Ogden Scholastic Chess Tournament

For the third year, WRHS Chess Rage won the Ogden Scholastic Tournament.  This year was unique in that we brought a full middle school team for the first time.

After finding a suitable basecamp for our teams, we were surprised to see some familiar faces-Kevin and Katie Patterson greeted us with smiles.  We immediately decided that Katie should be an official member of the WRHS Chess Club.  Afterall, she has always been respected by our group and I was hoping she would develop a deeper camaraderie with her friends as she teamed up with our middle school team. It is nice to feel a part of a group at any age.

Katie plays to the end

WRMS Cheers Katie on

We have a total of thirteen players - 5 players on the high school team and 6 players on the middle school team.  Dylan and Darwin would have to forgo teammates again in the elementary section.  This is the first time I have ever had a full middle school team and I was excited to see the results.  Of the 13 players, six have never been involved in tournament before today.

Colby

Darwin

Alex

Max

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Hunter

Hunter is white on this board.  He won.

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Riley

Here is a position from Riley Clark's game (she is white, but lost)

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As round 1 approached, I could sense the nerves and adrenaline start to circulate in the players. Colby likened the experience to a start of his wrestling matches and was surprised to feel this in a chess tournament. His legs were antsy, he started sweating, and his senses heightened.  This was going to be an exciting tournament.

One of Colby's games as black.  Major problem in front of the king.

	Gr	Rnd 1	Rnd 2	Rnd 3	Rnd 4	Rnd 5	Total	Place
Darwin Porth	K	0	0	1/2	1/2	0	1.0	1st
Dylan Porth	5	1	0	1	0	0	2.0
Katie Patterson	7	1	1	1	0	0	3.0	2nd
Desmond Porth	8	0	1	1	1	1	4.0	3rd
Riley Neel	8	1	0	1	1	1	4.0	2nd
Hunter Frye	8	0	1	1/2	1	1	3.5	4th
Jake Whitlock	8	1	1	0	0	1	3.0	3pt.
Riley Clark	8	0	0	0	0	1B	1.0
Colby Guisasola	9	0	1	1	0	0	2.0	2nd
Max Mahlic	9	0	1	0	0	0	1.0
Andrew Uriarte	12	1	1	1	0	1	4.0	1st
Chris Ellis	12	1	1	0	0	1	3.0	2nd
Alex Bates	12	1	0	0	1	1	3.0	3rd

Darwin is white.  I spotted this triple check position in one of his games.  Don't ask me how???

The first few games for Darwin were tragedies and lot's of tears were flowing as he realized this was a competition and he wanted a trophy like his brother and sister.  After his second game, he sat by himself and thumbed through a book ("Chess Wisdom") and pondered.  I found great entertainment watching Darwin in the later games.  He lightened up his mood and decided to have fun.  This age group really knows how to enjoy playing a game of chess!  Darwin and his opponents spent time moving pieces like race cars, they then transformed them into airplanes, pieces frequently hit the floor, were misplaced or not even replaced, and the pen-ultimate move - shaking the rook you just took off the board at your opponent!  I wish I got some of the antics on film.  It was nice to see smiles from both players unlike earlier.  As this was a K-3 section, I think he was playing 3rd graders in the first few games as there was a huge difference in the approach to the game.  Overall, I noticed that Darwin really did move correctly and never misplaced a piece.  He struggled with checkmate and ended with Draws instead.

Andrew

Desmond

Curly

As I watched the older groups, I started seeing a pattern with my players.  Especially, with the newer tournament kids.  The quality of the game they played was very good until a blunder in the middle game would virtually wreck what they were building towards.  It was usually a long-diagonal bishop that grabbed a queen or a rook, or a discovered attack on two pieces simultaneously.  I really don't think the individual scores of the newer players really reflected how well they actually played.

Dylan uses a Grandmaster focusing technique

Even the experienced players had this happen.  Dylan felt like she was out playing her opponent in two games she lost, but a critical error in the games (a long-bishop checkmate, and a discovered attack on the queen) lost her the games (she was even pieces up).  Desmond even missed an illegal move in the first game that cost him the game and a perfect tournament score.  Andrew was playing very confidently, but lost his focus and his queen in Round 4 to a lesser player. With more experience and more tournament play, the mistakes will gradually disappear and all their efforts soon rewarded even more than they already are.

Andrew plays white.  There was a big oops somewhere!

Curly gives Max some suggestions

Max and Colby catch a point

As the last round approached, both the high school and middle school teams found themselves in the lead by only one point.  Andrew began calculating all the possible outcomes in order for us to win the team prize.  Plus, I said I would buy the pizza after the tournament if they won 1st place.  Free food is a great motivator!  Their 5th round games were vigorous and decisive and we brought home all 4 points in the middle school section and 3 points in the high school section.  We won the high school and the middle school section by 1.0 point in each case.  Out of the thirteen kids, 10 received trophies and three received medals for their scores.  I am very proud of the way they played and interacted on this trip.

On the way home we stopped at the PI for pizza on Porth.