I’ll keep this brief, because I know most of my readers are here for world championship coverage. Once a year I put on my tournament director’s hat and organize a free tournament for kids at the Aptos Public Library. The tournament took place today (May 19).
I was worried that we would have a low turnout, because we had to reschedule the tournament, moving it a week later than the time when it was originally announced. But we ended up with 14 players, which was about the same as last year. There were six kids in the age 12 and older section, and eight kids age 11 and under. And the winners were:
11 and under
1. Jonathan Zhou
2. Aaron Chan and Ben Spencer (tie)
3. Blaine Mitchell and Mitchell Young (tie)
12 and older
1. Linnea Nelson
2. Chris Sutherlin
3. Daniel Green
I was very impressed with Linnea’s play, and I might even analyze one of her games here after all of the world championship stuff is done. Many of the kids in my chess club struggle to understand what a pin even is; Linnea played one game that was just like a symphony of pins.
Jonathan Zhou’s performance was also amazing, given the fact that he is only six years old! He never even seemed to have a moment of difficulty dispatching three opponents in a row. I had never met him before, but he has been studying with Gjon Feinstein and obviously learning a lot.
And now, back to Anand and Gelfand …
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I’ve organised a tournament – once – I had it advertised all over the city [schools] and had about 300+ entries. It turned out a fantastic day – I was lucky to have support from experienced chess players with computers+software to get the pairings all set up immediately after each round. My husband [very handy man!] made me some trophies and I created my own certificates – for winnters and all that took part on the day. It was a great experience and would love to do it again one day. Children enjoy tournaments and I hope you continue organising more!