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The Michigan Junior Championships have become rather like a chess festival. For many years, they have featured 9 events over 2 days. For 2003 this was again the case, with more participants than ever. At final count, there were 389 competitors. I think that the last time that this event was held at Kearsley, I did count around 400, but I also think that I was counting the people that talked about coming. This year, if I had counted those people, I would have had a number around 424.
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Now I will digress and share my tale of entry woes. At 4 pm on the Friday before the event, I had a presentation to give at work. Leaving my phone and my computer behind, I left for an hour. When I returned, I discovered that I had 27 new online entries and 4 messages on my phone. In spite of this temporary set-back, I was able to get all of the advance entries entered on Friday night. However, with on-site entries and late check-in, we were still about an hour late for round 1. This was not to last very long though, we were back on schedule by round 3 and most importantly, the last round started on time. In fact, the final round of each of the 9 events started on time!
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Let’s not forget the gracious hosts at South Lyon. A special thank you to Eric Wright and all the volunteers that helped make the event a success. The TD staff also include Jeff Aldrich on computers and Keith Councell, Erich Choate, and Martin Moore working the floors.
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The K-3 Championship and Reserve sections are the newest additions to the Michigan Junior Championships, but they have lost no time in accumulating a large number of participants. The 38 participants in the K-3 Reserve were relative beginners as none of the top 5 seeds had perfect scores at the end of round 2. In fact, all of the winners were unrated players. Chang Che of Ann Arbor King Elementary finished in first place with 4.5 out of 5. Chang's teammate, Calum McGuckin, prevented him from earning a perfect score. In 2nd-7th place were Jalen Smith, Troy Walters, Graham Keep, Jared Slawski, Vinay Hanasoge, and Aaron Tisack. First place finisher, Chang Che, and 7th place finisher, Aaron Tisack were both members of the Ann Arbor King co-champion primary team.
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In the K-3 Championship section, another member of the Ann Arbor King co-champion primary team was the top seed. Atulya Shetty looked to dominate the field as he was rated over 300 points higher than his nearest competitor. Never one to disappoint, Atulya scared his first round opponent into not coming and then mowed over his next 4 opponents to finish with a 5-0 score. A draw with his teammate in round 3 left Bobby Perry a half point shy of a perfect score. However, with 4.5 out of 5, Bobby finished in clear 2nd place. There were 9 students tied for 3rd place with 4-points. This year, we introduced a new rule that all players with 4-points would receive a trophy. It probably still needs some tweaking in execution, but the sentiment that 4 points is an impressive score, was conveyed. Six third graders finished with 4 points, and received grade trophies. They were Danny Komendera, Jimmy Mitchell, Logan Williams, Nishant Jain, Billy Liu, and Helen Chu. Jimmy Mitchell was a member of the Eaton Rapids team that were primary co-champions in February, Nishant Jain was a member of the Okemos Cornell team that were primary co-champions, and Helen Chu was the final member of the Ann Arbor King team that were primary co-champions. If you have not yet detected a pattern, I will suggest one to you: good teams have good players. Finishing ahead of all other 4 point finishers, was Noah White. Noah had two draws, with his teammate, Bobby Perry, and in the 4th round with fellow 4-point finisher, Helen Chu. Zachary Wilkins lost in the final round to Bobby Perry to finish in 4th place. Rashad Haugabrook lost to Atulya in round 2, but was perfect for the final 3 rounds, to finish in 5th place with 4 points. Grade trophy winner included Joshua Schneider, the lone kindergardener in the section, Eric Busch, Sherwin Soroushian, and Michael Carter. Michael scored 3.5 points, a full point and a half ahead of Eric and Sherwin. He collected the first of 3 trophies that he and his two siblings would win over the weekend. Second grade prize winners were led by 3.5 points from Emily Novick over 2nd and 3rd place finishers, Waleed Yassine and Louis Messina. Waleed and Louis each had 3.0 points.
