Ray Grabs Piece of the Pie at Second CPS Tournament

We’re the 2nd-grade champs

Ray School chess kids won two individual first-place trophies and two team trophies as the Chicago Public Schools hosted its second championship tournament of the year yesterday at Bogan High School. (Photos here.)

Only eight Ray kids played, yet the small squad made its mark in several categories, including first grade, where Allen Dai’s 4.5/5.0 fetched first-place honors, and third grade, won by Phillip Parker-Turner with a perfect 5.0/5.0 score. Andy Margulis (4th grade) and Sonam Ford (2nd) each turned in excellent 4.0/5.0 records, narrowly missing trophies on tiebreaks.

Ray’s best team effort came in the second grade, where Kenyon Edmond and George Vassilatos combined solid performances with Sonam’s to take first place. Kenyon’s 3.0/5.0 was his best tournament record to date. Also contributing to the overall results were Karen Dai and Gonzalo Higuero. Gonzalo’s presence was a factor in Ray’s third-place finish in the first grade category.

The tournament was a second attempt by the school system to put on a proper elementary school chess championship, after the first one on March 10 disintegrated into chaos and a walkout by coaches, a fiasco later reported on the front page of the Chicago Tribune. Though the organizers of yesterday’s tournament struggled in the early rounds with pairing and recording errors in the large tournament, most of the problems were straightened out by the third round, and the tournament was successfully completed.

An original work of art by the kids at Peterson Elementary

One of the best things about the meet was how many schools went home with trophies. Though Burbank and Decatur each had a big day, no single school dominated, and awards were widely dispersed among the 20 teams that played. Multiple trophies were won by several schools besides Ray, including Beasley, Edgebrook, and Bell.

First place finishers in the team competitions:

Marsh Elementary
Kindergarten

Decatur Classical School
1st Grade

Ray Elementary School
2nd Grade

Decatur Classical School
3rd Grade

Burbank Elementary School
4th Grade

Beasley Academic Magnet School
5th Grade

Edgebrook Elementary School
6th Grade

Burbank Elementary School
7th Grade

Seward Elementary School
8th Grade

Trophies were also awarded for second and third place in each category, though I failed to record those, except for Ray, of course, which got the third place trophy for first grade.

Congratulations to all the players and winners.

Update (04/16/06): The full results are here.