Dragon Day Tournament

Believe it or not, January 16 was National Dragon Day.  Coincidence?  I am now a Silver Dragon (Silver Creek High School) and I just taught my chess class the Sicilian Dragon, so why not a Sicilian Dragon tournament on the national day to honor dragons?  When chess clubbers showed up for our usual meeting, they were treated to a 4 round tournament using the fierce defense.

Otto Olson plays Quentin Van Law

Theme tournaments are good teaching tools and it moves some players that have "their opening" out of their comfort zone and into other realms.  Our chess club hosted this tournament at our usual chess club time and featured faster time controls (G/15) but allowed enough time for some forethought during the game.  The opening we played was:

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 g6

Games were as fierce as Smaug, but the players that signed up were as cordial and polite as hobbits.  In one game, one of our experienced players taught a little boy while competing for the grand prize, a chess variant game called Dragon Chess.  He showed him better moves and the game turned out pretty good.  There were 16 players ranging from 6 to 44 years.  After 4 rounds, Tyler Avila doused Wesley Brimstein with a crushing attack and Tyler Avila won the Dragon Chess set.

Billy Olsen and Sarah Biggers

Jordan Pulliam

Journey Iverson and Layton Moore

Wesley Brimstein and Andre Murphy

A sharp game that ended with a fallen flag.

Wesley plays Tyler in the final game while Andre eagerly watches.

Otto Olsen and Noah Sorensen with Noah's dad observing.

In a great example of sportsmanship, Noah cordially tells his opponent, "You played a really good game."  His opponent Otto shook hands and respectfully retreated to his dad, Billy.  As this was the last game and all the high schoolers were watching, we knew Noah would love it if we all clapped and he beamed, "That was the best game, Mr. Porth."

***Sorry, no crosstable for you but the file appears to be missing.***

When we looked at the data however, it was 51% white and 49% black wins.  So it was roughly equal.