April 2013 - Northwest Chess!

Chess is Big at Nyssa
Middle School
by Roger Hunter
At Nyssa Middle School in Eastern
Oregon, on the Idaho border, about
10% of the students compete in the
annual chess competition. For the
final rounds of the tournament the
tiled floor of the school’s commons
is turned into a chess board and
students play their matches at lunch
times using a giant chess set made
by teacher Roger Hunter. This raises
the profile of the game and gives
players a chance to compete in front
of a crowd just like the other school
sports.
The picture shows overall winner, Boston Payne, pushing
a pawn during one of his semi-final games.
Photo credit: Roger Hunter.
Scholastics
Xiaoman Chu
wins Washington
State High School
Championshp
Xiaoman Chu with the Championship trophy.
Photo credit: Joshua Sinanan.
by Josh Sinanan (NW Chess Blog)
Congratulations to Xiaoman Chu,
a freshman from St. George School
in Spokane, for winning the 2013
Washington State High School
Individual Championship! He
tied for 1st with 4/5 along with
Megan Lee and David Inglis. For
his victory, Xiaoman is invited
to represent Washington in the
Denker Tournament of High School
Champions, held concurrently with
the U.S. Open in Madison, Wisconsin
in August.
The playoff games were played at
the Seattle Chess Club on March 2.
Colors were drawn at random and
the following games were played at
a time control of G/90 + 30 sec.
increment.
Schedule for the playoff (first person
listed had white):
9:30 David – Megan. Result: 0-1
2:00 Xiaoman – David Result: .5-.5
6:30 Megan – Xiaoman. Result: 0-1
Excitement at March
Madness Tournament
in Spokane
by James Stripes
The March Madness scholastic chess
tournament finished with an exciting
battle on the top board in K-7. Alex
Popescu had won all four previous
games, and was playing Shawn Lewis
who had lost one game in an early
round. A crowd gathered as Shawn
nursed his initiative in a position with
equal material, including opposite
colored bishops, and had a bit over
two minutes to just over one for Alex.
The players maneuvered quickly,
looking for tactics, and a few pawns
were exchanged. Alex tried to trade
queens, while Shawn kept up checks
and threats against the remaining
pawns. Shawn had five seconds left
when Alex reached zero and Shawn
claimed victory. That left third-grader
Alex in a tie for first with Shawn and
Shohom Bandyopadhyay (4.0 each).
Alex, by playing up, was not eligible
for first place in his grade, but placed
second overall in his section. Shawn
took home the Grand Champion
trophy and Shohom was first place in
fifth grade. One-half point behind the
leaders were the top seventh grader,
Trevor Murphy, and another thirdgrader,
Tariq Ravasia. Ray Johnson,
Reo Reyes, Ethan Wu, Merrick Bonar,
and top fourth-grader, A.J. Stenbeck
finished with 3.0.
In the K-3 section, James Gunn won
all five games and took home his
Page 26 April 2013 Northwest Chess