National Championships
Two top-ten middle school students traveled to Lake Buena Vista, Florida to participate in the National Scholastic K-12 Chess Championship held December 12-14. Ian McPherson and Jack Sather participated in this national grade level chammpionship which draws the top scholastic players from all over the country. The tournament consists of 7 rounds, held over three days, with individual games lasting up to 3 hours each!
Leading the way, Ian McPherson (right) had an incredible tournament! He suffered only a single loss, and finished with 5.5 points out of 7. Along the way, Ian won all games in which he was favored. He had two upsets over players rated in the 1600s and a draw against a player rated in the 1900s. With that peformance he claimed 8th place overall and a podium spot, among nearly 150 of the nation's best 6th grade players. A player's performance can be calculated, and for this tournament Ian had a performance rating of 1821, which is nearly 400 points above his normal rating! Ian was simply amazing and was reward with an enormous trophy.
Jack Sather also won all games in which he was favored and had one signficant upset over a player rated in the 1600s. Jack played a 1900 level player to a drawn position, but ended up with a loss when his time expired. Jack finished with 4 points and just missed receiving a class level trophy by a single place, which was determined by 3rd order tie-break points. In a pairs bughouse side competition, Jack finished in 6th place and once again just missed the podium by a single spot. The average rating of the pairs that finished above him and his teammate was nearly 1900, so this was a very strong finish.
Congratulations to both Ian and Jack!