Individual Stars Shine at State!
Individual Stars Shine at State!
Bob Jones High School hosted the 2022 State Scholastic Chess Championship, the first over-the-board state scholastic championship event since 2019. A winter weather advisory on Saturday threatened a late start to the individual event, but we were able to proceed as scheduled. ACF Secretary and 8 time State Chess Champion Bill Melvin helped award trophies and medals. ACF Scholastic Vice President Todd Guthrie was the Chief Tournament Director. He was assisted by: Kristian Jordan, ACF Public Relations VP, and MCCL TDs: Nitin Badhe, Parag Saxena, Guy Calinsky, Chris Hayes, and Puja Chopade.
State Representatives Mac McCutcheon and Mike Ball sponsored the event. The Madison City Chess League organized the tournament and provided lunch for the TDs and volunteer coaches. Scott Wilhelm was the official photographer for the event. His photos from Saturday's individual event are available here.
The Championship sections for Elementary, Jr High and High School occurred in Patriot Hall upstairs. These sections played longer games to help determine the state's representative to the Rockefeller, Barber, and Denker tournaments later this summer. The rest of the sections played in the Practice gym downstairs.
Individual results in tie-break order can be found here. The USCF Tournament Report (not in tie-break order) is available here. We were pleased to see kids from as far away as Fair Hope, Mobile and Mississippi and from other cities like Auburn, Tuscaloosa, Montgomery, and the Birmingham area.
Primary Championship Section
Winners (L to R): Esteban Jerez 1st (5pts), Esinam Tettey 2nd (4 pts), Isaac Kreusser 3rd (4 pts), Annabelle Hsu 4th (4 pts), Alice Zou 5th (4 pts).
It was a clean sweep as MCCL members captured every award in the Primary Championship section, the highest rated section for students in grades K-3. Horizon third grader Esteban Jerez won the Primary Championship. His winning 1st place continues a long line of Madison winners in this category.
2022 – Esteban Jerez (Horizon)
2021 - Kylie Zou (Horizon)
2020 - canceled due to Covid
2019 - Laya Gowder (Heritage)
2018 - Aadi Saxena (Heritage)
2017 - Xavier Bruni (Rainbow)
2016 - Geon Park (Rainbow)
2010 - Chen Zou
2007 - Elora Holland
2004 & 2005 - Dennis Dergunov (Horizon)
K-3 Under 300 Section
This was a new section created by the Alabama Chess Federation this year due to the growth in K-3 players over the past few years.
Under 300 winners (L to R): Arush Batchu 1st (5 pts), Varun Raval 2nd (4pts), Tyler Pysh 3rd (3.5 pts), Jagger Salisbury 4th (3.5 pts), Hannah Kuang 5th (3 pts). Tied for 5th place medals: Seth Fleming, Lucas He, and Joanna He.
Elementary Championship Section
Three co-champions tied with 3.5 pts each. Applying tie-break rules, trophies were awarded to (L to R): Shawn Choi 1st, Sai Kesireddy 2nd, and Kylie Zou 3rd. Winning 3 pts each were Sophia Jerez 4th, Leon Zeng 5th, and Ryan Wu (5th place medal).
The Elementary Championship section ended up with a three-way tie for first place, with Horizon third grader Kylie Zou (last year's Primary Champion) being one of the three students who are eligible for a playoff to determine who will represent Alabama in the Rockefeller Tournament of Elementary Champions. Horizon fourth grader Sophia Jerez also placed in the top five and won a trophy.
K-5 Under 500 Section
Under 500 winners (L to R): Viraat Satkuri 1st, Margaret Lin 2nd, Rhyan Quansah 3rd, Shaun McGrath 4th, Will He 5th. 5th place medals went to Abigail Barbre and Tiegan Eastman.
We had numerous winners from Madison in the Under 500 section, and they all competed on the MCCL Club team on Sunday. Madison winners were Margaret Lin, Rhyan Quansah, Will He, and Tiegan Eastman. Abigail Barbre competed on a Rainbow team on Sunday. Congratulations all!
Junior High Championship Section
Xavier Bruni won 1st place with 3.5 pts being declared the Jr High Champion at State. Tied with 3 pts and winning trophies were: Abhiraj Sarkar 2nd, Samuel Baskarraj 3rd, and Bishop Herrington 4th. Danny Seewald (not pictured) won 5th with 2.5 pts. Tied for 5th place medals were Eddie Xiao and Indigo Daniels (not pictured).
Discovery Middle School seventh grader Xavier Bruni won the Jr High Championship and will be the Alabama representative to the Barber Tournament of K-8 Champions later this summer. Xavier was a prior Elementary state champion and representative to the Rockefeller Tournament of Elementary Champions and a former Primary state champion. Congratulations Xavier!
K-8 Under 1000 Section
Under 1000 winners (L to R): Mokun Ojesina 1st (4.5 pts), Whitney Wadsworth 2nd (4 pts), Caroline Wang 3rd (4th pts), Nathan Chiu 4th (4 pts), Anna Ai 5th (3.5 pts). Tied for 5th place medals: Sarah Peter, Isabelle Park, and James Cairns.
We had a lot of award winners in this section from both Liberty and Discovery Middle schools. Congratulations to DMS students Caroline, Nathan and James, and congratulations to LMS students Anna and Isabelle!
High School Championship Section
Zachary Snow won the High School Championship section with 4 pts. Sherwood Dong won 2nd with 3 pts. Tying with 2.5 pts were Will Fox 3rd (not pictured) and Victor Lundy 4th. Steven Pan won 5th with 2 pts. Tying for 5th place medals were: Jonah Tuttle, Joel Friedman, Atindrah Harishankar, Kapil Nathan (not pictured) and Constance Wang (not pictured).
K-12 Under 1300 Section
Under 1300 winners (L to R): Wilson Engeriser 1st (4 pts), Edward Calinsky 2nd (4 pts), Emily Jiang 3rd (3.5 pts), Michael Kennedy (not pictured) 4th (3pts), Kennedy Gore 5th (3pts).
There was a tie for first place, but after applying tie-break rules, Wilson Engeriser from Bayside Academy edged out Edward Calinsky from Bob Jones for the 1st place trophy. Kennedy Gore from Bob Jones also won a 5th place trophy.
MCCL would like to thank all the volunteers who helped set up and clean up the tournament. We also appreciate everyone who donated and worked concessions during the tournament. Thank you all for being great hosts for our out-of-town competitors.