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The K-5 sections were also held on Saturday. There were 46 players who entered the Reserve section. The competition was exciting as there were two perfect scores at the end of the tournament. James Canty, an unrated player, from Detroit Bates Academy was one of the co-champions. Leonard Crosby, also from Detroit was the other co-champion. In 3rd through 8th place, with 4 points each, were Daniel Lehrman, Andre Person, Andy Sonenberg, Keith Wright, Jonathan Grit, and Tyler Osborne. Daniel Lehrman plays for Ann Arbor King and lost only to James Canty in the final round.
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In the Championship section, we had 47 participants. Top seeded Derek Li, was 300 points higher than the field, much like Atulya Shetty’s rating in the K-3 section. However, things weren’t quite as nice for Derek. In the final round, he lost to Eric Wang, first board for the K-5 state team champion, Okemos Cornell. Eric’s perfect 5-0 score was good for first place in the section. As no one scored 4.5 points, Derek finished 2nd with a 4-1 score. Lanxin Liu, another student from Ann Arbor King, finished in 3rd place, losing only to fellow 4-pointer, Ben White. In 4th place was Robert Taliaferro II. Robert lost only to Derek Li in round 4 and defeated Ben White in the final round to halt his quest for 5 points. Max Wilson finished in 5th place. Max lost Eric Wang in round 3. The 3 5th grade prize winners all had 4 points. Ben White, Rhys Hertafeld, and Evan Pan were 1st, 2nd, and 3rd amongst 5th graders. Ben White was a member of the champion Montessori team that finished perfectly in the K-6 section. Evan Pan was a teammate of Eric Wang’s on the K-5 champion Cornell squad. Winning the 4th grade prizes were 4-pointer, Brennan Andrews, who finished first. Brennan lost only to Robert Taliaferro. Finishing 2nd and 3rd in 4th grade were Alex Baker, and Andrew Elenbogen, both with 3 points.
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The Sunday rounds got off much closer to on time as we had half as many people, with only 2 tournaments. Many die-hard chess fans came back for a second day of fun as well. Both of the K-8 tournaments were very well attended despite the icy weather. We did have many empty boards in round 1 as many players decided not to make the trip and didn’t tell us. In the K-8 Reserve section, we had 2 perfect scores, and 2 trophy winners from the day before. Co-champions were unrated player, Mohammud Mamun and Dalton Barksdale, both of Detroit Bates Academy. The players in 3rd through 8th places finished with 4 points. Helen Chu received the 3rd place trophy on tie-breaks. She finished with 4 points, losing only to Dalton Barksdale. She also scored 4 points on Saturday in the K-3 Championship event. Cody Swarthout finished 4th. Cody lost only to Helen, in round 3. In 5th place, was Nataiya Taliaferro. She lost to Mohammud Mamun in round 4 and after winning her last round, collected a trophy to match her dad and her brother. Javier Fernandez, Keith Wright, and Brent Kowalski, finished in 6th, 7th, and 8th places. Keith also won a trophy in the K-5 Reserve tournament.
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As seemed to be the trend in the K-3 and K-5 sections, the top seed in the K-8 section was also significantly higher than the rest of the field. Where the top seeds in K-3 and K-5 were over 300 points above the field, Peter Nelson was only about 250 points higher than his nearest competitor. Peter lost in the last round to his nearest rival, second seed Neal Anderson. Youth was dominant in this section as first and second places were won by 6th graders. First place went to Neal Anderson who finished with a perfect score. Neal also played first board for Montessori K-6 team champions. Jonathan Budzenski of Spring Like finished 2nd. Jonathan drew in round 1 with Amish Shah and then proceeded to win his next 4 rounds. With 4.5 points, Jonathan finished in clear 2nd. Peter Nelson finished with 4 points in 3rd place. Brendon Farrell finished in 4th place, losing only to Neal Anderson in round 3. Channing Will finished in 5th place with 4 points. Channing’s story of participation was slightly humorous as he almost decided to play in the Sponsors section instead! Channing lost only to Neal Anderson in round 4 and was happy that he decided to compete in the K-8 tournament. Other players with 4 points included Ashley Carter, Chris Autera-Polzin, and Michael Gurski. These players finished 1st place in their respective grades, 7th, 6th, and 8th. Ashley actually competed in the Junior tournament on Saturday and then turned her attention to the K-8 tournament for Sunday. She lost only to Peter Nelson in round 3. Chris Autera-Polzin was another member of the K-6 champion Montessori team. In this event, he lost to Jonathan Budzenski in round 2 to finish with 4 points. Other trophy winners included 3 pointers Jonathan Evans and Jamonte Brown in the 6th grade and under category, 3 pointers Amish Shah and Alexander Koss in 7th grade, and 3.5 pointers Hal Morely and Julian Washington in 8th grade.
