Spokane Chess Club

Spokane Area Scholastic Tournaments

Scholastic Event Reports  2007 - 2008

Dragonslayer (March 8, 2008)

by Chris Copeland

2008 DRAGONSLAYER Attracts many new players!

Saint George’s hosted the 10^th annual Dragonslayer, the season capping scholastic chess tournament in the Spokane area.  Notably, two new chess clubs made their first tournament appearances and upped the ante.  Lake Spokane Elementary from the Nine Mile District and Widner Elementary from Couer d’Alene both fielded robust teams of 13 players.

In the K-3 section, the first round saw two notable upsets.  In his first tournament, Lake Spokane Elementary 3^rd grader Jacob Gifford defeated veteran Kyle Luiten (SGS), and Kindergartener Jocelyn Thew (SGS) surprised everyone by drawing highest seeded third grader Hudson Simmons of Indian Trail Elementary.  This provided an opening for the other top rated players, Robby Jones (SGS), Alex Herron (Spokane Valley Learning Academy) and Shea Bryan (Prairie View Elementary).  However, Robby drew tenacious Arcadia third grader Drew Lindh in round two and later lost to the fast improving Shea Bryan to settle for 4^th in 3^rd grade (5^th overall).  Both Shea and Alex marched through their opposition with Alex providing Jacob with his only defeat of the day.  This set up the championship game between the only two undefeated players.  Ultimately youth prevailed and Alex took home the trophy for section champ.  Meanwhile, after his first round defeat to Jacob, Kyle Luiten played very strongly and won his remaining games to finish 3^rd overall.  By far the most common checkmates were accomplished with either two rooks or rook and queen.  Many games however ended in stalemate when the stronger side had overpowering force – in one case three queens, two rooks and a bishop!  Nikhil Chaudry (SGS) also put in a fine day with two upset wins to secure 1^st place in 1^st grade.  His rating is going up!  The largest upset of the day though is credited to 1st grader Daniel Arthurs of Pullman – 299 points!

Both the average and the top rating in the 4-6 section are about 200 points higher than K-3, which makes it harder for new players to do well – especially if they are at the bottom of the heap in 4^th grade!  And sure enough, there wasn’t a player rated under 750 in the top 9.  The biggest news belongs to the Shimanuki brothers, Luke (4^th grade) and Brian (6^th grade Meadow Ridge ES).  Luke scored an upset in the second round to go on for 3 points and 3^rd in 4^th grade while Brian served notice that he is the man to beat by having a perfect 5 point day.  His hardest game came in the 4^th round against top ranked Daniel Gimbel of SGS in which Brian displayed a better understanding of central pawn tension to exchange at the right moment, winning a pawn and leaving Daniel with a weak isolated pawn.  The last round showdown between Brian and undefeated Joseph Verchota (SGS) became a tactical slugfest in which the higher rated player prevailed.

Despite having previous section champs Michael Thew, Kashif Ravasia and Jon Ross either play up in the high school section or be absent due to illness, Saint Georges managed to edge out Arcadia Elementary for first place Elementary team.  Lake Spokane Elementary proved they are on the warpath by taking third in their first ever tournament.  Congratulations to all and GOOD LUCK AT STATE!!

 The K-12 section was a little thin this time with only 24 players, partly due no doubt to the GSL team championship having just occurred the night before.  The two biggest surprises were delivered by SGS players.  Kashif Ravasia, playing up as a 6^th grader, defeated star Pullman 4^th grader Peter Shumaker in round 2.  Despite obtaining a positional superior position, Peter fell prey to an unforeseen pin resulting in the loss of the exchange.  He quickly recovered and went on to win his remaining games, finishing 3^rd overall.  The second round was not kind to Peter’s brother Richard either who drew the much lower rated SGS 8^th grader Chauncy Cullitan.  However, it should be noted that since coming to adult events, Chauncy has been improving rapidly.  Mead as expected dominated with sophomore Ryan Ackerman having to face down teammate Taylor Coles as they were the only two undefeated players by round 4.   Lincoln MS of Pullman took the team honors for K-8.

 About half the MS-HS players are rated over 1000.  It has been suggested that we run an open and reserve division cut at 1000.  This would certainly make some sense if we had larger turn out, but would probably wreck teams.  Since teams are not much of a big deal in this section anyway, perhaps this doesn’t matter.  On the plus side, having two divisions means each player would face opponents more nearly at their own ability level.  This might be more fun for both strong and weaker players.  If you think this is a good idea, email chess@sgs.org and we’ll consider it for the next tournament.  We also considered having separate MS and HS sections, but it is notable that out of the top 12 overall, 7 are in 8^th grade or below!

Kindergarten

            1^st place           Jacob Keyes                Children’s House Montessori

            2^nd place           Jocelyn Thew               SGS

1^st Grade

            1^st place           Nikhil Chaudry SGS

            2^nd Place          Brandon Hill                 Lake Spokane ES

            3^rd Place           Danniel Arthurs Jefferson ES (Pullman)

2^nd Grade        

            1^st place           Luther Shinew              Jefferson ES (Pullman)

            2^nd place           Connor Cremers           SGS

            3^rd place           Hunter Moses               Lake Spokane ES

3^rd grade

            1^st place           Shea Bryan                   Prairie View ES

            2^nd place           Kyle Luiten                   SGS

            3^rd place           Jacob Gifford               Lake Spokane ES

            4^th place           Robby Jones                SGS

            5^th place           Joel Overton                 Arcadia ES

            6^th place           Hudson Simmons          Indian Trail ES

            7^th place           Drew Lindh                  Arcadia ES

K-3 Champion             Alex Herron (1^st grade) Spokane Valley Learning Academy

4^th grade

            1^st place           Ricky Sato                   Jefferson ES (Spokane)

            2^nd place           Jesse Alves-Fosse        McDonald ES

            3^rd place           Luke Shimanuki            Homelink Deer Park

            4^th place           Tatyana Hubbard          Brentwood ES

            5^th place           Shay Hutyler                 Lake Spokane ES

            6^th place           Jehan Ravasia               SGS

            7^th place           Alexander Moses         Lake Spokane ES

5^th grade

            1^st place           Joseph Verchota           SGS

            2^nd place           Daniel Gimbel               SGS

            3^rd place           Coel Burns                   Arcadia ES

            4^th place           Kody Turner                Arcadia ES

6^th grade          

            1^st place           Joel Sivanish                 Evergreen ES

            2^nd place           Kenney Sato                Libby Oddysey

K-6 Champion             Brian Shimanuki            (6^th grade)        Meadow Ridge ES

7^th grade

            1^st place           Kevin Cao                    Centennial MS

8^th grade

            1^st place           Jordan Alves-Foss        Moscow JHS

            2^nd place           Chauncy Cullitan           SGS

Middle School Champion         Richard Schumaker      Lincoln MS Pullman

High School Champion          Ryan Ackerman            Mead HS

             2^nd overall                     Taylor Coles                 Mead HS

            3^rd                                Peter Schumaker          Jefferson ES Pullman

            4^th                                Ben Blue                      North Central HS

            5th                               Richard Shumaker        Lincoln MS Pullman

            6^th                                Nathan Arthurs             Jefferson ES Pullman

            7^th                                Jordan Alves-Foss        Moscow JHS

            8^th                                Kashif Ravasia              SGS

            9^th                                Kevin Cao                    Centennial MS

            10^th                              Jordan Newton             SGS

            11^th                              Chauncy Cullitan           SGS

            12^th                              John Gunn                    SGS