Saturday Fun at YLC's Super Team Tourney

[imagefield_assist|fid=16408|preset=fullsize|lightbox=true|title=Rising star Julian Proleiko scored a perfect 4-0 at the Youth Learning Center event over the weekend.|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=700|height=462]

The Chess Club partnered with the Youth Learning Center on the morning of Saturday, February 2, to hold the Super Bowl of Chess Extravaganza, an unrated team tournament for students in grades 5-8. The event, which was hosted at the Youth Learning Center, attracted 58 players and offered a unique twist by allowing players from different schools to form "super teams." 

That's what happened when up-and-coming CCSCSL superstar Julian "the pro" Proleiko teamed up with the distinguished Diamond Abdus-Shakoor. They recruited Liam Storan, who is still beaming from his big payday at the Thanksgiving Open, and Mike Kummer's star pupil, Michael Ge, who is fresh off his big win at the Adult Beginner tournament. Alas, the Dream Team was born. Also competing were the Flying Manatees, who brought 12 players to stack the odds in their favor. The home team, Youth Learning Center, fielded a team of four including Roy Saffold, who has been performing well in the Beginner Kid's tourneys at the club, Markis Eddings, Armon Walker and Brandon Conn.

In round 1, the Dream Team obliterated the competition with a perfect 4-0 score. The Flying Manatees also zoomed their way to a great round 1, and Roy got the home team on the board with a solid victory.

In round 2, the Dream Team remained unscathed. Of the 12 Flying Manatees, four remained perfect. Lacey How should have joined her teammates with a perfect 2-0 score, but she failed to checkmate her opponent with a queen and rook against a lone king. The game was called a draw after 50 moves without a capture or a pawn move. After the game, tournament director Mike Kummer instructed her on how to perform the basic checkmate. Markis Eddings recorded the very first checkmate of the round by instituting the four-move Scholar's Mate on his opponent to bolster the home team's score.

A pleasant lunch break followed round 2. The player's received free lunch from Domino's, Subway, and Chik-Fil-A and were treated to a brief but entertaining lecture from Woman Grandmaster (WGM) Carla Heredia Serrano. Serrano is originally from Ecuador, but she moved to the Saint Louis area to attend Lindenwood University and play for Lindenwood's chess team.

Round 3 pitted the Dream Team against the four undefeated Flying Manatees. Diamond remarkably checkmated her opponent in only four moves, but not in the usual Scholar's Mate fashion. For chess nuts out there, here is the official score:

1. d4 g5 2. Bxg5 f6 (never play f6???) 3. e3 fxg5 4. Qh5#

Move four was also good for her teammate. Julian managed to snag his opponent's rook on the fourth move, which was good enough to help him sail to an easy victory. The other members of the Dream Team managed victories as well. Michael dethroned Sparsh Kumar from the top board, and Liam missed a mate in two, but much more importantly, managed to avoid the dreaded stalemate to earn the win. It wasn't all sour grapes for The Flying Manatees, however. Lacey learned quickly from the lesson she'd gotten from the tournament director in the previous round and easily checkmated her opponent with a queen and rook.

Round 3 was good for the home team as three of the four players on the Youth Learning Center squad got a win to get back into the trophy hunt. Going into the fourth and final round, the big question was not if the Dream Team would take home the title, but if they could finish with an unblemished 16-0 record. Unfortunately, for the Dream Team, their dreams were crushed when Quinn Fox from Parkway Central Middle upset Liam. The rest of the Dream Team ended the tournament 4-0.  The Flying Manatees recovered nicely from the previous round to finish with a total of 22.5 points. But only the top four scores would go toward the team trophies, and that total came out to be a respectable 10.5 points.

But would it be enough? The Youth Learning Center's trophy run ended when Roy got checkmated. Roy demonstrated great sportsmanship following his defeat. Markis won his final game to break even in the event, which is a great result considering he has only been playing for four months. Four of the five players from McKinley CLA won their final round as well to get in the thick of the trophy race.

The award ceremony started 20 minutes early, and 10 individual trophies were awarded. Of the four undefeated players, three belonged to the Dream Team. After all the tiebreaks were computed, the first-place trophy went to Julian! His opponents in the event scored better than the Michael, Quinn, and Diamond, the other three undefeated players. 

The third-place team trophy went to the Flying Manatees. Their strategy of killing the competition with numbers paid off. Second place went to the surging McKinley CLA. They overtook the Flying Manatees with a superb performance in the final round. And of course, the Dream Team took home the gold.

The 58 players left happy and full. Since the event received such a positive response from the players, parents and coaches, event organizers announced that this will be an annual event! Thank you to everyone for coming out and making this a success. We hope to see you all next year!

Overall Standings: Super Bowl of Chess

Team Roster and Scores: Super Bowl of Chess