2012 Australian Schools Teams Chess Championship

Today saw the first 3 rounds of the 2012 Australian Schools Teams Chess Championship, at Hawker Primary School in Canberra. The event is run in 4 sections (Secondary Open & Primary, Girls Open & Primary), with 6 teams in each section. Senator Gary Humphries gave an opening speech, which was well received by the audience.
As is traditional with a number of Australian Junior events, the temperature in the playing hall was very warm, as there was no air-conditioning on offer. However the provision of a number of fans dotted around the playing hall at least kept the temperature manageable.
As each event is run as a round robin, determining a likely winner after 3 rounds is not that straightforward. Certainly Scotch College from Melbourne (11/12) seems to have inside track in the Open Secondary, but they still have a tough match against Brisbane Grammar to come. The other sections are a lot closer, with every point being crucial.
Of the chess that I managed to watch, there was some quite entertaining games. With a time limit of 60m+10s a move, a number of games ended with time scrambles, providing the opportunity for some clever escapes and swindles. One example was the diagrammed position in the Girls Primary section (NB This is not the exact position, but is as much as I can remember). White pushed the b pawn to b7 aiming to promote, only to walk into Kc2, when mate is unavoidable.
The tournament finishes tomorrow, with the final 2 rounds. Results for the event be found on the ACTJCL website.