Captains’ Corner | Vice Captain, Oliver Casey-Ryan

This week at our Spirit Assembly we acknowledged the Chess team. The Premier Board was announced, and it appears as if we have a real shot at the GPS Premiership this year. This would be an outstanding achievement, and like Football, it is a premiership which Terrace has never won. The Captain of Chess, Senior Buckley student Alex Ong, confidently stood to deliver his speech. His opening lines were:

In chess, there aren’t a million possible move combinations. Or billions. Or trillions. There are just two: a right move and a wrong move.

I thought to myself, wow, what a great way to open a speech – simple yet so apt. If you are reading this, Alex, it was a great speech.

The simplicity of the powerful message reminded me of a math paper I read once. No, that is not a typo. Halfway into last year’s lockdown, I once got so bored I started perusing peculiar mathematic theory. There was an article composed by an eccentric mathematician who stated that the field of probability is essentially futile. His reasoning was this: Everything either happens or doesn’t.

As we head into Term 3, a challenging term for us all, it is important to remember these points. Make the right moves, by dedicating your time and energy to the term, and it will happen.