More Grandmaster Prezis

Levon Aronian by Tyler Avila

GM Maurice Ashley by Andre Murphy

Online Chess Crossword Puzzle

Here is a crossword puzzle I made.  Comment your results or questions.

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Vishwanathan Anand Prezi by Ramon

Gameknot Game

Grandmaster Projects

Wang Yue by Zac Spor

2014 WRECC Results

The 2014 WRECC (Wood River Elementary Chess Championship) attracted teams from the valley’s four major elementary schools:  Bellevue, Woodside, Hailey, and Hemingway and 40 chess players with most of the players coming from Woodside.  The championship was  senior project concept that Nick Bruck Began in 2010 and is now a yearly staple for the students.  

Hemingway Elementary School

Hemingway Elementary School grabbed hold of the 1st place prize this year after finishing in last place in previous years.  The team consisted of three 5th graders and one 4th grader:  Bel Clayton, Jackson Giles, Jett Carruth, Jacob Russell, Jude Werth.  Teams include all students from a school however only scores from the top four players from a school are added up to form a composite score.   Hemingway earned 15.5 points with Bellevue earning 14.0, and Woodside and Hailey scoring 13.5 points.

"What to do about that queen in my grill . . ."

The results proved to be a surprise as Hailey and Woodside continued to dominate 1st and 2nd place each round.  Only 0.5 points separated Hailey and Woodside in the fourth round, but the last round had both Hemingway and Bellevue students winning all of their games to leap ahead of Hailey and Woodside.  Both had the fewest players with five each.

Darwin Porth

Darwin Porth, Bellevue, won 1st place overall and in 3rd grade with a perfect tournament score of 5.0 points.  Quentin Van Law, Woodside, won 2nd overall and 1st in 4th grade with 4.0 points, and Sarah Hattula, Hailey Elementary, won 3rd place overall and 1st place in 5th grade with 4.0 points.  Trophies were presented for 1st - 3rd place in each grade level, including kindergarten.  The Community Campus cafe additionally gifted winners a free drink.

Prizes were also raffled off with two chess books from the library of Norman Friedman, founder of “The Right Move”  going to Faustino Nunez and Otto Olson.  Quentin Van Law won a scorebook and chess boards were gifted to Holden Archie and Hunter Ervin.

Jordan Pulliam and Kaden Rinehart 

Dylan Porth, Cooper Dean, Andre Murphy, Wesley Brimstein,
and Levi Catangcatang

Members of the high school chess club, that recently returned from the National Chess Championships,  were on hand to offer instruction and guide students in need of rule clarifications.  Most players took advantage of endgame, checkmate, and stalemate demonstrations.  Brad Henson, Woodside Principal, visited to cheer his players on and offer support, as well as elementary school teacher Deb Van Law, Woodside and GATE Teacher Kristy Turco.  The players loved having fans and spectators.

In one touching event during round 4, Bel Clayton, Hemingway, lost her game quickly against Michael Diaz, Woodside, after she made an illegal move and he took her king.  Later in the round, she discovered that an illegal move does not end the game and she asked Michael if they could play a rematch for the round, which he allowed and then she won, allowing her school a full point lead by the end of the tournament.  This was a deciding game for the tournament.  Congratulations to all winners.

Bel Clayton

The BCSD Chess Rage sponsors such events and is in need of funding to continue to offer tournaments such as this.  Please look for players selling 50:50 raffle tickets (names drawn get 50% of the proceeds) and support the chess program.  Also, the BCSD Chess Rage Day Camp will be held June 16th - 20th and offers high school counselors from the National and State recognized team.  Contact Adam Porth for details, aporth@blaineschools.org.  

Vice President Wesley Brimstein gives Leam Van Law his trophy

Team Results

Plc Code Name (Players:Top 4 used) Score Solk CumOp Cum SBx2

1 Hem Hemingway Elementary   15.5 48.5 160.0   45.0  62.5

 Clayton, Bel (4.0,nnnn)

 Giles, Jackson (4.0,nnnn)

 Carruth, Jett (4.0,nnnn)

 Russell, Jacob (3.5,nnnn)

2 Bell Bellevue Elementary (5)  14.0   50.0 158.0   40.0  65.5

 Porth, Darwin (5.0,1011)

 Stouffer, Owen (4.0,nnnn)

 Stouffer, Emmett (2.5,nnnn)

 Renner, Levi (2.5,nnnn)

