We’ve got the fever for chess and are looking forward to our Chess Festival!

Schüler:innen spielen Schach
Falk Weiß

All next week our school community will be thinking black and white as we celebrate a Chess Festival!

Chess has deep cultural significance and is considered one of the most complex board games in the world. By activating both hemispheres of the brain, playing the game trains the brain’s capacity and greatly enhances logical-strategic and creative thinking.

For several weeks now, Ms Barry, who is leading the chess club, which has been taking place once a week since the beginning of the school year, has also set up several chess sets on the balcony in front of the refectory during the breaks and openly offers all students the opportunity to play chess there. The interest of our students was enormous and especially girls and boys from the 7th and 8th classes were always there and enjoyed playing against each other or against Ms. Barry several times a week.

Because of the great response and because we just think the royal game is cool, a Chess Festival was announced for the next week. We have ordered a huge garden chess and the children can play in the school yard. There are tournaments every day in the different Years during break time and we also organise games between Platanus team and students. Every day there is a notice next to the NaWi room with a chess puzzle to think about and ponder which move would be the best. Other planned activities are speed chess in the Mensa and partner chess, where 2 players play together against two other players and take turns with their moves, but without being allowed to communicate.

On Friday, the grand final will take place, for which we have bought a chess demonstration board. Then the best player from Years 1 to 6 and from Years 7 to 10 will play against each other. The best player in the school receives the winner’s trophy.

After the huge success of the TV series “The Queen’s Gambit”, Ms. Barry has now also infected our students with chess fever and motivated the girls in particular to join in.

We are excited and looking forward to the coming week, when we are going to hear “checkmate” every day!

Many thanks in advance to Ms. Barry for the organisation and, as always, to our parents’ association “Platanus & Friends” for the financial support.

News

Schülerinnen und Schüler aus Spanien und Deutschland vor dem Brandenburger Tor

The visit of our Spanish exchange students!

Together with our Spanish partner school IES Pedro de Tolosa we were happy about the visit of 32 … more "The visit of our Spanish exchange students!"
Skifahrer*innen auf dem Hang

Our first Platanus winter sports trip to Austria!

We are happy to finally report in detail about our first Platanus winter sports trip to … more "Our first Platanus winter sports trip to Austria!"
Schüler*innen mit Hygieneartikeln

We would like to thank our Period Squad task force!

Following on from the topic of sex and relationships in Year 8 last year, a group of … more "We would like to thank our Period Squad task force!"
Online-Informationsveranstaltung zur Sekundarstufe und dem bilingualen Abitur

Online information event on the secondary school

At our information-event about secondary school and bilingual abitur on January 19th 2023 we… more "Online information event on the secondary school"
Weihnachtlich beleuchtetes Schulhaus

Christmas Greetings from our Managing Directors

Dear Parents, How wonderful it was to finally celebrate such an enjoyable Christmas … more "Christmas Greetings from our Managing Directors"