Spokane Chess Club

Spokane Area Scholastic Tournaments

Upcoming Scholastic Events: 
 

2009-2010 School Year

        Here are the flyers we have for upcoming area scholastic events.  If you know of other events in the region, please contact this site so that we can help publicize the info. 

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DRAGONSLAYER

CHESS TOURNAMENT

Saturday March 20^th

 Kindergarten – 12^th Grade

          Three Sections: K-3^rd grade; 4^th-6^th; 7^th-12^th

          Check in 8:30am - 9:30am

 Saint George’s School

          2929 W. Waikiki, Spokane

Directions at http://sgs.org/admission/directions.asp

To Play:

     Send entry fee of $10 made out to “SGS CHESS”

to Chris Copeland, 505 E 11^th Ave, Spokane, WA 99202

or email: chess@sgs.org  On site entries pay $15.

NAME:          _____________________

SCHOOL:     _____________________

GRADE:        _____________________

Five Round, Swiss system, WSRS Rated, Elementary State Qualifier

Everyone plays 5 games, One hour (30 minutes per player) for each game.  First round starts at 10 am.  MUST BE CHECKED IN BEFORE 9:30.

Concessions available on site.

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Scholastic Event Reports 2009-2010

Black Knights Joust (March 6, 2010)

by Dr. James Stripes

        The Black Knights’ Quest ended with an exciting sudden-death blitz game between two of the area’s top players. After drawing their round four game, and both winning their other four games, Alex Chow and Ryan Ackerman finished atop the 7-12 section with 4.5 each. All three of the tie-breaks failed to resolve the equality. They drew for colors, and Ackerman got White. Thus Ackerman started with five minutes and Chow with four, but Ackerman had to win. A draw would be a victory for Chow. The tough battle for advantage ended in a race to move faster; Ackerman had six seconds left when Chow’s clock expired. Ryan Ackerman succeeded in winning his third event in three days!

 Ryan won a $50 gift card, while Alex took home $25 for second. Third place in 7-12 went to Nikolay Bulakh with 4.0. Two Idaho players and one from Pullman finished next with 3.5. Kairav Joshi and Peter Schumaker took home medals for their performance, while Savanna Naccarato won a $25 gift card for best player under 1300. Second place under 1300 was David Burke, who earned a $15 gift card. Trevor Joireman scored the biggest upset and took home the last of the gift cards.

The twenty-one player 7-12 section included two sixth graders, a second grader, and one kindergarten player. These young players averaged nearly three points each against the older kids.

Mead was the top high school, and Lincoln of Pullman the top middle school.

In the K-6 section, Lake Spokane prevailed over Arcadia. The top two schools finished with 15.5 each, but Lake Spokane had stronger tie-breaks so took home the first place trophy. Saint George’s settled for third for the first time this year (they usually win first). 

Cyril Berndt was the only perfect 5.0 in the entire tournament, and was the Grand Champion for 4-6. One point behind him were Shay Hutyler, Jacob Gifford, and Drew Lindh, all winning trophies. Leading the pack of 3.0 finishers was the top fourth grader, Katie Thew. Also with 3.0 were Ali Hartley, Zeph Johnson, Jehan Ravasia, and Alexandra Elkins. Matt Nelson showed that he is becoming a stronger player by scoring the biggest upset. The 4-6 section had only a single draw among the forty-five games played.

In K-3, first grader Dawson Jury was the Grand Champion with 4.5. Close behind were Alex Herron and Nikhil Chaudhry with 4.0, taking the top two trophies for third grade. Shawn Lewis was the next in third grade with 3.5, and scored the biggest upset. Also finishing with 3.5 was Koh Micek. Sixth place overall with 3.0 in order of tie-breaks were Joshua Joireman, Augustus Beeler, and Daniel Arthurs. The top kindergarten player was Tariq Ravasia. There were quite a few draws in this section, many due to the young players not yet skilled in delivering checkmate

The cross tables:

SwissSys Standings. BK Quest: K-3

SwissSys Standings. BK Quest: 7-12

GSL Team Championship (March 5, 2010)

 FERRIS HIGH SCHOOL TEAM CHAMPIONS

        Ferris (2.5) edged Lewis & Clark (2.0) to win the GSL team championship on March 5.  The south hill schools ended Mead's (1.5) hopes of a repeat championship.  Six schools competed in the event hosted by Gonzaga Prep.  Rogers, North Central, and Prep finished tied for fourth with 1.0 scores.  The Ferris team consisted of seniors Khoi Thai, Daniel Parkison, and Khai Le, junior Daniel Berg, and sophomore Montana Killpack.

