LOWER LAB

CHESS TOURNAMENT

Nov 8th, 2009

What a beautiful Fall day, and what a great day for chess! The NYChessKids tournament caravan moved uptown to the Lower Lab School on the Upper Eastside for the November 8th tournament, and what a pleasant experience it was. The tournament hall was well lit, the auditorium seating was comfortable, and the entire place had a bright, airy feel. And, lots of new tournament players availed themselves of the opportunity to break into chess competition for the first time in the pleasant Lower Lab surroundings.

Fortunately for Lower Lab, though unfortunately for other schools, Lower Lab was dominant in various sections in the team-honors category. They won Novice 1, Novice 2, and Reserve.

NO SCORE had 13 players from 5 different schools. Each student received a medal for participation and a trophy for tying for 1st place. Notable standouts were Preston Shirazi who is home-schooled for chalking up his second strong showing over the board in one week, and Yara Saabneh from Trevor Day who was his school's sole representative in this section for the day.

NOVICE 1 had 28 students from 12 different schools, which makes this section the biggest one at this event, and even makes it bigger than any of the sections last week at PS116 which was a much bigger event in terms of turn-out. Several schools were in the hunt for 3rd place team honors but at last count it was Calhoun that won on tie-breaks. Clear 2nd went to PS41 and Lower Lab commanded this section to take the top honor. Henry Herzog from Lower Lab had the only perfect individual score, thus taking 1st place, Kyle Jung from Lower Lab took 2nd place on tie-breaks, and Gabriel Markowitz from PS41 took 3rd. A notable standout in this section was Theodore King from St Bernard's who was playing in only his 2nd tournament ever and who was his school's sole rep for the day.

NOVICE 2 had 14 students from 5 different schools. Lower Lab commandeered the 1st place trophy by a wide margin, Brooklyn Friends took clear 2nd, and Trevor Day took clear 3rd. Solo honors went to Julian Melendez from Lower Lab who took clear 1st with a perfect score, Andrew Kornfeld from Lower Lab took 2nd place on tie-breaks, and Matthew Burnett from Lower Lab took 3rd place on tie-breaks. Notable standouts in this section was the team from Brooklyn Friends School who fielded four players for the first time this year, with Isaiah Richards garnering the 9th place trophy, his first ever.

K-1 had 9 players from 5 different schools. Nest easily took the 1st place team trophy and the next 4 top teams tied in the point column though on tie-breaks it was PS116 which took 2nd place, and Heschel took 3rd also on tie-breaks. Solo honors went to Kyle Miller from Nest who took clear 1st with a perfect score, Mario Tutunco also from Nest took clear 2nd, and Jason Jiang also from Nest took 3rd place on tie-breaks. Of note in this section, Natalie Kleiner from Nightgale made her first appearance to the Lower Lab tournament this year scoring at the midway point in her field.

PRIMARY had 16 kids from 12 different schools. Team points were thus hard to come by. At final tally It was PS89 that secured 1st place by a point, Nest secured clear 2nd place, and it was Heschel that secured 3rd place team honors. Individual awards went to Kaelyn Ha from PS89 who took clear 1st with a perfect score, Austin Stapleton from Browning took 2nd place on tie-breaks, and Matthew Furman from Hunter taking 3rd place also on tie-breaks. Of note in this section Of note in this section, Kira Berman from Ramaz who placed better than half the field was her school's only representative in this section.

RESERVE had 20 kids from 16 different schools present, and the struggle for team honors was close. Lower Lab edged out Browning for 1st place at final tally, and Spence then took clear 3rd. Top solo honors went to Arthur Elghouayel from Browning who took 1st place with a perfect score. Romy Vassilev from Spence took clear 2nd and 3rd place went to Solomon Canada from Anderson. Of note in this section, Aiden McGorry from PS116 achieved a draw in his first-round game though a pawn down in a notorious opposite-colored bishops endgame, and Romy Vassilev's high performance in this mostly all-boy section was impressive. If her first-round game against a much lower-rated player had gone differently she would have contended for 1st place in a blitz play-off.

CLASSIC had 5 players from 4 different schools. PS116 easily took 1st place team honors, in 2nd place was Lower Lab, and Spence took 3rd place. Flrizelle Songco from PS116 took clear 1st with a perfect score, Ethan Joo from Lower Lab took clear 2nd, and Natalie Berger from Spence took 3rd place on tie-breaks. Of note in this section, siblings Florizelle and Jason Songco went into this tournament thinking one of them might wind up atop the winner's podium, but not even mom or dad could venture a guess which one it might be. This time it was Florizelle who took home the top prize and who achieved home bragging rights. The tension has already begun to build for their next tournament.

CHAMPIONSHIP had 6 players from 5 different schools. This time it was Kassa Korley from Dalton who won 1st place by a full point over perennial nemesis Raven Sturt from Bronx Science who took 2nd place on tie-breaks, and it was Matthew Zeitlin from Horace Mann who too 3rd. Top team honors went to Dalton which edged out Horace Mann on tie-breaks for 1st place, and it was Bronx Science taking 3rd place at final count.

The next NYChessKids tournament will be December 20th at PS116. As usual sign up early for fee discounts. And remember, the top two schools in terms of number of registrations will get a team room free of charge. Hope to see you there.

In the in-between time, play good chess and have great fun doing so.

You can see more pictures on our server: http://nychesskids.com/main/slideshow/photo/

See you on next tournament.