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September 2024
September 2024
“I can do all things through him who strengthens me.”
Philippians 4:13
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A group of DIS students organized a chess tournament at DIS. It is the first-ever competition for students that is open to all high school students, including students from different educational institutions. The tournament is DIS Chess Championship 2024 held last September 14, 2024. The organizers are Eric Yang, Lori Tai, Abhinav Dey, and Neo Chen, all senior students. It all started as a chess club, last year, turned out as an exciting inter-school chess tournament.
The tournament follows the Swiss System format. A Swiss-system tournament is a non-eliminating tournament format that features a fixed number of rounds of competition, but considerably fewer than for a round-robin tournament thus each competitor (team or individual) does not play all the other competitors. Competitors meet one-on-one in each round and are paired using a set of rules designed to ensure that each competitor plays opponents with a similar running score, but does not play the same opponent more than once. The Swiss system is used for competitions in which there are too many registrants for a full round-robin (all-play-all) to be feasible, and eliminating any competitors before the end of the tournament is undesirable. In contrast, all-play-all is suitable if there are a small number of competitors; whereas a single-elimination (knockout) tournament rapidly reduces the number of competitors, but the best competitor may not necessarily win, as good competitors might perform poorly in a single match or eliminate and exhaust each other if they meet in early rounds.
Unlike group format or other systems in which all pairings are known from the beginning of the competition, in a Swiss system the match pairing for each round is done after the previous round has ended and depends on its results. The Swiss system seeks to provide a clear winner with a large number of competitors and a relatively small number of rounds of competition, without a single bad result terminating participation.
The tournament has ten rounds. A win is worth one point, draws worth 0.5 points, and losses worth zero points. Each game is 20 minutes with 10 minutes on each player’s side of the clock. In addition, there will be no increments in the tournament, once a player’s time is used up, the other player is declared winner. The winner is the competitor with the highest aggregate points earned in all rounds. With an even number of participants, all competitors play in each round.
The event aims to foster a spirit of friendly competition and intellectual curiosity among the local chess community. High school students from various institutions gather together creating an engaging atmosphere that celebrates the timeless game of chess. They invited students to showcase their talent and passion for chess. By participating, you will have the opportunity to compete against skilled opponents, forge new friendships, and create lasting memories. Registration for the event was done online on a first come first serve basis with a minimal registration fee. Registration for arbiters was done as well.
The competition was held in the gymnasium with 20 participants. Students from Dominican International School-Taipei (DIST) Taipei American School (TAS), Taipei European School (TES), WEGO High School, Morrison Academy Taipei (MAT), and Taipei Fuhsing Private School participated. The DIS participants were grade 12 students Arthur Chen and Lucas Hsu, grade eleven Breanne Oling, grade ten Daniel Yan and Ray Liu, and grade nine Ruthvij Potharaju. Some female students registered namely, Allison Ni from MAT and Jocelyn Hsu from TAS, both are grade ten. The ten-round format started at 9:30 AM. The organizers served as arbiters with grade eleven Brennan Yeh. Joining them were DIS teachers Mr. Jofil Collado and Mr. Seb Langley. Witnessing the tournament were Academics Coordinator Mr. Joe Schoeman, Activity Coordinator Dr. Agosh Librea, and Faculty Mr. Tim Sampson.
After ten rounds, Owen Lee was declared champion with 7.5 points. Second place was Justin Hsu with 7 points and third place was Aaron Hsieh with 5.5 points. All three placers are from TAS. A Player of the Tournament (Kasparov Award) is given to the student who embodies the qualities of Garry Kasparov, mainly sportsmanship and passion for chess. The award was given to Philip Lee from TES.
In the middle of the tournament proper, a very enjoyable lunch was served. The participants had a one-of-a-kind experience which they will treasure when they go back to their respective schools, they all thanked the organizers for a job well done. The second chess championship tournament is scheduled for next year, and all participants eagerly await it.