Yet another Livingston Scholastic tournament has rolled around. The trees are growing leaves again. The kids are growing tall and doing well in school. My how time flies fast. All in all, a perfect time for another chess tournament.
K-4 Unrated
Our unrated section was filled with action today. As always the kids played fast, and they were our first section done. It’s an unwritten rule in chess that kids become more patient as they age, and that patience leads them to longer games as they look for better moves. At the lowest levels of the game, players tend to make the first move (good or bad) that pops into their head without analyzing the consequences or looking for a better move.
The tournament began with a burst of excitement as Michael Khoroshevski raced into the lead with the sole win. Four players - Manvik Dave, Ryan Ying, Daniel Korshevski, and Taita Shiina all drew their games and were right on Michael’s heels.
Round two saw Manvik and Ryan take the lead with solid wins over brothers Michael and Daniel. Anton Nefedov earned his first score of the day with a win over Taita.
In the final round Michael, determined to repeat his first round win, won his final game and surged past Anton into a third place finish. Theoretically Manvik and Ryan would play each other, as they were tied for first place. By coincidence they had drawn each other in the first round so they were assigned other opponents. Both won their games resulting in a tie for first-place with 2.5 each.
Ties in chess are usually decided by who beat the toughest opponents. This is not determined by rating, but rather by who won the most games. In this case, Manvik won the tie-break because of his second round win over Michael. If the tiebreaks ever seem random it’s because sometimes it comes down to who one was assigned to play in the first place. It isn’t random per se, but it certainly can feel like it.
Either way, congrats to Manvik, Ryan, and Michael for placing first through third.
Under 600
Our “advanced beginner” section played out differently from the previous section. As usual, the first round divided the pack in two halves: those that won their first game and those that lost (there were no draws). The five in the lead were Raeya Nandyala, Landon Belizaire, Aryan Vats, Satyaki Poddar, and Teddy Wang.
The results of the second round surprised me. Of these five players, Teddy was the only on to win his game. This is quite unusual. Teddy went on to win his third game and cruise into an easy first place with three wins.
The race for second and third place was far more complicated. As I said, none of the early leaders (aside from Teddy) won their games, but Aryan and Landon both drew against each other for 1.5 points each. Several players who had lost their first round won their second game leaving another 5-way tie nipping on their heels in the hopes of joining what might be a mass tie for second place.
To clinch second, all Aryan or Landon had to do was win their third game… but no! It didn’t happen. Chess is unpredictable that way. But three players from that five-way tie managed a win, putting them into a three-way tie for second place. Those players were (in tie-break order) Satyaki Poddar, Hannah Khoroshevski, and Aadya Pallila. Satyaki and Hannah proudly took home a trophy. Aadya had to depart before the awards ceremony, but I have a special award for her. Congratz to everyone in this section for making such an exciting race of it.
Under 1000/1400
There’s an interesting story behind this section. Only two players signed up for the Under 1400 section this week. It requires a minimum of four players to make a three-round tournament work. I attempted to move the next two highest U1000 players up to form a quad, but one of them declined. So what’s a tournament director to do? Bribe everyone! I combined the sections (thereby adding two more potent players into the newly merged group), but I added three more awards to the awards pool.
So yes, merging the two sections would change the course of the section and affect who won awards. But like the road not taken, we’ll never know what would have happened. Assuming both of the higher-rated players win a trophy (which isn’t guaranteed), it still adds an award into the mix. So overall it’s a net gain for the section. Let’s discuss how it played out.
With 17 players in this section, there was a nine-way tie at one point after a round. Way too many to list effectively. Suffice to say a lot of players had high hopes for winning one of the many trophies. And even those who lost their first game weren’t out of the running, albeit they’d have to play well in their next two games to win one.
Like the previous section, there were several draws in the second round. At the end of round two only two players had a perfect 2.0 points -- Liam Fan and Ethan Jiang. And unfortunately for Liam, he had to withdraw from the tournament early due to a conflicting event. Interestingly, even leaving the tournament early wasn’t enough to stop Liam from missing out on a trophy - he came in sixth place. As for Ethan, he won his final game and cruised to first place as the only player to win all three games.
Arhan Rao and Leah Khoroshevski, who drew against each other in round two, defeated their opponents in round three clinching second and third place respectively. Max Liu and Julia Domanski, who were part of a six-way tie after round two, won their third game allowing them to cruise past their rivals nad two higher players to win fourth and fifth place.
Interestingly, only one of the two players who started in the U1400 section won a trophy, and even that was third place. So it goes to show that just because players are higher rated doesn’t mean they can’t be successfully challenged.
Thanks to everyone who attended this month’s event. And thanks to everyone who participated in our last scholastic in February. As you may recall, it was very crowded and a few too many players overall. To keep things more manageable we’re now capping Livingston tournaments at 34 players. Be sure to register early to make sure your child is a part of the fun.
--Stephen Lorimor
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