Isaac Ng, Thomas Feng and Joshua Ng of Box Hill Chess Club participated in the World Youth Under-16 Olympiad in Mersin, Turkey 16 – 25 August 2005.

The fourth player selected for the Australian team was Alex Grossman from Sydney. Our team was the youngest team by far (our average age of 12 against a typical average age of 15 and 16) where Alex was on board 1, Isaac board 2, Thomas board 3 and Joshua board 4. In addition most of the very strong chess playing Nations were there including India (eventual winner), Azerbijan and Russia.

Our boys did their very best and despite some very good chess and gallant efforts, they struggled against the much older players. Isaac top the team with 4.5 points, Thomas on 3.5 points, Joshua on 2 points and Alex on 1.5 points out of 10. Their results put them 2 spots above their rated position.

All the boys enjoyed tremendously the experience of playing as a team for Australia and by far they were the most popular team over there. They had a good time improving their chess and get to know junior players from 20 countries and more importantly all of them conducted themselves in such a manner that Australia should be proud of them.

Team Manager

Benjamin Ng