Weekend Roundup

Some highlights from Saturday's tournament at Fulton Elementary, courtesy of chess mom Teresa Parker:

I missed the Youth Chess Foundation of Chicago tournament at Fulton, but got I a report on it from chess dad Peter Margulis and pix from Teresa. Phillip Parker-Turner was the tournament's overall winner, Andy Margulis won a trophy in the intermediate division, and George Vassilatos had a good day, coming close to a trophy himself. I believe our neighbors at Ancona walked away with the team trophy.

It was the last YCFC tournament of the school year. Hats off to those guys for another great year of free chess tournaments in the Chicago public schools.

In other action, Ray's Sonam Ford battled with the titans of scholastic chess at the national K-6 championships in Pittsburgh, finishing an excellent 64th in a K-3 field of 209 very serious chess players from all over the country.

In the big virtual matchup in the K-3 team division that the whole chess world is watching (whether they admit it or not) the banned Lincolnshire school district beat all the big New York schools, finishing second nationally, a half point behind Stevenson High Elementary School in Washington State. Correction hat tip to Chessdad64, who has the story here; backstory here.

All Is Wells

Small Ray squad scores big at South Side tourney

Only four kids from Ray School played in Saturday’s chess tournament at Wells Prep, but every one of them went home with a trophy, the first time that’s happened in a citywide event.

(Full standings here for the tournament, sponsored by the Youth Chess Foundation of Chicago and hosted by nearby Wells Prep on Pershing Road. More photos here.)

Competition for overall tournament champion came down to a head-to-head match between two Ray kids: Phillip Parker-Turner and Sonam Ford, who entered the final round leading the heady advanced section. It was not the first time that has happened: Phillip and Sonam have each won the section in previous tournaments, and they have been battling for the league’s top spot all year.

This time Phillip won the fifth-round game between the two to emerge as the day’s top player among a throng of 150. In other divisions, Ray third grader George Vassilatos won his first trophy, with a 4.0/5 eighth-place finish in the beginner section, and fifth-grader Andy Margulis, playing his first tournament as an intermediate, proved that he certainly belongs in that highly competitive section by winning a fourth-place trophy, also with a 4.0/5 score.

Congratulations to Disney Magnet School and Coach Trevor Scott for winning its fourth YCFC team competition; to Lorenzo Grego of Ancona School for winning the beginner competition; and to Jabari Dean of Cook School for finishing first in Intermediate.

Thanks to the YCFC for another great tournament and to David Layne and everyone at Wells for their first-rate hospitality.

Click for more:

Final Standings
More photos

Chess Players Discover Hyde Park

The tournament room at the Hyde Park Neighborhood Club was jammed yesterday, as about 85 kids from all over town came to play in the second chess tournament of the year by Chess Education Partners.

That’s up from 48 players a month earlier and about half that at the first CEP tournament in the neighborhood last June. It looks like the world has discovered this excellent series of chess meets and is beating a path to Hyde Park.

The funny thing is, not many Ray School kids are coming. Allen Dai, Phillip Parker-Turner, and Andy Margulis were the sole Castle Kimbark standard bearers this time. Allen finished second in a field of 13 in the Grades 2-3 division, and Phillip took third place out of 24 players in Grades 4-5. I assume they both got trophies, though, alas, I couldn’t be there for the ceremony at the end. For the same reason I don’t know which schools won the various team competitions. Sorry. The offical crosstable is here.

Pas de Deux

How many Ray School students does it take to change a light bulb? I don’t know, but it only takes two to win a team trophy in a major citywide chess tournament. That’s what happened today in the first tournament of the year at the Hyde Park Neighborhood Club put on by Chess Education Partners.

Despite the surprisingly low turnout from Ray for a tournament in our own front yard, fifth-grader Andy Margulis and fourth-grader Phillip Parker-Turner combined to give our school a first-place finish in the Grades 4-5 team competition. Fresh from his triumph dowstate yesterday, Noah Weeks-Brittan of the Chicago Latin School finished first in the individual competition in that division.

More pictures here. Thanks to the efficiency of Tournament Director IM Jan Vander Mortel, the individual results are already available from the U.S. Chess Federation here. Here are the team results for the event, which drew almost 50 kids from around the city and suburbs.

Grades K-1
1. Western Avenue
2. Flossmoor

Grades 2-3
1. Chicago Latin
2. Near North Montessori
3. Andrew Jackson

Grades 4-5
1. Ray School
2. Sacred Heart
3. Dewey Elementary

Grades 6-8
1. Cook

And afterwards, they played Bughouse:

Thanks to Jan, Chess Education Partners President Zack Fishman, and Peter Cassel of the Neighborhood Club. Next tournament in Hyde Park: December 2.