Total Pageviews

Sunday, May 14, 2017

Results from Nationals

Here are some of the outstanding performances by Minnesota chess players at the Supernationals held in Nashville May 12-14, 2017. There were about 135 kids from Minnesota there. All but a handful finished in the top half of their section.
I list Section and Team Awards followed by:
Grade Name and Place. Keep in mind to get on this list, you had to win 5.5 games out of 7 or more. Maybe you recognize some names. Next year maybe your name or team will be here! National Champions are in blue, runner ups in red.

K12 Championship Wayzata HS – 13th
  12 Andrew Tang 3rd
K12 U1900
  9 Logan Ferkinhoff – 1st
K12-U1200 Burnsville HS - 1st
K12-U800
  9 Lyla Lichliter 6th
  7 Ava Piccolino 9th
  8 Sam Kielas 10th
K9-U1250 Metcalf 15th
K8-U750 Metcalf 2nd
  7 Gus Diedrich 3rd
  6 William Moe 7th
K6 Championship Wayzata Central 10th
  6 Samrug Narayanan 15th
K6U1400
  5 Isaac Traynor 1st
K6U1000 Seward 9th
  5 Noah Weiser 1st
K6Unrated
  5 Matthew Marvin 1st
  4 Stuart Strack 2nd
  5 Alma Quiroz 17th
K5U900
  4 Rowan Falk 4th
K3U1000
  3 Ethan Benjamin 7th
  3 Aditi Sinha 19th



Wednesday, May 10, 2017

Final Ratings

Hope you all come back and we add some. We lose only Aidan and Grant, but Aidan thinks he might come back next year if they don't have a chess club at Sibley.

Rank Name 10-May
1 Aidan L 815
2 Oscar 688
3 Henry 686
4 Miles 624
5 Isaiah 594
6 Grant 576
7 Niko 550
8 Luke 542
9 Jaden 493
10 Torben 465
11 Jackson 413
12 Jack L 373
13 Christian 333
14 Aidan D 261
15 Rohan 178
16 Dain 139
19 Tom 138
20 Kiran 130
21 Max 100

Wednesday, May 3, 2017

May 3 Ratings and Tournament Results

Next Wednesday is the last day of chess. I'll hand out awards and cookies.
I have 5 ribbons, and a top U500 award.
BTW You rocked that funsheet! Those were problems that baffled world class players.


Rank Place Name Rd1 Rd2 Rd3 Rd4 Total TBK Award
1 1 Aidan L W4 W8 W6 W2 4 8.5 1st
3 2 Henry W12 W7 W5 L1 3 8.5 2nd
2 3 Oscar L5 W10 W4 W7 3 7.5 3rd
9 4 Luke L1 W11 L3 W6 2 10 4th
10 5 Torben W3 L6 L2 W11 2 9 5th
4 6 Miles W13 W5 L1 L4 2 8.5
8 7 Niko W11 L2 W10 L3 2 8 U500
5 8 Isaiah W10 L1 H F 1.5 5
6 9 Grant H W14 F F 1.5 0.5
13 10 Christian L8 L3 L5 B 1 6.5
19 11 Tom L7 L4 B L5 1 6
11 12 Jackson L2 H F F 0.5 3
12 13 Jack L L6 H F F 0.5 2
7 14 Jaden H L9 F F 0.5 1.5

Note: Niko was under 500 at the start of the tournament.


Name May 3
Aidan L 800
Oscar 674
Henry 670
Miles 622
Isaiah 588
Grant 576
Luke 540
Niko 526
Jaden 497
Torben 468
Jackson 413
Jack L 373
Christian 349
Aidan D 261
Rohan 178
Dain 139
Tom 134
Kiran 130
Max 100

Tuesday, May 2, 2017

Zwischenzug

I was studying chess today with Lectures by Jonathan Schrantz who has become my favorite chess commentator - he's understandable, witty, and gives good, clear instruction. If you want to improve, click above the link.

Here's a position I ran across today studying one of Magnus Carlsen's games.
It's actually black's turn, but the question is not what is Black's best move, but rather
(as I have taught you) what move could White make that I need to prevent.

Answer: 1. Rxe6! QxQ (black can try to trade queens, but...we're going to take his queen but not just yet) In the game, Black played Kg7 where now Rxe6 cannot be played because of fxe6. The actual game lasted many more moves but White prevailed because of that d pawn.
2. Re8+! Zwishenzug! winning the game easily