Pioneer School Chess Club Reigns by James Stripes

HOLIDAY TOURNAMENT, December 30, 2015 RESULTS
Interesting side note; see James Stripes Blog, December 30, "A Zugzwang Lesson"

Inland Chess Academy hosted the Holiday Scholastic on 30 December 2015 after a two-day chess camp. Five players finished atop the Holiday Scholastic with 4.0. In tie-break order, they were Cameron Simonds, Kara Chiang, Aniketh Parlapalli, Arnav Wadikar, and Kolby Uhlenkott. In their individual games, Cameron beat Kara, but lost to Aniketh. Aniketh's sole loss was to Jackson Florence (3.5) who also drew Noah Kuhn. Noah lost only to Aniketh. Arnav lost only to Connor Simonds (3.0) who fell to Kolby and Noah. Kolby's only loss was to Kara. From these results, it becomes very hard to predict results of any match-ups between any of the top eight players.

Trophies were awarded as follows: First place, Cameron; second place, Kara; top fourth grader, Aniketh; top second grader, Arnav; top fifth grader, Kolby. Jackson won the biggest upset. Noah was to top player under 700 and Connor was second u/700. The top third grader was Ananya Parlapalli (3.0). Lachlan Cunningham (2.5) won the prize for top sixth grader; Cooper Florence (2.0) was first in first grade; and Brennan Cunningham (1.5) was the top kindergarten player.

The team competition took the top three scores from each school. Pioneer (10.0) prevailed over The Oaks (8.5) and Cataldo (7.5). Other teams had fewer than three players.

FROSTY PAWN TOURNAMENT, January 9, 2016 RESULTS

Hot Competition at the Frosty Pawn Garrett Casey's perfect 5.0 came at the expense of half of the players in the top ten in the 23-player upper section of the Frosty Pawn youth chess tournament 9 January 2016. He beat Logan Faulkner (4.0) in the fourth round. Faulkner captured second place overall because his defeat of the other two with 4.0 in earlier rounds gave him better tie-breaks. Toby Kast (4.0) took home the trophy for top fifth grader, while Mathew Wasson (4.0) won the fourth grade trophy. The top sixth grader, Mia Sponseller, was one of eight players sharing 5th through 12th place with 3.0. Also with 3.0 were the top eighth grader, Adrian Roberts, and Malia Brown, who won the biggest upset. Nicholas Dawson, the top seventh grader, finished with 2.0. Connor Gosselin-Harris, a third grader, finished with 3.0, but his option to play up deprived him of a trophy because he did not finish in the top two.

The K-3 section proved once again that there is considerable equality among most of Spokane's top elementary players. After three rounds, the Arquette sisters stood atop the standings with 3.0. Evelyn was paired in round four with Ben Barrett who had 2.5, while Elizabeth faced Olivia Hilton, also at 2.5. Ben and Olivia had drawn in round two. Both Ben and Olivia won their games against the Arquette sisters. In the last round, Ben played Elizabeth and Olivia battled Evelyn. Again, Ben and Olivia won. Hence, Ben and Olivia finished tied atop the standings with 4.5 each. Moreover, each had faced the same opponents in three of the five rounds. Both had defeated a player who finished with 2.0 as well. The crucial difference became Ben's round three win over Rohan Dhillon (4.0), while Olivia's other win was against a player who finished with 1.5. Ben won first place overall; Olivia placed second. Rohan was third overall and took home the trophy for top third grader. Also with 4.0 was the top second grader, Arnav Wadikar, his only loss was to Evelyn (3.0). Elizabeth (3.0) was the top first grader. Aaron Pooler (3.0) won the prize for biggets upset.

In the team competition, Pioneer's 15.5 top-four combined score overwhelmed the competition. Host school First Presbyterian was second with 12.0.

Anand Wadikar was again perfect in the Parent's tournament. Combining his score with his son's 4.0 edged out the Hiltons by 0.5 point for the parent-child team prize.