Five Dragons Compete in Online State Chess Championships

On Saturday, May 2, five Saint George’s students competed online in the Washington State Elementary Chess Championships.  Noah Hochheimer, Eshan Reddy, Donovan Bradford, Adrian Rooney, and Preston Sevigny were among about 1200 students who participated from across the state.  Previously, these five had competed in local online tournaments through March and April, said SGS chess coach James Stripes. 

Hosted on ChessKids.com, the seven-round tournament started with a few technological hiccups.  After 90 minutes, the competitors began to play their games.  Eshan finished with a 4.5 for 40th place in the fourth-grade division and was the top scoring SGS player.  Donovan, who also competed in the same division, finished with “one win and one draw,” Coach Stripes said.  Fifth graders Adrian and Preston both scored 3.0, while third grader Noah got 3.5 in his division. 

See the Preliminary Results of the tournament.  “The results are preliminary because there is still a process of investigating possibilities of cheating (a constant problem in online chess),” notes Coach Stripes, who will receive the full results from the event once they have been verified.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, many events have either been cancelled, postponed, or switched from in-person to online formats.  The Washington State Elementary Chess Championship organizers chose the latter, allowing approximately 1200 young players to still compete.  This may be a new historical record for the “largest online chess tournament,” said Coach Stripes.  View a Recording of the Event on Facebook.