By Tony Chen, Scholastic Coordinator
Dog Day Duels. The name says it all. Even after spending a summer full of sun, fun and naps, the competitive spirit of chess players remains high. During the scorching heat at summer’s end and back-to-school excitement, 111 dedicated chess players clashed on August 27th on the SLU campus to determine the top dog and earn a strong start to the school year.
Like last month, Dog Day Duels was split into two sections: K-12 U800 and K-12 Open. In the K-12 U800, the top three players all had undefeated 4-0 records. However, due to tie-breaks, Rahul Pande received 1st place, pushing Austin Minute to 2nd place, and Evan Zhang to 3rd. The top female award was given to three separate players as they all scored three points: Saanvi Ramgounda, Saanvi Thummala, and Evie Garland. To conclude the section, Caleb Chu took the top unrated award with three wins and one loss.
With some players gone from last school year, a lot of new faces appeared in the K-12 Open section. One of whom was the highly anticipated Aaron Lin, with the top rating of 1672. Even though Lin was the top pick to win, Amogh Mahambare managed to pull off the upset of the tournament in round three, defeating Lin and eventually winning 1st place with a 4-0 record. Along with Mahambare, Andrew Voelker took 2nd place with a perfect 4-0, with Jacob Sanders taking 3rd with 3 ½ points. Other winners included Ryan Dieboll receiving the top unrated player award; with Aishwarya Pande, Jenna Song, and Nikitha Ada receiving top female player awards with three wins each.
Like every tournament, the team competition drew a lot of attention. In the U800 section, Argo took 1st place for the first time with 11 ½ points, squeezing out the dominant Oakbrook Elementary, who took second with 10 ½ points. The 3rd place team went to Spoede Elementary, trailing behind the top two with 7 ½ points.
In the K-12 Open section, Parkway Southwest Middle School continued their reign by taking the 1st place team win with 8 ½ points. Second place team went to Hixon Middle School led by team ace Andrew Voelker with a combined team score of 7 ½ points, and 3rd place going to Parkway Northeast Middle School with 7 points.
Congratulations to all the winners and thanks to all the families and organizations that help us make these monthly tournaments possible. Please join us for the next edition of our monthly scholastic tournament series, “Back To School Bash,” on Saturday, September 23rd, at Lindenwood University-Belleville Campus. Register here >
