Countryside Tournament: About More Than Just Chess

The Countryside Chess Tournament was held on Jan 30 at the Countryside Elementary School in Barrington.

Over 80 students competed in US Chess-rated sections as well as an unrated division for beginners. GM Yury Shulman ran the tournament in conjunction with Chess Without Borders (CWB).

A unique feature of CWB tournaments is the support of a local or global charity. Participating young players -- and their families -- undertand the mission is to combine chess education with service and philanthropy.

This mission was established by the founder of Chess Without Borders, Rishi Sethi, 12 years ago, and GM Shulman continues to uphold that tradition. 

100% of all proceeds from food sales at these tournaments are donated to the cause. The designated charity at the Countryside Tournament was The Boys and Girls Club of Elgin whose “mission is to enable youth in need to reach their potential.”

Barrington High School students Rohan Ahuja and Siddharth Gehlaut started a chess program at the Boys and Girls club of Elgin in 2015. Since then they have regularly taught chess to children there weekly, using the curriculum from “Chess! Lessons from a Grandmaster”.

“The children are eager, respectful and excited to have us mentor them” said Siddharth.

The team of Presidential volunteers support each others' projects. Rohan and Siddharth were joined by Julie Ashley, Vishal Ahuja, Jack Bongiorno and Countryside-student Jane Bradley in selling food at the Countryside event.  The team -- along with the generous adult helpers -- raised $438.75 through food sales to about 150 attendees.

Chess tournaments are mentally-rigorous environments testing many cognitive skills, but CWB events demonstrate that they can also be about cultural and artistic engagement.  This was demonstrated by the unique signs Julie Ashley created for the food.

Leadership skills achieved by youth volunteers have no limits. Armed with such tools, the future looks bright as these young leaders become artists, social entrepreneurs, marketing and high tech agents, passionately seeking to achieve higher individual goals while supporting others.

[Editor addition:]

As far as the chess goes, Andrew Friedman won the 35-player Primary section with a perfect five-for-five score. Kobe Bailey raised his rating 319 points with a 4.0/5 result. Manikantha Gollamudi also won four out of five, earning 221 additional rating points. Aditya Chugh won three and drew once, jumping 186 points.

Yashasvi Mumgandi was also five-for-five in the 26-entrant Elementary section raising his rating 89 points to 927. Sri Gollamudi bolstered his rating 264 points with a 4.0/5 score. Vishnu Rallapalli's 2.5 score earned him a 212 point rating bump.

Wesley Gizel won the 14-player Open section, also winning all five of his matches, raising his rating 55 points to an even 1300. Max Bowman raised his rating 288 points with his 4.0/5 tally.