3 Wood Woodside Elementary (18) 13.5   61.5 187.5 44.5  71.5

 Van Law, Quentin (4.0,900)

 Thompson, Hunter (3.5,nnnn)

 Gaudreau, Spencer (3.0,nnnn)

 Thompson, Porter (3.0,nnnn)

4 Hail Hailey Elementary (12)  13.5   58.5 177.5  40.5  68.5

 Hattula, Sarah (4.0,nnnn)

 Olson, Otto (4.0,1006)

 Shepard, River (3.0,nnnn)

 Wilson, Gage (2.5,nnnn)

 Roberts, Thor (2.5,nnnn)

Darwin Porth and Otto Olson

Individual Results

Red = trophy

orange = medal

blue = ribbon

Place Name Rate Score Solk CumOp MMed Cum

For Overall

1  Darwin Porth 5.0

2  Quentin Van Law 4.0

3  Sarah Hattula 4.0

For Grade k

1 Renner, Levi (28) nnnn   2.5   9.5  32.0   6.0   5.5

2 Thompson, Carter (35) nnnn   1.5  11.5  29.0   7.5   4.5

3 Ratliff, Alex (26) nnnn   1.0   8.5  23.0   6.0   0.0

For Grade 1

1 Hebert, Luke (20) nnnn   2.5  11.0  27.5   6.5   5.5

2 Van Law, Leam (21) nnnn   2.0  13.5  40.0   9.5   8.0

For Grade 2

1 Wilson, Gage (40) nnnn   2.5  13.0  37.5   6.5   5.5

2 Stouffer, Emmett (32) nnnn   2.5  11.5  37.0   6.0   7.5

3 Roberts, Thor (29) nnnn   2.5  11.0  31.0   6.5   5.0

4 Foster, Conrad (13) nnnn   2.0  13.5  42.5  10.0   8.5

5 Nicoll, Russell (25) nnnn   2.0  10.0  34.0   7.5   5.0

6 Ratliff, Payton (27) nnnn   1.5  12.5  35.0   8.5   4.0

7 Ervin, Hunter (11) nnnn   1.5  10.5  30.5   8.0   4.0

8 Guerra, Dionise (18) nnnn   1.0   7.5  25.5   4.0   4.0

9 Duke, Frankie (9) nnnn   0.0  11.5  32.0   7.5   0.0

For Grade 3

1 Porth, Darwin (1) 1011   5.0  16.5  50.0  14.0  15.0

2 Stouffer, Owen (33) nnnn   4.0  12.5  39.0  11.0  12.0

3 Thompson, Porter (37) nnnn   3.0  14.5  46.0  12.5   9.0

4 Archie, Holden (4) nnnn   2.5  13.5  37.0   9.0   8.5

5 Gilman, Josephine (17) nnnn   1.0  11.5  38.0   7.5   2.5

 

For Grade 4

1 Van Law, Quentin (3) 900    4.0  17.0  51.5  16.0  14.0

2 Olson, Otto (2) 1006   4.0  16.0  50.0  14.5  13.0

3 Clayton, Bel (8) nnnn   4.0  12.5  41.5  11.0  12.0

4 Thompson, Hunter (36) nnnn   3.5  14.5  44.5  12.5  12.0

5 Russell, Jacob (30) nnnn   3.5  14.0  45.5  12.5  10.0

6 Gaudreau, Spencer (15) nnnn   3.0  15.5  45.5  13.5   9.5

7 Shepard, River (31) nnnn   3.0  13.0  38.0  11.5   9.0

8 Froilan Enriquez (14) nnnn   2.5  13.5  38.5   7.5   7.5

9 Michael Diaz (22) nnnn   2.0  16.0  43.5  12.0   8.0

10 Nicoll, Christopher (24) nnnn   2.0  13.0  38.5   9.0   7.0

11 Tellez, Cesar  (34) nnnn   2.0  12.0  32.5   8.0   6.5

12 Chris Crespo Adame (7) nnnn   2.0  11.5  31.0   7.5   5.0

13 Faustino Nunez (12) nnnn   2.0  10.0  28.5   6.0   7.0

14 Bayro Llantoy Agguire (5)nnnn   2.0  10.0  27.0   6.0   5.0

15 Victor Beltran (38) nnnn   2.0   9.5  28.0   5.5   4.0

16 Miguel Segoviano (23) nnnn   1.5  13.0  38.0   9.0   5.5

17 Edgar Hurtado (10) nnnn   1.5   8.0  21.0   5.5   4.0

For Grade 5

1 Hattula, Sarah (19) nnnn   4.0  16.5  52.0  14.5  13.0

2 Giles, Jackson (16) nnnn   4.0  12.5  40.0  11.0  12.0

3 Carruth, Jett (6) nnnn   4.0   9.5  33.0   9.5  11.0

4 Werth, Jude (39) nnnn   3.0  13.0  43.5  11.5   9.0

Mikhail Botvinnik Prezi

Here is an example Prezi that I made for my students to view in constructing their Grandmaster Projects.

