Over the past two years, chess has become a very popular co-curricular choice for many students at St Catherine’s School.

As a mentally stimulating game, it is an incredible way to develop one’s thinking abilities and enhance the development of good memory and analytical skills. With a strong correlation between the skills developed by playing chess and those which are necessary for a student to perform well academically, it offers many intellectual benefits. The game of chess also nurtures social skills by presenting an opportunity to develop new friendships with those who have a common interest.

As St Catherine’s students are now discovering, chess is a fun way to stimulate one’s mind. Large numbers of students regularly attend the St Catherine’s Senior and Junior School Chess Clubs either to play a serious game of chess or to socialise with peers who have a similar interest.

The growing interest in chess at St Catherine’s School has also led to chess success! In 2019, St Catherine’s qualified to play in three interschool chess state finals and achieved its best ever results in these competitions. A number of students from the Senior School Chess Club competed in the Chess Victoria Open Secondary and Secondary Girls State Finals. In the Open Secondary State Final, St Catherine’s was the sixth best performing school out of 24 competing schools. In the Secondary Girls State Final, St Catherine’s finished equal third out of 11 participating schools. Our Junior School chess players have also experienced success, finishing in fourth place out of 17 competing schools in the Chess Victoria Primary Girls State Final.

These pleasing results clearly show that St Catherine’s students are really beginning to flex their mental muscles when playing chess.