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| Senior Pictures On Saturday, March 5, twenty-four Wood River Valley kids competed in the 4th State Warm-up Scholastic Chess Tournament in four sections. Hopefully, this tournament will attract some of the new players and their families to the State Scholastic Championship which is in Boise in two weeks on March 19. At this event, players get to play children in their own age categories and there are over 400 kids that compete. Our local tournaments have to have combined sections due to the lower numbers of participants. The 7-8th grade Section was combined with the 9-12th grade Section due to the low number of middle school participants. It appears that the warm-up for State Scholastics was also competing with an art fair, an indoor baseball camp, a pre-pre-SAT test for middle schoolers, and skiing competitions. The turnout was adequate for a nice and successful chess tournament, however. |
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| The kids pretty much ran the tournament The tournament was to be a 5SS, G/30 event, but the 9-12th grade section included only four rounds due to 5th round pairing violations. The tournament was a fairly relaxed event with no issues during any round and very solid games played by all the kids. The only questions I had to field as the TD were checkmate verifications. Parents and players were even good about keeping their distance with on-going games. Our chess club is doing a great job helping all chess players (including beginners) in the valley figure out tournament etiquette, play, and rules. Even the parents began figuring out how to read a crosstable and how tie-breaks work. Many parents were surprised at how independent the students become during a tournament. |
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| Heidi and Rigoberto I noted a neat occurrance at this tournament. Schools are heavily used by the community for various activities and occasionally a stray from them ended up in the tournament room or to walk through it. Invariably, in every case, I noticed surprise or an astonished look by the passers-by. I also think they were shocked at how intense the chess players were focused on their games and at how quiet the 40 or so people were in the room. They also were courteous and quiet as they observed the games for a moment and then continued their sojourn to their own activity. If more people could see a chess tournament in action, they might be more inclined to get involved in the royal activity. |
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| High School/Middle School Section |
I think we run a very classy event. As players and parents arrive, they are greeted by me and other club members, and a large sandwich-board announcing "Chess Today." Practice boards and our giant chess set is set up for those interested in last minute preparations, the tables are all set up with laminated board labels, and all the boards have the white pieces on the south side and the black pieces on the north side. I even take the time to have all the knight's facing the king and the bishops facing forward! I put our club posters around the parents area, sharing pictures of the past four years of tournaments, flyers for other tournaments on one table, and chess problem packets on another table. Summarized rules and etiquette flyers are available at yet another table to help educate the parents. I also had blue-berry muffins, coffee, and orange juice available for contestants and parents. During the rounds, some children are in tears and upset at their loss, so I have some plastic wristbands that say "checkmate" that are deceptively given to the player. I ask them their name and then say, "Hey, what's your name? Your name was drawn in a special raffle for this wristband! Would you like to have it?" The tears disappear and my evil plan works. After round 3, I include a drawing for each elementary section, gifting the winner with a chess prize. This tournament, Garrett Stouffer won the glass chessboard and Alex Baker won the Sesame Street Chess Board. My goal is to make the participants feel like they are engaged in a royal activity, distinguished from all the others. |
| Nathan Stouffer |
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| Nick Bruck (left) and Drew Morse (right) |
9-12 Section | Score | MMed | Solk | Cum | CumOp | Prize |
Bruck, Nick | 4 | 6.5 | 8 | 10 | 21 | 1st place trophy |
Hendrix, Miles | 3 | 9 | 10 | 8 | 24 | 2nd place trophy |
Hutchinson, Chase | 3 | 5.5 | 5.5 | 7 | 13.5 | 3rd place trophy |
Caccia, Wyatt | 1.5 | 3.5 | 7.5 | 4.5 | 18.5 | 4th place medal |
Reidy, Matt | 1 | 5 | 8 | 2 | 20 | 5th place medal |
Morse, Drew | 0 | 4 | 7 | 0 | 17 | |
7-8 Section | ||||||
Porth, Desmond (WRMS) | 2 | 4.5 | 9.5 | 5 | 24.5 | 1st place trophy |
Mungall, Kyle (Home Sch) | 1.5 | 4.5 | 8.5 | 3.5 | 21.5 | 2nd place trophy |
4-6 Section | ||||||
Stouffer, Garrett (Belle) | 5 | 10.5 | 11.5 | 15 | 37 | 1st place trophy |
Stouffer, Nathan (Belle) | 4 | 11.5 | 12.5 | 12 | 40 | 2nd place trophy |
Porth, Dylan (Belle) | 3 | 11.5 | 11.5 | 8 | 35 | 3rd place trophy |
Saldivia, Victor (Belle) | 3 | 11 | 11 | 8 | 34 | medal |
Montes, Kevin (Woodsi) | 2 | 7.5 | 12.5 | 5 | 38 | medal |
Marquez, Rigoberto (Woodsi) | 1.5 | 7.5 | 12.5 | 4 | 38 | medal |
Mungall, Heidi (Home) | 1.5 | 5 | 7.5 | 3 | 25 | medal |
K-3 Section | ||||||
Slanetz, Shea (Monti) | 5 | 12.5 | 13.5 | 15 | 43.5 | 1st place trophy |
McAvoy, Teagan (Monti) | 4 | 11.5 | 12.5 | 12 | 41 | 2nd place trophy |
Van Law, Quentin (Belle) | 3 | 14.5 | 16 | 12 | 46 | 3rd place trophy |
Worst, Luke (Hem) | 3 | 11 | 11.5 | 9 | 39 | medal |
Baker, Alex (Hailey) | 3 | 10 | 10 | 7 | 31 | medal |
Nash, Ryan (Comm) | 2.5 | 4.5 | 8.5 | 7.5 | 25.5 | medal |
Baker, Luke (Hailey) | 2 | 6 | 10 | 3 | 32 | medal |
Porth, Darwin (Belle) | 1.5 | 9 | 14 | 3.5 | 43.5 | medal |
Stouffer, Owen (Belle) | 1 | 6 | 9 | 1 | 26.5 | medal |
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| Desmond Porth |
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| Kevin Montes and Heidi Mungall |
More pictures can be found on our Facebook page.
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