Inland Chess Academy

King's Clash
Scholastic Chess Tournament
December 5, 2015

RESULTS

Hosted by
Cataldo Catholic School &
St. Augustine Parish Center

Pioneer School Prevails Again  by James Stripes

The King's Clash Scholastic Tournament held at Cataldo School on Saturday, December 5 featured many untold stories that will linger in the memories of the competitors for a few weeks, years, or in some cases for the rest of their lives.

Pioneer School was one of two schools which kept Saint George's School from taking all of the team trophies in Spokane during the 2014-2015 season, although SGS still captured the majority. With Pioneer's victory on Saturday, their second in three events, PSP showed that they are the team to beat in 2015-2016.

   Plenty of drama ...

Youth tournaments depart slightly from the norm for rated chess competition. Not all young players notate their games, although this practice is required in USCF events. Games also start without clocks. Forty minutes into a one hour round, clocks are placed on the games still in progress with each player allotted ten minutes to complete the game.

Parents are not allowed in the playing hall and so miss much drama. Tournament officials are kept busy enough in an event with 61 players, that they observe a mere fraction of these moments.

In the last game to finish in round three, both players had been notating the game until each were under three minutes remaining. Kyler Doud was ahead a rook and bishop for a pawn and threatened checkmate in one, but Kara Chiang kept harassing his king with checks. Kyler's King walked from one corner to the other to escape checks. Finally, unable to check the king further, Kara defended her vital b7 pawn where Kyler threatened checkmate. The exchange of queen and rook for queen and pawn did not appeal to Kyler, so he opted for another tack. A few moves later, Kara pointed out that the position had been repeated three times and stuck out her hand claiming a draw. Kyler could have pointed out that neither score sheet could prove the repetition, but with less time remaining was happy to split the point.

The tournament consisted of four sections, K-1, K-3, K-5, K-12, plus a parent's event. The only player who opted to play up was second grader Mythreya Dharani. He won the K-12 section with 4.5/5.0, giving up a draw to newcomer Kamden Doud in the fourth round. Kamden placed third in the section and took home the trophy for top sixth grader. Alex Popescu placed second, losing to Mythreya but winning his other four games, including a round five battle with Kamden.

In the K-5 section, three players finished without a loss. Varun Ambalavanan topped the section with 4.5. Kara Chiang (4.0) had two draws and three wins. Toby Kast (4.0) lost to Kara and won his other games. He took the trophy for top fifth grader. Two fourth graders with 3.5 took home trophies for top in grade, Ryan Waters and Mathew Wasson. Ryan's only loss was to Varun. Mathew had to win a soccer game in the morning and only played three rounds, winning every game.

Four players with one loss each topped the largest section, K-3. Connor Gosselin-Harris beat Ben Barrett, but Ben took first on tie-breaks. Ben also beat the player that handed Connor his only loss as well as beating the player who gave Evelyn Arquette (also 4.0) her sole loss. Per Sande was the fourth with 4.0. Based on the standard Solkoff, Cumulative, Opposition Cumulative tie-breaks, first place went to Ben, second to Connor, and Evelyn and Per each took home their respective grade level trophies.

The youngest section was won by the only player with a perfect 5.0, Cyler Jessup. Second place went to Elizabeth Arquette, who lost only to Cyler. Aaron Pooler (3.0) won the first grade trophy.

SwissSys Standings. King's Clash: Pawns K-1

# Name Rtng Rd 1 Rd 2 Rd 3 Rd 4 Rd 5 Tot
1 Cyler Jessup 455 W4 W7 W2 W6 W5 5.0
2 Elizabeth Arquette 858 W6 W3 L1 W8 W4 4.0
3 Aaron Pooler 400 B--- L2 W8 D4 D6 3.0
4 Grant Russell unr. L1 W11 W10 D3 L2 2.5
5 Alex Lucas unr. W9 W8 L7 D10 L1 2.5
6 Joey Maestas unr. L2 W10 D9 L1 D3 2.0
7 Amelie Hilton 504 W11 L1 W5 U--- U--- 2.0
8 Carter Miller 400 D10 L5 L3 L2 B--- 1.5
9 Claire Gosselin-Harris 400 L5 B--- D6 U--- U--- 1.5
10 Oliver McDonnel unr. D8 L6 L4 D5 U--- 1.0
11 Tiernan Waggoner unr. L7 L4 B--- U--- U--- 1.0

