Last Friday, on April 1st, Bond Chess à Classique Musique Tournament took place on campus. Over 20 candidates from Bond Elementary and Secondary competed against each other during the Chess Tournament.
According to Ms. Judy Johnstone, a Bond Elementary Teacher and Co-organizer of the event at Bond, the Chess Tournament is one of Bond’s annual events, and the students are encouraged to play against each other no matter which grades they are in.
“I played against five people today. Some of the games were easy and the others were challenging.” said Ben, a Grade 8 student at Bond. “Setting up your pieces at the beginning of the game pays off. Having your pieces centralized can help you level the playing field, and help you control the board. If I am in a difficult situation, I can use those pieces to my advantage.”
As an experienced chess player and winner, Ben shared some of his strategies. “I usually have my Knights and Bishops set up first in the middle, and have my Pawns out in the ten moves of the game because the first moves are the most important ones.” He added that chess requires a lot of concentration and patience because players do not want to go quickly and lose all the good pieces.
Keona, a Bond Grade 8 chess player, said: “The first time that I played chess was in Grade 3, that was when we were allowed to join the game and I’ve played ever since. Today, I played against two players and they were really good at it. I enjoyed playing with them. I made sure that they didn’t get too many of my good pieces. When I got in check, I need to think how to get out of check while trying to save one of my pieces that they could potentially take.” She said she made sure that every piece of hers was covered when playing with the other player, so she could take their piece if somebody tried to take hers.
“It was my first time playing chess. It was very difficult. I learned a lot about the rules, such as how to move the Pawns, the King and the Queen. ” said Brian, a Grade 12 student at Bond.
The following students won all of their games: Fallon (Grade 2), Cassandra (Grade 4), Maude Rose (Grade 4), Sam (Grade 5), Declan (Grade 5), Timothy (Grade 7), Ben (Grade 8), Keona (Grade 8), Austin (Grade 8) and Luv (Grade 8). Bravo!
For more pictures, please visit: http://www.bondacademy.ca/gallery.asp?album=501