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I love it when the Junior Championship is large and competitive. The senior class at the Junior was a bit sparse this year as Nathan Solon, Kartik Viswanathan, and David Kvatadze didn’t manage to make it to the tournament. However, the absence of these players did nothing to diminish the competitiveness of the tournament. The 64 player section certainly one of the largest ones ever. The top 2 seeds in this event, Magdalena Matszewska and Aaron Kahn were both 8th graders, something that certainly bodes well for the future of Michigan scholastic chess on a National level. Former 2-time Michigan Junior champion Zack Madden was a bit rusty, but came to play anyhow, something I respect because I think that supporting state championships in Michigan is extremely important. However, Zack lost in round 1 to Joshua Maddock. The rest of the top seeds had pretty smooth sailing for the first round, but met with a bit of turbulence in round 2. In a sophomore battle, Scott Thach upset Nick Cox, for Nick’s only loss of the tournament. I would have expected Scott to continue in this vein for the rest of the tournament, but a tough game in round 3 zapped his energy for the rest of the event. Tim Moroney also lost in round 2, to David Wald, a player capable of playing far beyond his rating. At the end of round 3, there were 6 perfect scores. Magdalena Matszewska, Aaron Kahn, Louiza Livschitz, Jack Wood, Kent Hershberger, and Aaron West. So, on Sunday morning, we were faced with the possibility of co-champions with 5-0 perfect scores. That has only actually happened in this tournament once in recent memory. On Sunday night, we were left with 3 co-champions, none of whom had perfect scores. In round 4, Magdalena was paired with Jack Wood, Aaron Kahn was paired with Kent Hershberger, and Louiza was paired with Aaron West. I didn’t get to watch much chess this weekend, but when I wandered by the game on board 2, I thought that Kent was winning and that it was pretty much over. About a half an hour later when I went to collect the results sheet, I saw that Magdalena, Aaron?!, and Louiza had all won. To tell you the truth, I’m still not quite sure how Aaron got out of that mess, but maybe this is why I keep losing to him. Thus, going into the final round, we had 3 students who were not in high school leading the tournament. Now, I must say that although I am a fan of younger students competing and doing well, I was terribly distraught at the prospect of one of them winning the tournament because none of them can represent Michigan at the Denker. So, Magdalena and Aaron drew in a timely fashion in the last round. And, not long after, Louiza offered a draw to Zack Madden. Thus, we had 3 players tied for first place with 4.5 points. Magdalena, Aaron, and Louiza were each awarded $133.33 from the Michigan Chess scholarship fund. These monies will be payable to them after high school graduation upon proof of enrollment into an institution of higher education. Given the youth of these winners, I expect that they will have much greater totals when it is time for them to collect their scholarships. Kent Hershberger beat fellow senior Brandon Richardson in the final round to finish in 4th place with 4 points. As the top high school student, Kent has earned the right to represent Michigan in the Arnold Denker Invitational tournament of high school champions. Finishing in 5th place was DaVaughn Dixon. DaVaughn lost to Louiza in round 3, but won the remainder of his 4 games to finish with his second impressive result in a one-month span. His next was yet to come at the Nationals. The top seniors not winning overall awards were Josef Gadson and Aaron West, both of whom scored 4 points. Third place in 12th grade was Zack Madden. For 11th grade, 1st and 2nd places were Roland Samuel and Martell Collins, both with 3.5 points. Gary Pratt finished in 3rd place with 3 points. First place 10th grade with 4 points was Nick Cox. Second place was John Gattinger with 3.5 points. Bart Van Eerd was 3rd place 10th grade with 3 points. In the 9th grade and under group, 8th grader Tim Moroney was 1st with 3.5 points, followed by Jack Wood and Michael Collins, each with 3 points.
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