Forty-six young people turned out for the
2007 North Carolina High School
Scholastic Chess Championship in Newton Saturday May
12th, with top overall
team honors a tie between Hibriten and Newton-Conover,
and the individual
overall win a tie between Amelia Wheeless, Jordan Joseph
and Kevin Chuang,
who won all four of their games.
The combined score of the top four players on Hibriten's
team was (12) games
won to conquer the 2AA division, with West Caldwell (9.5)
coming in second,
and third overall. Newton-Conover (12) took top
honors in 2A followed by
Maiden (6.0), which was seventh overall.
Hunter Huss (9.0) topped 3A, coming in fourth overall,
ahead of T.W. Andrews
(7.0), which was second in the division and fifth
overall.
Harnett Central (6.5) won in 3AA, and 6th overall, while
their rivals,
Triton (4), took second, and 10th overall. Both
teams drove five hours to
attend, and Triton's young team, all of whom were
attending their first
tournament, clearly sported the best team t-shirts at the
event.
The winning team in the at-large division (5.5) was
composed of
home-schooled siblings Grace and William Campbell of
Statesville,
representing the Hickory Chess Club. The two were
also respectively second
and third in individual performance in the section.
13 year-old Grace won three games in the four round
swiss-format tournament,
while eight year-old Will won two and drew another, both
against a field of
high school students. It was the Campbells' third
tournament and third time
placing in their sections.
Young William could barely contain himself when he
learned his two-person
team won their division. The team was 8th overall,
followed by the
Charlotte Home-Schoolers, also composed of two siblings,
Amelia and Kent
Wheeless, who were second in the division and 9th
overall.
Amelia and Kent are children of North Carolina Chess
Association President
Randy Wheeless, who presented trophies to all the
winners. Another top
chess-playing Wheeless sibling, Collette, is now in her
first year of
college.
Amelia, one of the strongest high school girls in the
state and the
highest-rated player at the tournament, also won
individual first in the
at-large division.
The lone player in the 4A division was South Caldwell's
Bobby Stroud (2.5).
Unfortunately for Stroud and his school, minimum team
size was two people,
though Stroud earned an individual first in the
uncontested section.
At the top of the 3A division with three games won were
Marshall Farady and
Rameez Raja. They were followed by Corey Mills,
Joshua Chan, Gwen Faraday,
and Jeremy Glenn, all with two wins.
Richard O'Briant (2.5) led 3AA, followed by Pratik Patel
and David Kilnger
with 2 wins each.
Following winner Jordan Joseph (4) in 2A with three wins
were Clinton
Benton, Tim Heaton, Antonio Domingez, and Justin Benton.
Oscar Luis, Scotty
Hazveil and Gabe Crider won two to round out the
division.
2AA saw Kevin Chuang (4) followed by Jayson Miller, Matt
Embler and Zack
Gootman, all with three. Josh Rich had two wins and
a draw, while Tim
Ballas, Will Wilson, Kyle Mayer, Malcolm Cosh and Dorian
Phasoulas all won
twice.
All students winning at least two games also earned a
medal.
"Chess has shown by many studies to increase
performance in school by
students who are involved," said tournament
organizer John Thomas.
Directing at the tournament was Randy Lovelace of
Taylorsville, the 30th
highest-rated active player in North Carolina.
Saturday was his first
experience directing in a full tournament in many years
after a layoff due
to health problems.
Lovelace recently qualified as a club-level tournament
director, and has
been holding a round of rated games on Tuesday afternoons
at meetings of the
Hickory Chess Club. On Saturday May 26th, the club
and Lovelace will hold
their first tournament, Groundhog Swiss I, at the club's
usual meeting place
in meeting room A of the Foundation YMCA Miller Teen
Center, 701 1st St. NW,
Hickory.
See hickorychessclub.org for more about the club, the Campbell
kids, and the
upcoming Groundhog Swiss. Also see ncchess.org for
more information about
chess all over North Carolina.
The crosstable for the 2007 North Carolina High School
Scholastic Chess
Championship can be found online at:
http://www.uschess.org/msa/XtblMain.php?200705124411-12460063
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