    Mead senior Ryan Ackerman was perfect (3.0) on board one to claim the trophy for the outstanding individual performance.  LC's Alex Chow (board 2) and Will Dittman (board 4) were the perfect scores on their boards.  Khai Le of Ferris was perfect on board 3, and Rogers senior Klint Minnameier was perfect on board five.

Groundhog Gambit (St. Georges, Feb. 6, 2010)

Groundhog Gambit has International Flavor

        The annual Groundhog Gambit drew 96 players to St. Georges on February 6.  The event had an international flavor when Azerbaijani ten-year-old Ayshan Aliyeva made her second local scholastic event a success with a perfect 5.0 score and first place in the K-6 section.  Alysahn is staying in Pullman for a month while her mother completes work on a Fulbright Fellowship.  Her previous foray into local play was a successful tie for first at Winterfest.  Her success there made its way on to an Azerbaijani news website: http://www.news.az/articles/7665

        Regional players also did well!  The 23-player K-3 section title was shared by three who scored 4.0 (listed in tie-break order): Koh Micek, Nathan Arthurs, and Joshua Joierman.  Koh goes to school at Moran Prairie, while Nathan and Joshua are teammates at Pullman's Jefferson school.

        North Central senior Ben Blue followed his victory at Winterfest with another perfect 5.0 score to win the K-12 section.  The section featured 43 players, which is the largest for the K-12 section at any local open scholastic tourney in your editor's recent memory (the 53 player GSL individual championship at Mt. Spokane in 2001 may be the largest).

The standings:

SwissSys Standings. Groundhog's Gambit: K-3

SwissSys Standings. Groundhog's Gambit: K-6

SwissSys Standings. Groundhog's Gambit: K-12

Winterfest (Deer Park, Jan. 23, 2010)

by Dr. James Stripes

Arcadia Elementary School's eighth Winterfest Scholastic attracted eighty-seven players from more than twenty schools. Competitors included an unrated player that has competed in her hometown of Baku, Azerbaijan, but is new to scholastic chess in the United States. Those that travelled far played well, as did some of the younger players.

 In the twenty-three player 7-12 section, the three elementary age competitors all scored at least three points. Sixth grader Nathan Arthurs placed second behind North Central senior Ben Blue. Gonzaga Prep junior Nikolay Bulakh tied Arthurs, but had weaker tie-breaks. In fourth place Sandpoint seventh grader Savanna Naccarato won the prize for best under 1300. Second grader Braxton Casey—likely the youngest competitor ever in the 7-12 section of Spokane area tournaments—placed second in under 1300 as one of seven players tied for fifth through eleventh place. Deer Park sophomore Dane Lindh, also in that group, won the prize for biggest upset.

Teams in high school/middle school were small, and the top middle school teams benefitted from the participation of elementary students playing up. Three teams finished with the same score. North Central took home the trophy for top high school. Northwood triumphed on tie-breaks over Lincoln of Pullman for the middle school trophy.

In the Elementary team competition, the top three teams finished in the order that has become a pattern through recent tournaments. Saint George’s won first with players averaging four points each. Lake Spokane was second, and Arcadia placed third.

Individual trophies in elementary went to grand champions Ayshan Aliyeva in 4-6 and Nikhil Chaudhry in K-3. Shay Hutyler was the top sixth grader. Cyril Berndt finished without a loss, drawing Aliyeva in the final round to win top fifth grader (Aliyeva had better tie-breaks as all of her opponents scored at least three points). Zeph Johnson earned the trophy for top fourth grader (the only other player in his grade that scored three or more was the grand champion). Due to the strength of the fifth graders at the top, trophies went to Brandon Hill, second in fifth grade; Jacob Gifford, third; and Ryan Walker, fourth. Kindergartner Garrett Casey won a trophy for fifth place overall in the 4-6 section. Robert Bolton won biggest upset in 4-6.

