Our bus is barreling through Pennsylvania full of tired but proud chess players, parents, and teachers. The kids' performance this year has set a new bar for our future National's teams.
Our Open players finished 4th in the Nation in the Championship Section. This section is the highest in the tournament and is the true measure of strength for scholastic chess. Last year we finished 13th. Our intermediate team finished an unofficial 1st Place in the K-6 U1000 section. Officially we were given the 2nd place trophy due to an error in the tournament score keeping and inadequate time to resolve the issue. No worries, it will be relatively easy to sand off that annoying 2.
Last, but not least, we had a small but tenacious 2nd grade team (Genesis, Leo, Elias, and Luigi) that managed to win a trophy by placing 14th in the K-3 U800 section. On top of our many wins I'd like to highlight our kids' focus and sportsmanship. They were courteous, supportive, and every 503 player took their long games very seriously. Many put in 3-4 hours for each game, sometimes finishing late into the evening.
I would personally like to thank staff members Yesen, Steven, Sara, Laura, Michelle, and Jade for the generous gift of time, patience, precision that this trip required to be a success. And to our parents, Silvio, Sheldon, Nelson, Mauro, and Erika for taking off work to work around the clock in benefit to our chess family.
Thanks to Chess-in-the Schools, Chess Master Tyrell Harriott, and Shaun Smith for providing financial support, coaching, and the invaluable free CIS Saturday tournaments. We couldn't do any of this without you. Lastly, thanks to the fb friends and family who donated to and shared our numerous post this year.
