Singleton High School’s 2024 Chess Team showed great success in this year’s competition, becoming one of the top eight teams in the region.
The team consisting of Year 12 students Daniel Moore, Ethan Williams, James Cadman and Koby Newman recorded wins over Rutherford Technology High School, St Catherine’s Catholic College Singleton and Scone Grammar School.
“I’m super proud of the boys, we all got along well and had really good chemistry,” Ethan Williams said.
“I think in Singleton High’s history, since 2006 or 2007, that it’s the furthest or equal furthest that the school has ever gone.”
All the team members got into chess through various ways, with Ethan Williams picking the board game at a young age due to his dad’s love for the game, James Cadman hopping on the back of the most recent chess craze and Daniel Moore being inspired by popular Netflix chess drama series ‘The Queen’s Gambit’.
The team shared a few highlights from the competition.
A memorable moment for Koby Newman was playing against Scone Grammer School.
“We met halfway at Muswellbrook McDonalds and played in the foyer. We could hear the beeps of the machine, and we went down the slide in the play area after the win,” Kobey joked.
Ethan Williams shared that prior to their game against St Catherine’s, they had received an overconfident email that motivated the team to play harder.
“Last year, Singleton High School ended up losing to St Catherine’s, but we took their email prior to the game as motivation, prepared well and ended up winning four nil against them.”
With their schooling journey almost over, the boys shared that this is a memory that they will hold dear.
“For me the chess competition was a big highlight. It was lots of fun and a lot of good memories came from the it,” James Cadman said.