Idaho Player Project on-line

Here is my most recent project:  Idaho Chess Players

2014 National High School Championships

The excitement begins the morning before the main event.

"Good Luck"

Grandmaster Maurice Ashley congratulates our team.

The BCSD Chess Rage has been very active this past month with tournaments and other chess functions every weekend.  This past weekend reached a climax with six high school students competing in the National High School Chess Championship.  This is only the second time that a team from the Wood River Valley has attended such a function with the last time in 2011 where the team placed 24th with over 330 teams in attendance.  We fared better this time - 20th in classic and 20th in Blitz.

Introducing the 20th place team.

943 kids, their parents, friends, and coaches.

The tournament was held in San Diego at the Town & Country Resort and 943 attendees played G/120 d5 games, meaning each opponent has two hours to complete all their moves with a 5 second delay per move.  The tournament was broken into five sections:  U800, U1200, U1600, Championship, and Unr.  The Chess Rage had one U1600, one unrated player, and a team of four U1200 players.  The ratings refer to the United States Chess Federation (USCF) rating system where the higher the rating, the better the player.

8 am training session

The chess team played in the Bughouse and Blitz side events requiring 8-hours of play on Thursday before the main event began on Friday.  Desmond Porth won a 3rd place class prize in Blitz, and Adam Porth, BCSD Chess Rage coach, tied for 3rd place in the coaches tournament held on Saturday.  In the three-day, 7 round main event, players engaged nearly 36 hours of play and 12 hours of practice and analysis.  Chess began at 8 am and typically ended near midnight.

Desmond receives analysis by Texas Tech Chess Team member.

As one master level coach from New York boasted, "Chess competitions are more mentally exhausting than anything students do in school."  He continued, "Chess requires more study and practice than any subject students take."  Many school districts around the United States are now funding chess programs in their schools and are even financially supporting students traveling to competitions, such as this one.  Colleges are offering scholarships to chess players rated over 1400 - 1500 at Texas Tech and Webster University in St. Louis.

Levi is always happy to play.

Levi Catangcatang is the newest player to the team and scored 3.0 points in the unrated section.  He soaked up all the learning and resources that the tournament offered, such as training from members of the Texas Tech and Webster University teams.  He also found numerous friends to play with and obtained analysis from other coaches.  Andre Murphy commented on "how great it is to be around this much chess!"  with games being played at the pool, in corridors, and virtually any place that offered a quiet spot.

Tyler Avila gets very serious during his analysis in the skittles room.

Tyler Avila was successful in applying lessons learned from each game during analysis.  He dropped two games in the endgame that should have resulted in victories in previous rounds, but demonstrated that study (and patience) pays off in the seventh round where he applied all of the strategies learned from earlier games and highhandedly won.   He ended the tournament with 2.5 points.

Round 7

Dylan enjoys playing black.

Andre was one of our longest game players.

Quick games in the main event ended in disaster and successful players used all their time.  Dylan Porth even ran into time trouble in three of her games resulting in draws, though she was ahead in material in those games.  She earned 2.5 points by the end of the tournament.  In the last round, Desmond Porth was the very last game to finish in the U1600 against a player from California.  He and Andre Murphy took a hard road and drew most of their rounds, only losing 2 of the 7 rounds.  Draws only earn a 1/2 point.  Desmond lead the team with 3.5 points.  Andre Murphy and Wesley Brimstein each earned 3.0 points in the U1200 section.

Wesley wrestles with his thoughts while his parents look on in the background.

With Desmond and Dylan the only members of the team used to the pressure of National play, I was quite happy with the results of the first-timers, and I look forward to taking the players to Columbus, Ohio next year where I am sure they will be in the top ten after a year of hard work and development.

The long weekend ended with a trip to the San Diego zoo in order to relax and unwind before returning to the mountain of homework the players had accumulated.

There is a panda lurking in the shadows.

As Tyler said it, "This was one of my best weeks ever!"