SwissSys Standings. King's Clash: Knights K-3

# Name Rtng Rd 1 Rd 2 Rd 3 Rd 4 Rd 5 Tot
1 Ben Barrett 888 W12 W9 W7 W6 L2 4.0
2 Connor Gosselin-Harris 981 W14 L7 W5 W8 W1 4.0
3 Evelyn Arquette 985 W11 L6 W15 W9 W8 4.0
4 Per Sande 844 W15 L10 W14 W13 W6 4.0
5 Rohan Dhillon 808 W21 D18 L2 W12 W7 3.5
6 Laura Sheikh 805 W16 W3 W10 L1 L4 3.0
7 Colby Jessup 793 W22 W2 L1 W10 L5 3.0
8 Ethan Shan 680 W13 W11 W18 L2 L3 3.0
9 Olivia Hilton 790 W19 L1 W16 L3 W14 3.0
10 Arnav Wadikar 739 W20 W4 L6 L7 W15 3.0
11 Benjamin Johnson 597 L3 L8 W17 W18 W13 3.0
12 Addison Bowen 587 L1 W19 D22 L5 W18 2.5
13 Robin Horvath unr. L8 W21 W19 L4 L11 2.0
14 Will Gamon 544 L2 W22 L4 W21 L9 2.0
15 Natalie Tomkins 448 L4 B--- L3 W22 L10 2.0
16 Alex Marsh unr. L6 W20 L9 L19 W21 2.0
17 Hank Strasser unr. B--- U--- L11 D20 D19 2.0
18 Cole Watkins 448 B--- D5 L8 L11 L12 1.5
19 Cayden Garberg unr. L9 L12 L13 W16 D17 1.5
20 Caroline Duffy unr. L10 L16 L21 D17 W22 1.5
21 Cole Vestal unr. L5 L13 W20 L14 L16 1.0
22 Waverly Edwards unr. L7 L14 D12 L15 L20 0.5

SwissSys Standings. King's Clash: Bishops K-5

# Name Rtng Rd 1 Rd 2 Rd 3 Rd 4 Rd 5 Tot
1 Varun Ambalavanan 1169 W8 W18 W6 D2 W4 4.5
2 Kara Chiang 1105 W11 W3 D10 D1 W6 4.0
3 Toby Kast 852 W13 L2 W16 W11 W7 4.0
4 Ryan Waters 993 H--- W17 W7 W10 L1 3.5
5 Mathew Wasson 971 U--- H--- W17 W12 W10 3.5
6 Malia Brown 932 W15 W13 L1 W9 L2 3.0
7 Gabe Gustafson 965 W18 W9 L4 W8 L3 3.0
8 Ashtan Krzyzanek 436 L1 B--- W15 L7 W14 3.0
9 J J Greene unr. W16 L7 W18 L6 W11 3.0
10 Kyler Doud unr. W12 W16 D2 L4 L5 2.5
11 Liam Reeves 550 L2 W12 W13 L3 L9 2.0
12 Noah Kuhn 630 L10 L11 W14 L5 W15 2.0
13 Mason Hubble unr. L3 L6 L11 W18 W17 2.0
14 Isaac Pooler 574 D17 D15 L12 W16 L8 2.0
15 Miles Rhea unr. L6 D14 L8 W17 L12 1.5
16 Chloe Maxey 567 L9 L10 L3 L14 W18 1.0
17 Anakin Talkington unr. D14 L4 L5 L15 L13 0.5
18 Rowan O'Neil unr. L7 L1 L9 L13 L16 0.0

SwissSys Standings. King's Clash: Rooks K-12

# Name Rtng Rd 1 Rd 2 Rd 3 Rd 4 Rd 5 Tot
1 Mythreya Dharani 1459 W8 W7 W2 D3 W6 4.5
2 Alex Popescu 1665 W9 W4 L1 W5 W3 4.0
3 Kamden Doud unr. W5 W8 W4 D1 L2 3.5
4 Aj Stenbeck 1038 W6 L2 L3 W10 W7 3.0
5 Logan Faulkner 1433 L3 W10 W6 L2 W9 3.0
6 Adrian Roberts unr. L4 W9 L5 W7 L1 2.0
7 Andres Diaz 866 W10 L1 W8 L6 L4 2.0
8 Morris Hendricks-Santiago unr. L1 L3 L7 W9 W10 2.0
9 Joshua Kimball 613 L2 L6 D10 L8 L5 0.5
10 Austin Ides unr. L7 L5 D9 L4 L8 0.5

SwissSys Standings. King's Clash: Kings and Queens (Parents)

# Name Rtng Rd 1 Rd 2 Rd 3 Tot
1 Anand Wadikar 1856 W4 W2 W3 3.0
2 Kyle Gosselin-Harris 1200 B--- L1 W5 2.0
3 Jeff Hilton 1036 W5 D4 L1 1.5
4 Purvi Dhillon unr. L1 D3 B--- 1.5
5 Shawn Vestal unr. L3 B--- L2 1.0