Sunday, June 6Th Report

Booster Section Report
In the Booster section, there were many new faces appearing for their very first tournament, and these kids did fantastic! We are very proud of certain players for spending a lot of time during their matches; that is the key to success on the chess board. Congratulations to Noah Zeltser and Aldona Paulter for both getting 3 points. We had a tie for First Place with a total score of 3.5/4 between Daniel Zhu and Arshia Karthikeyan! Great work! All four of the above players are now qualified to go to the rated (category 5) section next tournament!

Steppingstone 5 Report

In the middle section of the tournament, we had 16 total players. Philip Hoang was victorious with a perfect four points out of four. He, as well as Harshini, Amane, and Siddharth earned a first norm since they scored 3 and more points. Each one will need one more norm and to pass a test to gain the category 5 title. Philip and Amane had an excellent game in round two, which was our choice for the best game in the section. After some solid opening play and middlegame maneuvering, both players attacked each others' kings. Philip, playing black, got both of his rooks lined up on the second rank, but Amane countered by threatening checkmate in one with a rook and a queen. However, Philip had a forced combination to deliver checkmate first.

1.e4 c6 2.Nc3 d5 3.d4 g6 4.Nf3 Bg7 5.exd5 cxd5 6.Bb5+ Bd7 7.Bd3 e6 8.Bf4 a6 9.0–0 Nf6 10.Bg5 h6 11.Bxf6 Bxf6 12.Ne5 Nc6 13.Nxc6 Bxc6 14.Qf3 0–0 15.Qh3 Bg7 16.Rfe1 b5 17.Ne2 a5 18.c3 Qb6 19.a3 b4 20.axb4 axb4 21.c4 dxc4 22.Bxc4 Bb5 23.Bxb5 Qxb5 24.Nf4 h5 25.Rad1 Ra2 26.b3 Qb6 27.Ne2 Rd8 28.d5 Rxd5 29.Rb1 Rdd2 30.Kf1 Rab2 31.Ra1 Qb5 32.Ra8+ Kh7 33.Qe3 Bh6 34.Qa7 Rxe2 35.Qxf7+ Bg7 36.Qg8+ Kh6 37.Ra7 Rxe1+ 38.Kxe1 Qe2# 0–1

Steppingstone 4 Report

Just 4 students competed in this event. Inspite the fact that this section was the strongest of the tournament, the participants played very fast and therefore the quality of the games was lower than one expects from students trying to achieve Category 4 title. Justin Zhu outplayed all his opponents and with perfect 3 out of 3 points took 1^st place. He also achieved 1^st norm
for Category 4 title. His game against Arnav showed his strong attaking skills

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 h6 4. O-O Nf6 5. Nc3 Bc5 6. d3 O-O 7. a3 d6 8. b4 Bb6 9. Re1 Bg4 10. h3 Bh5 11. g4 Bg6 12. Nd5 Nxd5 13.exd5 Nd4 14. Nxd4 Bxd4 15. Rb1 a5 16. bxa5 Qc8 17. a6 bxa6 18. Be3 Bc3 19. Rf1 Qd7 20. Rb3 Ba5 21. Qe2 Qa4 22. Kh2 Rab8 23. h4 Rxb3 24. cxb3 Qxa3 25. h5 Bh7 26. g5 hxg5 27.Bxg5 Qc5 28. Be3 Qa3 29. Qg4 Bc3 30. Rg1 e4 31. d4 g6 32.Qf5 Qa133. Qf6 Qb2 34. Bxa6 Ra8 35.h6 Kf8 36. Qg7+ Ke7 37. Bg5+ Kd7 38. Qxf7#

TD NOTE ***Once again thank you all for playing! The next event will be June 27th. If you have any questions about where or what to register for, please email us and we'll get back to you as soon as possible! Thanks***

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