Club News
Knight Moves Chess Club Spring Open and Update
- Details
- Written by Hector Hernandez
This tournament was held at the Rudy Lozano Branch of the Chicago Public Library on March 31, 2012.
We got 22 players to compete - plus 10 who showed up too late to play. One of our quads consisted of 6 year-olds, 2 boys and 2 girls. Ricky Roman's younger brother Danny won it with a 6-0 score. Esteban Vargas was second at 4-2. Elizabeth Rivera was 3rd: 2-4; and, Grace Robinson was 4th. All participants received a ribbon and a "Chess Fiesta" folder.
The concept of family doing things together was evident here yet once again.
Among the competitors in the tournament were Mr. Javier Vargas and his sons: Alejandro (12), Enrique (10) and Esteban (6); Geanete Zapata and son Damien (9); Kevin Morris and son Christopher (16) and twins Alexis and Alfred Guzman (12) and sister Alexandra (8); Adrian Arellano (11) and sister Estefany (9); Emil Robinson (10) and sister Grace (6).
The top Quad results are: 1. Ube Leopoldo 2. Fabian Ramos, 3. Felipe Quiroz and 4. Mark Jungo. Five was the total number of Quads.The K-8 groups were finished by 1 p.m. whereas our two H.S./Adult quads went on until around 4 p.m.
Knight Moves Chess Club Update
Ube Leopoldo tied for first place in the Mid-America Open, U-1400 Section.
Four of our players had excellent results in the 2012 CPS-MVP tournament which was recently held at the Harold Washington Library Center.Lauro Nava, a Senior at Kelly High School, tied for 2nd place and, after the play-off games, earned a $3,000 college scholarship. He joins other scholarship winners with ties to our chess club: Julio Lara (Curie) and Cristián Peña (Whitney Young) both earned $12,000; and $3,000 winners Juan Avalos (Benito Juarez) and José Rodríguez (Whitney Young). Lauro produced a nice win against A-player Charles Swan from Whitney Young. A tactical mistake by Swan in the endgame brought a quick close to the game. Mark Jungo, 8th grade, took second place in his section. He won 4 straight games before running into his nemesis Philip Parker Turner in round 5. By some accounts, Mark resigned a bit prematurely. Thus he had to settle for second place. Ricky Roman, 5th grade, tied for first place in his group. At the MVP Ricky got a chance to play his friends, the Kalghatgi brothers. He won his game with Akhil, rated 1622, and drew againgst Nikhil, rated 1729. Danny Roman, who is in Kindergarten, took second in the K-2nd grade section.
Ricky’s outstanding results in his last four tournaments include: first place on Board 3, Under-12 in the International Team competition; a tie for first in the K-8 Advanced section of the Burbank School tournament; and a tie for first place in the U-1400 section of the 76th Knights Quest’ plus the previously mentioned MVP tie for first place.
Mark Jungo tied for third place in the Open Section of the University of Chicago G/60 event and picked up 157 rating points. Thanks to this performance, he almost skipped the D Section in the USCF rating system. His score was 3 points in 4 games and his only loss was to former Illinois State Grade School champion Penny Xu. Penny is another graduate of our chess program.
Lauro Nava and Ricky Roman will be participating in Mexico’s National Chess Olympiad on May 7-13, 2012. The competition, which consists of four different events, will take place in the City of Guanajuato, Guanajuato. José Rodríguez and Cristián Peña also showed their competitiveness in these events years ago. U.S. Mexican, or Mexican-American children and young adults are eligible to participate. A series of City, State and Regional competitions are held throughout Mexico to select the top players who will then play in the Olympiad finals. The winners in the finals will represent Mexico in upcoming World Championships.
Our chess club meets every Saturday from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Everyone is welcome to join us and beginners are also encouraged to attend. For more information call the Library at (312) 746-4329.