Youngsters Yawn Way Through ICA Spring Scholastic Tournament!

So what is the best way for a child to spend a Sunday morning and afternoon? Well, if the said child's parent does not bother to make their kid go to bed on time, the answer is sleeping.  Sadly for those kids, and thankfully for their opponents, they were forced to yawn through another thrilling installment of the ICA Tournament, Spring edition, wondering why it was their opponent was up a queen and not about to fall out of his chair snoring like they were.  Seriously, mommies and daddies, make sure your kids get their proper eight to ten hours, or at least their proper cup of cocoa because otherwise it will be way harder for them to compete at their best and against the best opponents.

Donuts aside, in section three, for those unrated and attending Kindergarten through 2nd grade, the winner was Mathew Li.  Mathew beat the impressive 4th, 3rd, and 5th place finishers in the last three rounds, to come out on top with a perfect unbeaten score. Second was Max Portnoy, with three wins and a draw against the 8th ranked finisher, though even if he had won that game, on tiebreaks Mathew would still hold the edge. 
Third in the youngest section was Thomas Elbering, who aside from a loss to Mathew in round three, beat his other three opponents to claim the triple threat third place trophy on tiebreaks against the 4th through 7th place finishers, out of a total twenty-eight kids competing.

The "man" in section four, for those unrated players from kindergarten to twelfth grade, out of a total forty-one competing, was Man-Chit Kwok, who scored a perfect four for four.  Though Amey Pasarkar wasn't far behind with four wins of his own, on tie-breaks, Man-Chit's 30th, 10th, 15th, and 4th place finishing opponents, statistically held up better against Amey's 35th, 14th, 18th, and 5th place opponents.  Daniel Eisenberg, who either got a bye in the first round, seeing as I have no idea what the H in that column stands for, came in third by winning against the 19th, 11th, and 14th ranking finishers.  It should be added, Edward Musheyev finished fourth only because he lost to Man-Chit in the last round,  though he had the tougher foes than Daniel, the half-point bye that the 3rd place finisher got for missing a game made all the sort of unfair difference in the world that matters.

In section one, for school-age kids under 1200, Neil Chatterjee, claimed first with a perfect four out of four, beating the 6th, 40th, 10th, and 13th finishers.  Hot on his trail, also with a perfect score but undermined by tiebreaks, was Robert Elliot who beat the 33rd, 15th, 18th, and 5th place finishers.  In third place, Pranav Marupudi, beat out the 9th, 8th, and 11th finishers, but drew with the 4th place finisher in the third round to fall half a point shy of 2nd, or 1st.  Forty-two players competed in section one.

Finally, in the toughest of sections, namely two, Sebastian "Get out the Shish Kebob so I can put it on the" Spitz, out grilled everyone in site to claim first place for rated school-age players under 1600.  The man who consumes Sea Bass as a matter of preference, started off shaky with a draw against the 9th finishing player, only to cook up victory against the 15th, 5th, and in the final round 2nd placing Gilad Drillich, in his celebratory chess Barbeque of Domination.  While the 1st place trophy meat tasted good for Sebastian, the 2nd place flavor was not much too bad for Mr. Drillich, who beat out the 12th, 10th, and 3rd finishers before going down against Sebastian in the final round.  Rounding up the carnivorous medallist podium was David Grosh, who beat the 18th, and 4th finishers, before losing to Gilad in the third round, and finishing the bronze medal day by beating the 10th place finisher.  Twenty people competed in section two.

That said, there were no Donut related problems at this tournament, which means people are reading and taking that information into account.