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The Winter Knights Scholastic Chess Tournament was the third qualifying tournament for the upcoming City Chess Championship to be held March 25-26, 2016.  The sections of Winter Knights were identical to the upcoming City Chess Championship sections, and the game time was 60 minutes per side (twice as long as the usual local scholastic chess tournament).  This was a new tournament designed to help condition students to playing the longer games of the City Chess Championship and National tournaments in the spring.  It presented a test of endurance, with many games, particularly in the 7-8th and 9-12th grade sections, lasting over 2 hours.  To complete five rounds, the first round started Friday evening on January 8th.  The remaining four rounds were played on Saturday.

                        

The youngest players, those in the K-3 section, produced two new qualifiers for the City Chess Championship:  Karsten Wallace and Alex Povorozniuc, both second-graders.  Receiving awards in this section were:  Karsten Wallace (RES) - 1st; Alex Povorozniuc (MCES) - 2nd; Caroline Wang (RES) - 3rd and top female; Oviya Gowder (HRTG) - 4th; Luke Chynoweth (RES) - 5th; and Catrina Holschen (RES) - 6th.

The 4-6th grade section winner was actually a third-grader, Geon Park, who was "playing up" in the 4th-6th grade section after qualifying the City Chess Championship in the K-3rd section earlier in the school year.  Geon achieved a perfect score of 5 points.  Two students from Columbia Elementary qualified for the City Chess Championship:  Puja Chopade and Abhishek Emani.  Here is the complete list of award recipients in this section:  Geon Park (RES) - 1st; Abhishek Emani (CES) - 2nd; Puja Chopade (CES) - 3rd; Aubteen Pour-Biazar (WMES) - 4th; Pranaav Satheesh (CES) - 5th; Victor Lundy (RES) - 6th and Neha Chopade - top female.

The 7-8th grade section and 9-12th grade section had some of the City's most highly rated students competing for awards.  In the 7-8th grade section, Rainbow Elementary fifth grade student Constance Wang "played up" and won both fourth place and the top female medal.  The complete list of award recipients in the 7-8th grade section is as follows:  Michael Guthrie (DMS) - 1st; Will Bao (DMS) - 2nd; Josh Lin (DMS) - 3rd; Constance Wang (RES) - 4th; Hayden Billmann (5th); and Chris Baker (LMS) - 6th.  Will Bao and Hayden Billmann qualified for the City Chess Championship in the 7-8th grade section.

All three competitors in the 9-12th grade section had previously qualified for the City Chess Championship in the elementary section.  Winners were:  Om Badhe (MCES) - 1st; Jenson Wilhelm (RES) - 2nd; and Boone Ramsey (RES) - 3rd.  For a complete list of those students who have qualified to date for the City Chess Championship, follow this link.