Curro hosts largest school online chess tournament
Curro Sport recently hosted the biggest school online chess tournament in South Africa – a local first! The independent education provider, via their sporting division, Curro Sport, hosted their Inter-Curro online chess tournament via the Lichess.org platform.
A total of 234 primary schools and 103 high school learners participated in the event, which was facilitated by Kenneth Willenberg from the Chess Academy South Africa and Mercia Addinall from Curro Holdings.
Among the respective winners of the six different age-group categories were two learners from Curro Hermanus – Connor Opperman, who came out tops in the U12 category, and Ethan Hingham who won the U16 category. Congratulations to all the winners, and especially the two boys who made Hermanus proud!
“During the lockdown, e-sports has become an incredible opportunity for learners to connect in a fun, competitive space, in lieu of them traditionally meeting face-to-face for sporting events,” says Cindy van der Merwe, Project Manager: Curro Sport. “To further add to the excitement, due to the success of this tournament, chess has been awarded ‘Curro Cup status’ in 2021, meaning chess will be one of the 12 sports codes that make up the 2021 Curro Cup competition,” adds van der Merwe.
The Curro Cup is a first of its kind for Curro Holdings and South Africa and is set to reshape the landscape of school sport within the Curro group of schools. Thousands of Curro learners across the country will compete in national inter-school events for rugby sevens, soccer, netball, hockey, tennis, athletics, swimming, golf, mountain biking – and now chess.