There were just 3 rounds in Booster section on September 18^th, since only 6 participated. Toby Katz (first time participant) scored perfect 3 points and won 1^st place and right to play in Steppingstone 5 section next time. Congratulations!

On September 18th, ICA's Steppingstone 5 section was made of 10 strong players who displayed solid chess when ample time was used for thinking. At the start of the tournament, nobody took their time. The first round ended in less than 10 minutes, with nobody taking more than 5 minutes on their clock! Luckily, players started to realize that if they wanted to win games, they would need to take their time. Meanwhile, in the winner’s circle, we had three students gain a qualification point, achieving 3 out of 4 points: Elizabeth, Abhiram, and Rishith congratulations! ICA extends a huge congratulations to Oliver Gordon for achieving a perfect score (4/4)!! The best checkmate that Coach Jesse spotted was on Board 1 in the final round between Oliver Gordon and Rishith

19....Nxf2. 20. Nxf2 Rd2+ (an excellent check instead of capturing the queen with the rook). 21. Qxd2 Qxd2+ 22. Kf3 Qxf2#

TD NOTE *** Thank you all for playing! The next event will be on October 23

If you have any questions about where or what to register for, please email us at chessdirector@icanj.net and we'll get back to you as soon as possible! Thanks***