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Over 300 Attend Mayor Daley Holiday Festival Chess
Tournament
by Jeff Caveney, Renaissance Knights
instructor and Northside Prep High
School chess coach
Over 300 chess
players, most of them young and the rest
young at heart, came to Chicago's
McCormick Place convention center
December 18 to compete in the chess
tournament at the Mayor Daley Holiday
Sports Festival. The tournament was
organized by Renaissance Knights Chess
Foundation.
The tournament had
sections open to all players and
sections based on grade level for
younger players: K-8th Grade, K-5th
Grade, and K-2nd Grade. Each level was
also divided into a Championship
division for more experienced players
and a Reserve division for newer
players. This way everybody had a chance
to play others at their level.
In the Open
Championship section, 3 players achieved
perfect scores by winning all 4 games:
Bernard Parham of Purdue University,
Xavier Martine, and Bryan Kapke. Parham
won the 1st place trophy on tiebreaks,
with Martine 2nd and Kapke 3rd. Purdue
also won the 1st place team prize, and
Downers Grove North High School took 2nd
place team on tiebreaks over Argo High
School from Summit, IL.
In the K-8th Grade
Championship section, Michael Malis and
Narayan Karra both scored a perfect 4
points. Malis won the 1st place trophy
on tiebreaks and Karra took 2nd place.
In the K-5th Grade
Championship section, Anupama Rajendra,
Tripuraneni Ranadheer and Ricky Roman
all won every game to score 4 points.
Rajendra won 1st place on tiebreaks,
with Ranadheer 2nd and Roman 3rd. Edison
Elementary from Hammond, Indiana won the
1st place team prize on tiebreaks and
Happy Hollow Elementary of West
Lafayette, Indiana took 2nd place.
In the K-2nd Grade
Championship section, Owen Power took
clear 1st place with the only perfect
4-0 score. Cumberland Elementary of West
Lafayette, IN was the 1st place team and
Avery Coonley of Downers Grove, IL took
2nd place team.
In the Open Reserve
section, David Rubin and Aleck Johnsen
both won all their games for 4 points.
Rubin took 1st place on tiebreaks and
Johnsen 2nd. St. Ignatius College Prep
High School in Chicago won the 1st place
team prize.
In the K-8th Grade
Reserve section the girls dominated,
with Katlyn Bonnell and Anna Kurnat both
achieving perfect 4-0 scores. Bonnell
won 1st place and Kurnat 2nd place on
tiebreaks. Forest Trails Junior High in
Park Forest, IL won the 1st place team
prize and James Hart Junior High in
Homewood, IL took 2nd place.
In the K-5th Grade
Reserve section Caroline Bates and Moses
Carrisoza both won all their games for 4
points. Bates won 1st place on tiebreaks
and Carrisoza took 2nd place. Muhammad
University of Islam in Chicago won the
1st place team prize and Murphy School
in Chicago took 2nd place.
In the K-2nd Grade
Reserve section, Nicholas Chen took
clear 1st place with the only perfect
score of 4 points. Immaculate Conception
School in Chicago won the 1st place team
prize and the Latin School in Chicago
took 2nd place.
We congratulate all
the players, coaches and teams who came
out, played hard and had a whole day of
fun at the chess tournament!
Exciting
Game Wins K-8th Grade Championship
The K-8th Grade
Championship section 1st place player
Michael Malis played a very exciting
game in the final round vs. Rahul Dhiman.
Both players fought very hard and played
very well, and produced a great game
that is fun to look at. The opening they
played was the main line of the Sicilian
Dragon Variation, where White launches a
wild, fast attack on Black's king on the
kingside and Black launches a wild, fast
attack on White's king on the queenside.
This game is an excellent example of
just how wild and crazy and fun such a
game can get. By the end of the game one
king is hiding for his life and the
other king is running for his life.
It would take a
Grandmaster to explain everything that
happens in this game, but I will
highlight some of the key moments.
White castles his
king on the queenside so that he is free
to push his kingside pawns toward the
Black king without exposing his king
there.
Black stops the
white bishop from trading off the knight
on f6, the defender of the pawn on h7
White is attacking.
This is a classic
idea for Black, sacrificing his rook for
the knight on c3 to break open the pawns
around White's king.
Instead of capturing
immediately and breaking up his pawns,
White uses a pin first.
Usually White wants
to trade pawns on the kingside to open
lines, instead of block pawns.
And Black should
defend his pawn on g6 instead of taking
the pawn on g5, to keep the lines closed
on the kingside.
Now it gets really
wild and crazy. The Black king is hiding
for his life behind his bishop, while
the White king is about to run for his
life!
Here the players
were running out of time and stopped
writing down the moves. A few moves
later the Black queen moved to e1, then
White played Bc4+ checking the king with
a discovered attack on the Black queen
by the White rook on h1. Thus White won
the queen and soon won the game.
Congratulations to
both players for a great, exciting game!
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