The Overlake Middle School Chess Team brought home another 1st place team trophy! 

On March 28th 2009, six players traveled to Ingraham High School in Seattle to play in the Chess Mates Springfest tournament.  This is one of the larger tournaments in the area with over 250 participants.  With 7 players rated over 1400, the 5-8th grade section was very competitive.  The Overlake team triumphed, earning 2nd, 3rd, and 4th place overall, and the top team prize.

Jack Sather went undefeated, finished with 4 1/2 out of 5 points, and earned the 2nd place overall trophy. Both Ian McPherson and Will Spencer won 4 out of 5 games, each with a single loss to the overall tournament champion.  Will just edged out Ian on tiebreak points to take 3rd place while Ian took 4th place.  Drew Chouinard finished at the top of the 3 point players in 11th place overall.  Finally, Aditya Uppala and Clovis Wong each finished with 3 wins in 5 games.  Every Overlake player finished in the top half of the section!

The Overlake players led in the team standings from start to finish.  The day started with the team winning 6 out of 6 in the first round.  They kept rolling from there.  Another memorable moment was in round 3.  Will and Drew had worked their way up to the top boards and Overlake was playing on boards 1 thru 4 (photo left). 

In addition to earning the top team prize and several individual awards, the team was able show off their new chess club t-shirts which turned more than a couple heads!  Check 'em out!

Overall, it was a great day for Overlake chess and an excellent team effort!  Hoot!

(A video from the awards ceremony)