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Inland Chess Academy
CHAMPIONSHIP SECTION - USCF PREMIER SECTION Team Winner: Immaculate Conception The Groundhog Gambit, held at Saint George's School February 7, was among the largest local scholastic tournaments in the Spokane area the past two years with 49 participants from a dozen schools, two homeschool resource centers, and independent homeschoolers. Competition was strong across both sections. The USCF Championship section had ten players. Anthony Eakin and Conan Rivers Tapia tied for first with 4.0 each. Anthony won the first place trophy on tiebreaks and Conan took home second. Anthony's loss was to Darshini Dinesh Babu (2.5) who lost to Patrick Bray (2.0). One of Patrick's losses was to ninth place Reyansh Jayesh Modha. This string of who lost to whom highlights that every player in the section could begin each game with confidence. Reyansh earned a trophy for biggest upset. Among the top six players in the 39 player Premier section, there were only three losses, all of which were to others in the top six. Lawrence Fahlstrom (4.5) took first place. Five others tied for second with 4.0. Tiebreaks gave the second place trophy to A.J. Duncan, whose one loss was to Lawrence. The other four each earned a trophy for the second place tie. Owen Stark and Logan Byrd each gave up two draws enroute to 4.0. Joseph Eberlein lost to A.J. and Ben Richards lost to Owen. Austin Johnson (2.5) won a trophy for biggest upset. Three teams brought enough players that for the first time in several years, team scoring was based on top-four, which had been the standard for many years in the past. Top-three, which has become the new norm would have produced the same results. St. Thomas More and Coeur d'Alene High School tied for second. Immaculate Conception won the team plaque with 15.5 points among the top-four. Three endgames that I observed have lessons for all players. The first emphasizes the need to practice basic checkmating technique and emotional control. Both players had about seven minutes left on the clock when they reached queen and king vs. lone king. The stronger player was doing well as both blitzed out moves with speed one might expect if they were under half a minute. The stronger player saw and avoided a stalemate trap, but then a few moves later fell into one and the game ended drawn. In a pawn ending with kings and most of the pawns still on the board, a draw was offered and refused. I thought the player offering the draw was slightly better, but cannot be certain. Concrete calculation is needed to correctly assess such a position. The players did not give me time as they were blitzing moves. The player who offered the draw had about 90 seconds left on her clock while the other had five minutes on his. Some errors shifted the advantage quickly and it was now a queen vs. pawns. In the critical position, the queen could have taken a pawn with check and then given itself up for a pawn that was about to promote. Instead, he took her advanced pawn and another pawn ending began with one pawn each. It was dead-drawn and she played it correctly to reach lone kings. A rook ending occurred with two pawns against one. The weaker side had blocked her opponent's passed pawn with her king and occupied a vital rank with her rook. A few moves after I started watching, both players had one pawn remaining both on the edge and unable to move. After she stepped her king closer to her rook, a draw looked to be the likely result. If rooks were exchanged, he would have been able to reach a king and pawn vs. king ending, but her king would have trapped his king on the edge in front of its pawn to force the draw. There was an error waiting to be played and he made it. He captured the pawn with his rook. This error walked into a skewer that can be so common in rook endings. She checked the king, it stepped out of check and she took his rook. |
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 2025-2026 SCHOOL YEAR Next Chess Tournaments RATING SYSTEMS ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Standings. Groundhog Gambit: Championship
Standings. Groundhog Gambit: Premier
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