It’s December, a month often associated with the end of autumn and the beginning of winter; with the holidays of Kwanza, Hanukkah, and Christmas; with falling temperatures and rising snowfalls; and, of course, with ICA’s latest chess quads in Livingston.
It’s in this spirit that I pondered today’s chess event. What does community mean to a room full of young chess players?
In a quad event there are traditionally four players per group. On occasion it doesn’t work out this way. Sometimes the number of players isn’t neatly divisible by four. More to the point, sometimes there are an odd number of players. In chess parlance, the extra player usually receives a “full-point bye”. Meaning they have no game, but it still counts as a win toward prize purposes. Rating is not affected.
There were 21 players at today’s event, meaning Quad 5 had five players. Someone would have to sit out each game. In the first round Keila Rina had the bye. She ignored the games of her “quadmates” instead opting to watch some of the more challenging quads. From across the room I watched her stand respectfully at a distance from their table, saying nothing but soaking in everything. To my eyes, she looked like she was sharing in the communal experience even though she lacked a game that round.
In the second round the bye went to Daniel Zheng. Daniel was an inquisitive and talkative young man. The tournament was running smoothly at this point, so we opted to sit in the foyer chatting about chess, school, the Internet, and, in a fit of honesty one only ever hears from a child, why my breath smelled so funny. Daniel struck me as a young man that enjoys the company of groups but finds community even in a one-on-one interaction.
The third bye went to Julian Mayr, the young man from my last tournament that enjoyed sitting on the floor. This time I asked assistant tournament director Matthew to play Julian in a friendly game. And to even up their 1500-or-so point skill difference, I instructed Matthew to remove his queen and a rook from the table.
Sadly, we’ll never know who would have won this epic battle of titans as Julian’s parents arrived mid-game and it was time to depart. (My bet was on Julian.) It was all for fun though. And he did have fun. Julian is eternally happy and cheerful. Just the sort of kid who fits well into any friendly community.
There was another epic duel today, and I’m not talking France vs. Argentina in the World Cup. This was Rayan Zarineh vs. his twin brother Kian. I normally try to separate siblings into separate quads as they play each other in chess at home, but for logistical reasons I kept them together today. The two had a small community of onlookers when they faced each other in round two. Kian was higher rated by 40 points so he was slightly favored to win, but Rayan pulled off the upset and cruised to victory.
There was one last bit of community worth mentioning. Toward the end of the event several kids were waiting for their parents to pick them up. To keep them entertained Matthew played them in a “simul”, a simultaneous exhibition in which he played four games at once. Matthew went two wins, one draw, and one loss. And all four kids cheered the winner when Matthew conceded his final game.
Noise aside, that’s what I love about chess -- seeing everyone come together in a shared love of the game. Community really is about sharing commonalities with each other, whether it be our culture, our religion, where we live, our love for our families, and our passion for anything from chess to World Cup soccer.
It’s in this spirit of community that both Matthew and I, and the entire staff at ICA, wish you a happy and peaceful holiday season. May all of our lives be filled with family and friendship, both for the remainder of December and beyond.
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The final winners list for today is…
Quad 1 - David Wolf Milstein (3 points)
Quad 2 - Ethan Karni and Abhiram Vasanthavada (tie, 2 points)
Quad 3 - Bentley Joseph Zee (3 points)
Quad 4 - Julian Gorczynski (3 points)
Quad 5 - Isabella Jolie Lebersfeld (1st place, 2.5 points), and Anish Shrivastava and Keila Rina Rabaev (tie for 2nd place, 2 points). Quad 5 has a second place award because it had more than four players.
Full results list is available HERE
Our next tournament in Livingston is our Scholastic, which will occur on January 29. Click HERE to Register before Early Bird prices expire!
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