200 Rockford-Area Youth Face The Challenge at RESA

Just shy of 200 competitors faced off in three sections at the 2015 Winter Rockford Challenge.

The January 31 tournament was hosted by Rockford Environmental Science Academy and brought together entrants from 28 schools.

The Rockford Challenge -- created by Chuck Beach -- entered its 17th year of existence.

Seven players -- five from Washington Academy -- managed to win all five of their games.

Washington second-graders Charlie Taylor, Jack Manley and Cameron Parker were all undefeated in the K-2 section as were Kamalesh Sureshkumar and Ethan Vanderkolk in the Grades 3-5 section. Kamalesh took top honors for 3rd graders while Ethan did the same for 4th graders.

There was a five-way tie among fifth graders, Jayvon Coleman and Alex Mendoza from Haskell and Nolan Brauns and Spencer Kang from Washington.

Rounding out the K-2 section, Bianca Ewing from Spectrum and Dean Akre of Lutheran Academy were the Kindergartner champions and Alex Powell of Washington had the top score among first graders.

In the Grades 6-8 section, Jeremiah Davis of Marshall and Phillip Koch of Holy Family were both a perfect 5.0/5. Jeremiah was the sixth grade champion, Koch won the eighth grade. Sengdao Inthavong, also of Marshall, had the top score among 7th graders.

More information about the Rockford Challenge and the Rockford Scholastic organization can be found here.

The Challenge is open to K-8 scholastic players from Winnebago and ten other nearby counties.

RESA has been an outstanding host to the Challenge during the tenure of Coach Scott Suma who is stepping down as chess coach after this year.