by Scholastic Coordinator Richard Pointer
On Sunday, February 26, Scholastics held the 2017 Chess Carnival at Webster Groves High School. This was our first tournament with a middle and high school section and the number of participants swelled to 185 players. The four-round tournament featured a lot of fighting chess, as only those with perfect records and good tiebreaks were likely to take home top trophies.
After the early rounds, a number of players had distinguished themselves from the field in each section, but with so many players, any mistake would prove costly. In the elementary section, at least thirteen players were undefeated with one game to play. In the upper section, eight players battled to stay undefeated in the final round.
With all the pieces bagged and put away, the Chess Carnival champions were crowned. In the elementary section, Anikait Rawat took home the biggest trophy with a perfect finish, followed by Andrew Voelker (2nd), Joshua Gollapudi (3rd), Lambert Ji (4th), and Isaiah Sweeney (5th). In the upper section, Arjun Puri dominated first place, with Ben Boaz (2nd), Matthew Meyer (3rd), Asish Panda (4th), and Zane Durante (5th) rounding out the top five.
The top female finisher for the upper section was Isabel Yearian, a constant contender for the top spots. Aspen Mechem finished with a perfect score in the elementary section but with poorer tiebreaks wasn’t able to crack the top 5.
The winners of the team trophies saw familiar names at the top of the elementary section. Stieger Elementary took home first place with a victory over Oak Brook Elementary. In the high school-middle school section, Lindbergh High School showed its perennial class by finishing above the rest of the field with a solid performance.
Congratulations to all of the winners, and thank you for all the families that made this tournament possible. Our next tournament will be March Madness, March 18th at 11 a.m. hosted at CBC. Register online here.
For a full list of Chess Carnival tournament results, click here.
Below is a chess puzzle from the tournament.
Isabel Yearian v Arjun Puri. Black to move and win.