Bolton’s teammate Lucas Keller won biggest upset in K-3. Those scoring four points in K-3 each won first in grade: Jack Martin, third grade; Jacob Keyes, second grade; and Dawson Jury, first grade. The top kindergartner in K-3 was Ethan Wu, playing in his first tournament. Trophies also went to second graders Connor Lester, second place; Sarah Wu, third; and Marshall Starbuck, second place in third grade. All players scoring three or more that did not win trophies took home medals, as did kindergartners scoring two or more.

The cross tables:

SwissSys Standings. Winterfest Scholastic: Winterfest K-3

SwissSys Standings. Winterfest Scholastic: Winterfest K-6

SwissSys Standings. Winterfest Scholastic: Winterfest K-12

GSL Individual Championship (Ferris H.S., Jan. 22)  

Mead Junior Taylor Coles captured the title with a perfect 4.0 score to best the field of 19.  Second place resulted in a five-way tie among Ryan Ackerman, Nikolay Bulakh, George Joslin, Richard Schumacher, and Khoi Thai.  A single elimination blitz play-off ensued, with Ackerman and Joslin meeting in the end.  It took three games before Ryan broke through in a sudden death game (Ryan, with white, had an extra minute on the clock, while George had draw-odds).  That left Mead with the two top trophies! The biggest upset trophy went to Ferris's Dan Berg, who claimed a 781 point upset victory.

The cross table:

SwissSys Standings. 2010GSL: 2010GSL

Solstice Sacrifice (St. Georges, Dec. 12)

by Chris Copeland

Seventy six scholastic players found refuge from a very cold December day pushing wood at Saint George’s School. 

 In both the K-3 and 4-6 divisions, the champions repeated their perfect performance at the Black Knight’s Joust in Deer Park.  Kindergartener Garrett Casey continues to be unflappable, defeating the number two and number three players in the last two rounds.  Garrett is now over 300 points higher rated than the next best players in the K-3!

Knocking at his door though were Saint George’s team mates, Nikhil Chaudry and Jack Martin, both third graders.  Although Jack was on board one for the final round and both players only lost to Garrett,  he took second in 3^rd grade behind Nikhil based on tiebreaks! Better root on your opponents after you beat them.  By coming into the tournament with a higher rating than Jack, Nikhil got to play slightly more challenging opponents.

The big news in both the K-3 and the 4-6 was the huge turnout from Lake Spokane Elementary : 20 players out of the field of  51!   This caused team restrictions to be turned off as early as round 2 and several Lake Spokane kids found themselves playing their teammates.  Over a third of the K-3 were playing in their first tournament and one, Koh Micek from the newly formed Moran Prairie club took 2^nd in 2^nd grade.   We are told we’ll see a lot more tough competition coming out of  Moran Prairie.

In a move made possible by the new supply of chess clocks from last year’s State Championship, the entire 4-6 section was required to play their games on clocks. Inevitably many kids played more quickly than they should have just because the clock made them think they had to hurry, but by the third game the pace of play had returned to normal.  We hope this tournament practice better prepares our area kids for State.  By the time they get there they should be quite comfortable with the clock ticking away beside them and we won’t see people throw their brains out the window just because they are being timed!  It was notable that most of the losers used considerably less time than their opponents.  4 point winner Braxton Casey playing in the 4-6 as a 2^nd grader(!) consistently used more of his 30 minutes than any other player in the section …Hmmm.

