More than 240 students from 13 schools across Sarnia-Lambton filled the gymnasium at Holy Trinity in Sarnia for the St. Clair Catholic School Board’s 35th annual Chess Tournament this week.
That’s up from 206 participants last year, said convener and French teacher Chris Vaillant, pointing to the game’s growing popularity, and the importance of problem solving, pattern recognition, abstract reasoning, and strategic thinking for youngsters.
“Many of the students who were in attendance in some cases haven't had the opportunity to wear a jersey and represent their school, and this was an excellent opportunity to do so,” he said. “In addition to the divisional and individual grade awards, we have also incentivized participation by girls — in the interest of equality, as it tends to be very male dominated — by recognizing the highest scoring girls' team, and the highest scoring individual girl.
École St-Thomas d'Aquin's Keira Hagan was named the Overall Girls' Individual winner for the second straight year.
Here are the winners of the divisional school awards:
Best Overall Primary Team (Grades 1-3): St. Philip
Best Overall Junior Team (Grades 4-6): Saint-Thomas-d'Aquin
Best Overall Intermediate Team (Grades 7 & 8): Sacred Heart, Sarnia
Best Overall Overall Girls' Team: St. Anne & Saint-Thomas-d'Aquin
Here are the top 3 winners of each grade:
GRADE 1-3
Cove Thompson (St. Philip, Petrolia)
Fabrizio Iafrate (Sacred Heart, Sarnia)
Bron Vandenberg (St. Philip, Petrolia)
GRADE 4
Oscar Lyon (St. John Fisher, Forest)
Rowan Spiller (Saint-Thomas-d'Aquin)
Hutch Verberne (St. Peter Canisius, Watford)
GRADE 5
Keira Hagan (Saint-Thomas-d'Aquin)
Miguel DaCunha (St. Matthew, Sarnia)
Kevin Garai (Holy Rosary, Wyoming)
GRADE 6
Darko Zelenchuk (St. Philip, Petrolia)
Matthew Wang (Gregory A. Hogan, Sarnia)
Cohen Gillespie (St. Philip, Petrolia)
GRADE 7
Giovany Lafleur-Bilodeau (Saint-François-Xavier)
Yaroslav Volodin (St. Matthew, Sarnia)
Tyler Irving (Sacred Heart, Sarnia)
GRADE 8
Byron Chu (Sacred Heart, Sarnia)
Xavier McPherson-Mariuz (St. Matthew, Sarnia)
Parker French (Saint-François-Xavier)
OVERALL GIRLS' PLAYER
Kiera Hagan (Saint-Thomas-d'Aquin)