|
The Michigan Elementary and Primary Team tournaments were hosted this year in Spring Lake on the west side of the state. I would like to commend Joe Singerling and his volunteers (114!) for doing an excellent job of hosting the event. This was an event, which other local organizers will wish to emulate in the future. Directing the event was Jay Carr and Kevin Czuhai handling the K-6 section and Jennifer Skidmore with the K-3 and K-5. Handling the floor duties were Keith Councell, Eric Choate, Joseph Gadson, Shawn Rayon, and Jeff Aldrich. |
Elementary (K-6) Section
Detroit schools captured half of the top 10 places in this tournament. The first of these teams that we will mention was 10th place Detroit Fisher Middle School. This team boasted gold medal winner Christian Young on third board, but as the defending champions only returned one player, Anthony Watkins, they faced a difficult challenge. Ann Arbor Emerson captured 9th place. With silver medal winners Eric Haengel and Sanda Mong scoring 4.5 and 4.0 points respectively on board 1 and 3, this team scored very well. However, they were defeated by 7th place Detroit Barbour Middle School and they were held to draws by Paul Robeson B and the Spring Lake Rooks. Scoring an impressive 13.5/20 game points, Detroit Burroughs finished in 8th place on top of the other 3 point teams. Their effort was helped by the contributions of silver medallists Aaron George and DeMeshiho Bomer on boards 2 and 4. Teams in 3rd through 7th places scored 3.5 match points, and all of these teams drew in round 3, many with each other! So, to determine which team earned 3rd place and which finished 7th, we looked at individual game points. In 7th place, Detroit Barbour Middle School got off to a good start by winning their first two matches. Silver medallists Reginald Hammond and Charmanique Darnell helped the Barbour effort. However, they were held to a draw by Okemos Kinawa and then lost to Lansing Montessori, the eventual champion. In 6th place, Okemos Chippewa was only team to place in the top 10 without being paired against any of the teams who finished amongst the top 10. Theirs was a balance effort as each member of their team scored 3 points. In 5th place, Okemos Kinawa, was led by first board and silver medallist Justin Brereton. Like Barbour, Kinawa lost only to the champions. 4th place was earned by Detroit Paul Robeson Academy. PRA was undefeated for the day, drawing 3 matches. Wendell Scott and Ethan Hogan earned silver medals for PRA on boards 2 and 4. Finishing 1.5 game points ahead of the other teams with 3.5 match points were the hosting Spring Lake Kings. Spring Lake was also undefeated for the day, drawing 3 matches. The Spring Lake Kings were led by perfect scores from Jonathan Budzenski on board 1 and David Lowing on board 3. Finishing in second place was a team from Detroit Bates Academy. They were the only team scoring 4 match points; drawing with PRA and the Spring Lake Kings. Ibrahim Haugabrook, Leonard Crosby, and Rashad Haugabrook earned silver medals on boards 1, 3, and 4. Finishing in first place was the team from Lansing Montessori. Last year these 4 students won the K-5 tournament with a perfect score. This year, Neal Anderson, Chris Autera-Polzin, Ben White, and Zachary Dvorak were perfect again. That is, their team scored a perfect 5-0 again. Even more impressive is that each of the members of this team won all of their games to earn a gold medal. This team went 20-0 for one of the most impressive performances in Michigan Chess history.