The chess Club from Grace Lutheran in Wenatchee also brought a strong contingent with all the Berndt’s (Gregory – 3^rd grade, 4^th place; Cyril, 5^th grade 4^th place; and Titus, 2^nd place Middle School).  For the first time in many years we saw the Desmarais brothers (also Grace Lutheran) show up at a scholastic tournament.  Not surprisingly, they were paired in the final round and …DREW in an opposite colored bishop ending.  Peter Schumaker, playing up in the 7-12 went undefeated, drawing two games and coming in third overall and number 1 for Middle school.  Notably absent this week were Ryan Ackerman of Mead who broke his shoulder the day before snowboarding and Richard Schumaker who was at a swim meet.  A notable break through tournament was had by SGS Junior John Gunn, winning 4 points to take 3^rd in HS and scoring the largest upset (312 points).  Even more spectacular, fifth grader Andrew Akins from Evergreen Elementary popped off a 466 point upset in the first round followed by two others over 200 points for a cumulative of  923 upset points in a single tournament.  I guess his rating is going up!

Many thanks to the parents who volunteered to act as judges and run the concessions – these tournaments would not be possible without your support.  Adam Attwood was much appreciated running the High School section and as ever, Dr. John Cambareri kept the tournament smoothly running on his laptop. 

The prize winners:

Solstice Scholastic 2009                       AWARDS

Kindergarten

            1^st        Gina Hill                       1.5 points         Lake Spokane

            2^nd        David Thew                  1 point              Saint Georges

1^st Grade         

            1^st        Hana Hill                      2 points            Lake Spokane

            2^nd        Nicholas Dawson         2 points            SOP

2^nd Grade

            1^st        Connor Lester              3 points            Grace Lutheran

            2^nd        Koh Micek                   3 points            Moran Prairie

3^rd Grade         

            1^st        Nikhil Chaudry             4 points            Saint Georges

            2^nd        Jack Martin                  4 points            Saint Georges

            3^rd        Nicholas Akins             4 points            Evergreen

            4^th        Gregory Berndt            3.5 points         Grace Lutheran

            5^th        Everett Pierce               3.5 points         Arcadia

K-3 Champion:            GARRETT CASEY  Kindergarden Homeschool 5 points

4^th Grade

            1^st        Connor Cremers           3 points            Saint Georges

            2^nd        Bleu Sidell                    3 points            Lake Spokane

            3^rd        Branson Garske            2 points            Saint Georges

            4^th        Alexandra Elkins           2 points            Evergreen

5^th Grade         

            1^st        Brandon Hill                 4 points            Lake Spokane

            2^nd        Jacob Gifford               4 points            Lake Spokane

            3^rd        Ryan Walker                4 points            Saint Georges

            4^th        Cyril Berndt                  3 points            Grace Lutheran

            5^th        Andrew Akins              3 points            Evergreen

            6^th        Andy Ames                  3 points            Lake Spokane

6^th Grade

            1^st        Michael Thew               4 points            Saint Georges

            2^nd        Shay Hutyler                 3 points            Lake Spokane

            3^rd        Jesse Alves-Foss          3 points            MCD

4-6 Champion: COLLIN CREMERS 6^th Grade Saint Georges 5 points

Elementary Teams

            1^st Saint Georges          21 points

            2^nd        Lake Spokane  17

            3^rd        Evergreen         11

Middle School

1^st        Peter Schumaker          Lincoln MS, Pullman                 4 points

2^nd        Titus Berndt                  Grace Lutheran, Wenatchee      3 points

3^rd        Joseph Verchota           Saint Georges, Spokane           2.5 points

4^th        David Joslin                  Centennial, Spokane                 2.5

1^st place team:  Centennial Middle School Spokane

High School

1^st        Niles Desmarais            Grace Lutheran             4.5 points

2^nd        Cyrus Desmarais          Grace Lutheran             4 points

3^rd        John Gunn                    Saint Georges                           4 points

4^th        Nikolay Bulakh             Gonzaga Prep                           4 points

5^th        David Blue                   North Central HS                     3 points

6^th        Ben Blue                      North Central                           3 points

Best under 1000           James Eckart                                        3 points

1^st place team:  Grace Lutheran, Wenatchee

The cross tables:

SwissSys Standings. solstice sac 09: K-3

SwissSys Standings. solstice sac 09: K-6

SwissSys Standings. solstice sac 09: K-12