main TD and organizer of this event--he has many people to organize. Thanks!

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