Chess Fever Grips Fort Street for Record Setting 2023 Season

This year, Fort Street participated once again in the Metropolitan Secondary School Chess Competition.

The Metropolitan Secondary School Chess Competition allows students from schools all over Sydney to form teams of four and compete against each other. In 2023, the school had 78 students competing in the competition and fielded 18 teams – the most of any school, public or private, in the entire state of New South Wales.

This resulted in a veritable “Festival of Chess”, taking place in the Fort Street Hall every fortnight as we welcome schools from across the region – with three of our teams advancing to the regional quarterfinal round.

Since the outbreak of COVID-19 in 2019, the chess world has seen an unprecedented surge in popularity, owing in part to the release of the widely acclaimed Netflix series, “The Queen’s Gambit,” as well as the emergence of entertainers such as IM Levy Rozman (a.k.a. GothamChess).

Coordinated by Mr James Wright, the Metropolitan Secondary School Chess Competition provided an exhilarating and enriching experience, fostering connections among students from different schools as well as improving their chess skills.

The school was also extremely fortunate to have Fortian and champion player, Mr. Clive Ng, on hand during most weeks to lend his strategic acumen to proceedings and provide coaching and tips to students of all levels to improve our games and enhance our performance. We thank Mr. Ng for giving up his time!

“I was able to meet my old friends, and I really enjoyed playing them in chess”, said Year 9 student William Ly.

As previously stated, three teams managed to reach the finals, Senior Fort Street A, Intermediate Fort Street B and Junior Fort Street C.

These Fortians are congratulated on their achievements and we wish them the best of luck as they progress to their respective finals.

Written by Yu Wu – Year 9 and Mr. Wright