|
Elementary (K-5) Section
Forty-one teams braved the weather to compete in this event. Finishing in 10th place from Detroit was A.L. Holmes A. Clinton Boyd earned a silver medal for his team on board 4. In 9th place, was Utica Roberts G, who scored 2.5 more game points than all other teams with 3 match points. Earning a bronze medal for Roberts was Mike Coyle on board 2. Earning silver medals for the Rooks were Marco Pasquali on board 1 and Brent Schmid on board 4. Finishing in 8th place was Okemos Central Elementary. They were the only team to score 3.5 match points. Brennan Andrews and Rhys Hertafeld earned silver medals on boards 2 and 3 to help the Central effort. In 7th place was Okemos Hiawatha. Their 4 match points included draws with the eventual champion and Ann Arbor King. Max Wilson and Brendan Hoshal, who earned silver medals on boards 1 and 2, led this team. The host Spring Lake Stars earned 6th place, much like their finish in last year’s event. Mason Bench won a bronze medal on board 3 and David Cook won a silver medal on board 4. The Breton Rooks from East Grand Rapids finished in 5th place. There were 3 medal winners for the team from EGR, Alec Wright won a bronze medal on board 2, Eric Belfer won a silver medal on board 3 and Jonathan Grit won a gold medal on board 5. Like their teammates in the K-6 tournament, Detroit Paul Robeson finished 4th. Tony Black won a silver medal on board 2 and Miles Brown was perfect on board 4 to earn a gold medal. Ann Arbor King earned 3rd place in this tournament. Draws in rounds 2 and 5 prevented them from sharing part of the first place title. Fourth graders, Andrew Elenbogen and Connor McGuckin on boards 1 and 2, won silver medals. Lanxin Liu was perfect on board 3. Finishing in second place, ahead of all of the other teams with 4 match points was Ann Arbor Wines. This team scored an impressive 17 game points by turning in an undefeated performance after losing to the Spring Lake Stars in round 2. Alexander Jaeckel won the lone gold medal for Wines on board 2. Tyrus Eagle, Andrea Deeb, and Paul Reece won silver medals on boards 1, 3, and 4. Okemos Cornell improved on their second place finish from last year by scoring 4.5 match points to become the 2003 K-5 Champion. Alex Baker won a bronze medal on board 4. All other members of the Cornell team won silver medals; Eric Wang on board 1, Even Pan on board 2, and Kyle Nekritz on board 3.
|
Primary (K-3) Section
Last year this event produced 3 co-champions. The 2003 edition of the event produced 6! In 10th place, Ann Arbor Thurston A made their first appearance in the event. Graham Keep earned a silver medal on board 4. Spring Lake Jeffers D finished in 9th place. Nic Ellingboe won a silver medal on board 1 for the host school. In 8th place, defending co-champions, Utica Crissman Kings, finished ahead of all of the other teams with 3 points. The only returning player, Emma Snider, won a bronze medal on board 1. Jeremy Berlinger earned a silver medal on board 2. The only team to finish with 3.5 match points was returning co-champion Okemos Wardcliff A. Billy Liu and Eli Miksicek returned to finish in 7th place. Billy won a silver medal on board 1. Alexandra Theuer won a gold medal on board 4. All of the co-champions scored 4 match points and traded turns beating each other. Memphis A, in only their second year of participation, scored 13.5 game points and lost to Ann Arbor King A. Silver medals were earned by Edison Rose on board 2 and Jeff Weidner on board 4. The Utica Roberts Rooks were the only co-champion from last year to repeat the accomplishment. They drew early with Ann Arbor Wines and in the final round with Okemos Central to place both teams in the champion’s circle. First board Mingkuan Zhang returned for the champions and Bryan Arment won a gold medal on board 3 and Louis Messina won a silver medal on board 4. Eaton Rapids Northwestern Elementary won their first share of first place this year by drawing with Okemos Cornell in round 3 and Spring Lake Jeffers in round 4. Jimmy Mitchell earned a silver medal on board 2 and Britton Collier earned a bronze medal on board 3. Ypsilanti Erickson made their second tournament appearance by taking home a share of first place. They used 5 players in a well-rounded effort. A silver medal was earned by Tyler Thompson on board 3. Like Memphis, they lost only to Ann Arbor King. Co-champion Okemos Cornell drew with Eaton Rapids in round 3 and sealed their share of first place by drawing with Roberts in the final round. Alan Li who won a gold medal on board 1 and Nishant Jain who won a silver medal on board 2 led Okemos Cornell. Ann Arbor King looked to run-away with the tournament but they were stopped by defending co-champions Roberts Rooks in the penultimate round. Ann Arbor King was led by a perfect score from National Champion Atulya Shetty, (see the Michigan Chess March/April 2003) on board 1. Chang Che and Aaron Tisack earned silver medals on boards 3 and 4.
|
|
