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.

Night before the Ogden Scholastic Tournament

As you can see, we made it safely.  All the kids that came are wonderful examples of kids.  They keep me entertained and look after one another, they are polite, thankful, and spend their time doing kid things.  I feel slightly guilty having them sign a Code of Conduct that the athletes sign.  After all, what chess player would spend their free time smoking alcohol and drinking marijuana?  My players were in the pool and on their xbox within 5 minutes of entering the hotel.  We went to eat and then played chess.  What a great evening!

Of course, the middle school team became raucous as soon as we arrived and they drew first blood on Desmond as he was wrestled into something near the pool.  All the boys look like they should be tired with all the scrapes and scratches, red, blood-shot eyes, and large red welts from belly flops.  The girls hung out watching and wading with suspicions, but the boys were interested only in one-upping one another.

After much debating and discussion, the high school boys persuaded me to drive them to a downtown area that featured a surfing wave park, climbing gym, indoor sky diving, Cinema 13, and several eating establishments.  Of course I brought a chess board and played a game with myself wondering, "what would Bobby Fischer do?"  I showed Hunter some safe openings:  the Scotch, the Petroff, and the 4 knights.  Colby Guisasola and Riley Clark explored tactics with me.  The city square we sat in had a gas-lit fire, typical of the resort mountain towns around here. Ogden was a bustling city at 9 pm and Alex and Andrew noticed that Ogden sports many lovely ladies!  We stopped at Farr Ice Cream Parlor and indulged in ice cream instead.  On the way to the car, Andrew, Curly, and Colby tried to catch a stray kitten that was dodging them under cars.  I think I might have kept it if they had caught it.  It escaped behind a dumpster.

During this time, Lynnet and Darwin stayed at the hotel to swim and then went to the hotel grill to eat.  Curly vetoed the grill earlier as it was "old people night" and the restaurant "smelled like old people."  I get his drift as old people do have a unique odor.  Lynnet verified that indeed there were a lot of old people there.  Max Mihalic stayed in the hotel and ordered Chinese Take-out.

After every kid piled into the weight room for more frolicking, the kids broke out chess boards.  Max practiced with Riley C. and Chris Ellis, Andrew Uriarte, Alex Bates and me played a chess variant called doubles chess (a board shaped like a star that all four players play on at the same time).  Of course the middle school boys jumped back in the pool.  By 11:00, everyone went to their rooms, some asleep immediately without any prodding from me.  I hope they dream about their games tomorrow.

Team Members:
Darwin Porth, Kindergarten
Dylan Porth, 5th grade
Katie Patterson, 7th grade
Desmond Porth, 8th grade
Riley Neel, 8th grade
Riley Clark, 8th grade
Hunter Frye, 8th grade
Jake Whitlock, 8th grade
Colby Guisasola, 9th grade
Max Mihalic, 9th grade
Alex Bates, 12th grade
Andrew Uriarte, 12th grade
Chris Ellis, 12th grade

Most people just don't get it

Once again, chess takes a hit on the sports issue.  One of my chaperons for the Ogden scholastic chess tournament was chastised about chess not being a sport or supported by the school.  For years we have been traveling to local tournaments in good-standing with school district support.  This time, however, I have some girls going so I solicited a woman (teacher) to chaperon the girls squad and one of the administrators suddenly decided that the school "does not support chess as a sport and she would have to take a personal day."  This upset my chaperon and I began to ponder.  I wonder if BPA, choir, the art club, the environmental club, or the Amnesty International Club (which has teachers, incidentally, in San Diego at a conference financially supported by the school district  with guest teachers), encounters these continued battles over their field trips?

Earlier today, a colleague of mine was complimenting me on my dedication to working with chess kids at lunch and after school.  I realize his intention, but he continued and said, "How do you find the time?  I spend all of my extra time trying to help students do better or finish their senior projects."  Does anyone find this sort of an implied negative to what I do for the school?  Do I just play chess or games with the kids?

The good news is that I approached the administrator and explained that it is an early out school day (1:30 pm) and we were leaving at 2:00 pm and so there really shouldn't be a problem and no guest teachers would be needed.  I immediately was confronted with "the contract day ends at 4 pm."  But, I said I already asked the Principal and he said it was o.k.?  The "early out day" then came back into the conversation and everything suddenly cleared up.  It all seemed to work out the way it needed to but I still think there is a resentment or an anti-chess sentiment in folks that see chess as "just a game."  Consequently, I will continue to educate everyone about the value and importance of chess in the lives and education of the kids I serve.  But, it does fatigue me.

Death By Chess - Oct. 31

Executioner Barry Eacker

Chess play began at 9 p.m. in the Rosenau Funeral Home and Cremetorium until 2:30 am in Twin Falls. The G/13 tournament was sponsored by the Idaho Chess Union under the auspices of executioner Barry Eacker, and the din of very bad horror films of the cultish-order would make anyone a zombie. Apropos to play like a zombie!

At about 1 am!

This unique tournament attracted 18 sick and demented chess players from as far away as Boise, Caldwell, and the Wood River Valley. In fact, our chess club brought 7 members. Andrew, Shane, and Curly showed up in their buffalo wings costumes (after winning shirts in a hot wings eating contest early that evening).  Jake Whitlock - a beer keg to wash it all down. Taylor, Desmond and me were, in fact, zombies. Patterson's were present - Kevin dressed as "Kevin", Katie looked like the bride of Frankenstein(?), Abderhalden's too - Rickey was a ninja, and Katie looked like someone got mad at her chess abilities. She's good! I asked Barry who the new, really ugly girl was, but it turned out to be Johnny Seekamp dressed up as a really ugly girl.

Des and Jake

Andrew and Curly begin play, round 1

Des and Katie Patterson

Everyone's games suffered a slow and tortured existence - I hung so many pieces, including queen's in two games, that my chess game took on the appearance of a mass suicide that would make the caretakers of the establishment thrilled for all the business. I think I murdered more pieces than the movies did! Chunk's of wood were hitting the floor and my poor chessmen were impaled, forked, skewered, and pinned as if I didn't know what a tactic was. Andrew, Curly, Taylor and me managed to win half our games with 4.0 pts. each, however. Desmond, 2.0 pts., Jake, 2.0 pts., and Shane, 0.5 pts.

Shane and Rickey Abderhalden

Prizes
Scary DVD movies:
1st - Katie Abderhalden
2nd - Barry D. Eacker
3rd - Ricky Abderhalden
4th - Jeffrey T. Roland

Taylor Walton and Katie Abderhalden

Table Ornaments:
5th - Fred Bartell
6th - Taylor Walton
7th - Daniel S. Looney
8th - Andrew Uriarte
9th - Kevin Ness
10th - Johnny Seekamp

Johnny Seekamp and Daniel Looney

Chess and Basketball as Sport