The chess competition was hosted by Holroyd High School and involved seven schools and 66 students.

The schools that competed were Fairfield High School, Girraween High School, Granville Boys High School, Greystanes High School, Merrylands High School, Parramatta High School and Holroyd High School.

Peter McBurney, a teacher at Holroyd High School, said he was pleased with the outcome of the day.

"It went very, very well everyone was very relaxed and co-operative,'' Mr McBurney said.

"There wasn't the feeling of 'we're out to get you in this competition', although everyone was still playing to win.

"It was really good to get the local high schools together to see the strengths of public education. Everyone got on really well. It was a very impressive day.''

Mr McBurney said all the schools did well in the competition.

There were eight divisions ranging from advanced to beginners.

It was held in the school's new gymnasium which was opened in 2007.

He and co-coordinator Ann Douglas had been trying to host a chess competition for a long time.

"Our lunch-time chess club has about 100 players who often go to other schools to compete and they were always asking about having one of our own. Now with the hall, we had the space and facilities to do that.''