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Madison Elementary hosted its first chess tournament, the MCS Fall Scholars on October 15, 2016, and set a record attendance for this chess tournament open only to students attending Madison City Schools.  A total 103 Madison students competed in four sections:  Non-rated K-3, Non-rated K-6, Under 900 and Championship. Principal Melissa Mims, Assistant Principal Gerald Franks, and Chess Team Sponsor Karen Hartselle outdid themselves in creating the optimum environment for a scholastic chess tournament.  Every elementary, middle, and high school in Madison had representatives competing in the tournament.

Now in its third year, Fall Scholars offers unique individual prizes in addition to the traditional trophies and medals.  Fall Scholars is the second qualifier for the 2017 City Chess Championship, and it offers the top two elementary finishers in the Championship section an opportunity to train with their middle school.  This year, the top two Elementary finishers in the Championship section were Geon Park and Victor Lundy, both students at Rainbow Elementary.  Geon and Victor will now be invited to train with the Discovery Middle School chess team.

City Chess Championship Qualifiers

Seven students qualified to compete in the 2017 City Chess Championship by finishing in the top of their age groups in the Championship Section of Fall Scholars:  Xavier Bruni (K-3); Victor Lundy and Ethan Xu (4th-6th); Josh Lin and Will Cox (7th-8th); and Michael Guthrie and Lawrence Zhang (9th-12th).

Pictured L to R: Xavier Bruni, Victor Lundy, Josh Lin, Will Cox, and Michael Guthrie.  Not pictured:  Ethan Xu and Lawrence Zhang.

Rated Section Results

The Championship section of the Fall Scholars chess tournament is like no other in Madison.  The top chess players attending Madison City Schools regardless of age compete head to head, and this year's tournament saw some upsets.  But that happens in chess frequently.  Up-and-coming chess players relish the opportunity to challenge the best players.  Chess teaches our kids to win and lose gracefully and to persevere. 

Pictured L to R:  Josh Lin (1st), Will Fox (2nd), Victor Lundy (3rd), Geon Park (4th), Will Cox (5th), Karsten Wallace (6th), Hayden Billmann (7th), Michael Guthrie (8th), and Maanasi Limaye (top female).  Not pictured: Lawrence Zhang (9th), and Ethan Xu (10th).

The Library served as the playing room for the Championship section with Chief Tournament Director (TD) Bill Nash serving as the floor TD.

The K-12 Under 900 Rated Section was the largest section of the tournament with 49 competitors and likely will need to be further subdivided next year.  Caesar Lawrence served as floor tournament director for the Under 900 Section which competed in the Madison Elementary Gym. Award winners were:  John Choung (1st), Yashas Gentela (2nd), Luke Chynoweth (3rd), Oviya Gowder (4th), Mark Skrabanek (5th), Michael Nguyen (6th), Christopher Kang (7th), Jason Park (8th), Wesley Gaddy (9th), Wyatt Devine (10th), and Caroline Wang (top female).

Pictured R to L: John Choung (1st), Yashas Gentela (2nd), Luke Chynoweth (3rd), Oviya Gowder (4th), Mark Skrabanek (5th), Michael Nguyen (6th), Christopher Kang (7th), Jason Park (8th), Wesley Gaddy (9th), Wyatt Devine (10th), and Caroline Wang (top female).

Non-Rated Sections Results

The Non-Rated sections competed in the Gym, and serving as floor tournament directors for Non-Rated players were Paul Mulqueen and Jim Spanier. 

Eleven students competed in the Non-Rated K-6 Section.  Award winners are pictured below (L to R):  Sohail Big (1st), Owen Lang (2nd), Aidan Friday-Stewart (3rd)-not pictured, Andrew Park (4th), Nicole New (5th), and Srihitha Bijjula (top female).

Twenty-three students competed in the Non-Rated K-3 Section, which continues a trend we are seeing this year in Madison chess with more and more younger players being introduced to the game.  "I found it quite impressive that our youngest non-rated players were attempting to practice notating their games, even though they were not required to under the rules," said MCCL Executive Director Ranae Bartlett.  "It was clear that these students had been encouraged by their coaches to try recording even if not required to in order to practice and in order to make claims."  Because this was a non-rated section, Chief TD Bill Nash announced that those competing who were non-rated were not required to adhere to the USCF recording rule that was enforced on all other students competing in the rated sections.

Award winners in the Non-Rated K-3 section are pictured below (L to R):  Jacob New (1st), Levi Smith (2nd), Mick Tyrrell (3rd), Andrew Nguyen (4th), Holland Lang (5th), and Nirvana Rajbhandari (top female).  The top four winners all had 4 points, and tie break rules determined their finish. Holland and Nirvana both ended the day with 3.5 points, also a very impressive finish.  

Complete tournament results for Fall Scholars can be found here.