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By: Alex Vergilesov
In collaboration with Florissant Valley Community College, the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis held a Community Chess Festival on April 2. The event included a rated and an unrated tournament, simultaneous play with GM Hikaru Nakamura and a blindfold simultaneous event with GM Ben Finegold. The event was held at the Florissant Valley Campus at the beautiful Student Center.
The event was a fundraiser for extracurricular clubs on campus. The event was a success as upwards of 100 people participated. Notable mentions include Corey Smith who placed first in the Unrated Tournament of 23 participants, Spencer Finegold who came in first in the 19-person rated tournament, and both Jonathan Schrantz and NM Kevin Cao who drew GM Nakamura in the 20-person simultaneous exhibition.
The university was all abuzz for the festival and many clubs on campus sent volunteers to assist with the event. The CCSCSL staff helped manage the crowd by offering beginner lessons and faced off against opponents in Blitz simultaneous play. The Grandmaster simultaneous events began at 1:30 p.m. and both events were sold out. GM Finegold epitomized what it means to be a Grandmaster, crushing five opponents without looking at the boards. Dozens of people huddled around the chess boards to witness each opponent crumble under the pressure that is a blindfolded GM Finegold. GM Nakamura of course couldn’t be bested as he finished the 20 person simultaneous in just 63 minutes. Nakamura demonstrated impressive rapidity as he moved across the room full of opponents. He finished the event with an impressive 18-0-2 score.
The CCSCSL would like to thank all participating players, the staff of the university and all the volunteers that came to help out at the event. Special thanks to Wendell Covington Jr., Director of the Gateway to College Program and Elida Kraja, Program Coordinator on campus without whose help the event would have not been possible.
The CCSCSL has been working with Mr. Covington to bring chess to the Gateway to College Program. Currently, a chess class, taught by GM Ben Finegold holds at 25 students, many of whom participated in the Community Festival Event. Ben Finegold comments that a “good time was had by all” in hopes that more chess festival events will be held on campus.
