From one Tournament to another!

The first Wood River Valley Elementary School Chess Championship came off with the usual hitches, but was a great success for the participants.  Five valley schools competed for the top elementary school and individual grade prizes.  The concept was developed by Nick Bruck and me as a senior project for one of Nick's classes, and I mentored him thoughout.  He did a great job of TDing the event and I am sure he learned plenty.  Organizing, ordering, putting trophies together, running the pairing software, talking to large crowds, advertising and soliciting, learning tournament rules, teaching children, and essentially hosting a chess party for 22 kids, their parents, and siblings.  We had popcorn, pizza, giant chess, and of course lot's of chess for the kids.

The Bellevue Bears

The event attracted 22 elementary students and was held in the DLL of Wood River High School and the Bellevue Bears came out on top.  Garrett Stouffer of the Belleuvue Bears won first place 4th grader and a perfect tournament score of 5.0 pts.  The top three players for a school were scored in the G/15 event and continued for 5 rounds beginning at 4:00 and lasting until 7:30 pm.  I am sure the event was harder on the new-to-chess parents than it was on the players.  This tournament was more of a learning experience aimed at teaching tournament etiquette, how to read crosstables, pairing sheets, and even elements of the game.  But, the kids sure played their hearts out.

Darwin has the chess look

Darwin, my kindergardner, is getting better and more competitive.  Against one opponent that kept jeering "checkmate? checkmate? checkmate?"  while they were playing, Darwin had his opponent's king restrained on the h-file with his rook.  He then slammed his queen on h5 and loudly exclaimed, "Now that's checkmate!" You gotta love the humor, vigor, and playfulness of elementary school chess.

Nick and Colten set up the boards

Club members were eager to participate in helping Nick's project success and deserve appreciation.  Miles Hendrix helped with checkmates, and Max Mihalic stayed for two hours to help answer questions and set up.  The middle schoolers including Desmond, Riley Clark, and Real Weatherly really deserve some credit for taking lot's of pictures, helping players find their boards, helping players with clocks, and gophering everything from popcorn to chess clocks from my classroom.

All but four of the players have never participated in a chess tournament before and in those few hours, we got to see tremendous growth in independence, etiquette, and ability.  The first round was a bit sketchy with kids even struggling to read the pairing sheets.  But by the end of the tournament, the amount of independence that the kids displayed in round four and five, shows how chess positively affects children growth.  I noticed some surprised parents that got to sit back and watch their children run their games.  As TDs we occasionally had to gently nudge participants and parents away from boards to refrain from affecting the games.

It is hard to observe illegal moves and then not try to correct them, but that is the business of the players.  By round 5 I heard numerous, "illegal moves", or "you can't do that."  Touch move also was a factor and several kids learned some valuable lessons about what to touch or not to touch.  My own daughter with her experience did not properly recognize using the cheap club clock and did not monitor her time or her opponent's time.  Her clock kept ticking while his wasn't moving!  She lost on time while having a 12 pt. advantage.  Only afterwards did I show her that she wasn't pushing the clock all the way down, so she was essentially using time while her opponent was not.

Bellevue Elementary School      12.0 pts.
Hailey Elementary School           9.0
Woodside Elementary School     5.5
Montesori School                       4.0
Hemingway                                3.0

Photos by Real Weatherly

Good things come to those that wait

Name/Team	Grade	School	Score	Prize
Stouffer, Garrett (19)	4	Belle	5	1st 4th gr.
Porth, Dylan (14)	5	Belle	4	1st 5th gr.
Slanetz, Shea (18)	3	Montesori	4	1st 3rd gr.
Martin, Michael (5)	2	Hail	3.5	1st 2nd gr.
Weatherly, Colten (21)	5	Belle	3	2nd 5th gr.
Baker, Alex (1)	2	Hail	3	2nd 2nd gr.
Routh, Steven (16)	5	Hail	3	3rd 5th gr.
Worst, Luke (22)	3	Hem	3	2nd 3rd gr.
Porth, Darwin (13)	k	Belle	3	1st Kinder
Saldivia, Victor (17)	5	Belle	2.5	medal
Van Law, Quentin (20)	1	Belle	2.5	1st 1st gr.
Neel, Spencer (10)	5	Belle	2.5	medal
Richcreek, Jayden (15)	2	Belle	2	3rd 3rd gr.
Mungall, Heidi (9)	4	Belle	2	2nd 4th gr.
Montes, Rigoberto (8)	4	Wood	2	3rd 4th gr.
Kettleband, Emmet (4)	2	Wood	2	medal
Baker, Luke (2)	k	hail	2	2nd Kinder
Organist, Jordan (12)	2	Hail	2	medal
Gardner, Fisher (3)	1	Hail	1.5	2nd 2nd gr.
Montes, Kevin (7)	4	Wood	1.5	medal
Meeks, Carson (6)	2	Hail	1	medal
Organist, Christopher (11)	k	Hail	0	3rd Kinder.