Pioneer School Chess Club, Retains Team Lead by James Stripes

Pioneer School completed a near perfect run at the Dragon Slayer youth tournament March 26. The school won the team trophy, as they had in every tournament except the Black Knights Joust in October. Saint George's School, which won the team prize in October finished second, two points behind Pioneer. The Oaks was half a point behind Saint George's.

Varun Ambalavanan fished first in the upper section with 4.5 points. His draw with Cameron Simonds (3.5) was the last game to finish in round three as both players were under severe time pressure. First Varun misplayed a winning pawn ending, then Cameron missed his chance to use his queen to stop Varun's last pawn. Second place in the section went to Patrick Kovis (4.0) from the Tri-Cities who defeated Cameron in the last round after losing to Varun in round four. Cameron won first in fifth grade. Ryan Waters also finished with 4.0 and took home the fourth grade trophy. His sole loss was to Patrick. Next in the standings was Megna Pream Dutta, the top seventh grader. Topping those with 3.0 was Connor Gosselin-Harris, who won a trophy. Also with 3.0 and winning trophies were Mia Sponseller, first in sixth grade; Gavin Consiglio, and Aniketh Parlapalli. Jaiden Nagra won biggest upset.

Arnav Wadikar took first in the K-3 section as the only 4.5. Second went to Ben Barrett (4.0). Four players finished with 3.5 and took home trophies. Rohan Dhillon was first in third grade. Ethan Shan was first in second grade. Cole Knapton was second on tie-breaks to Rohan, while Caetlyn Kovis finished second in second grade. First place in grade one went to the top 3.0, Elizabeth Arquette. Noah Lueck (3.0) was second in grade one. Connor Simonds (3.0) also took home a trophy as did biggest upset winner Mike Mitchell (3.0).

Anand Wadikar won the parents tournament again with a perfect 3.0 and with his son's first in section finish, they easily won the family prize. They selected a book of chess puzzles.

Chess books were also awarded to four players for impressive checkmates. It was announced at the start of round one that the tournament director wanted to photograph checkmates that were notable and that a prize would be given to the most impressive. Connor Simonds' checkmate with two pawns, supported by queen, rook and another pawn won first choice among the available books. Next was Noah Lueck's third rank Arabian checkmate with a second rook on the second rank supporting. Cameron Simonds took a book for his two rook and two bishop checkmate. Arnav Wadikar earned the final book for a sixth rank Arabian mate with a bishop and pawn guarding escape squares.