The Main Event of the Junior High School National Championship kicked off on Friday, April 26 with an afternoon and evening round in two Championship sections, the K-8 and K-9.
Round one opened with a startling upset on board one of the K-9 with Alex Costello falling to Zachary Pan after the unfortunate 37...Bf3, a blunder that we'll explore in more detail in Arbiter David Hater's final report.
[pgn]
[Event "2019 Junior High School K-9 National Cha"]
[Site "Grapevine, Texas, United State"]
[Date "2019.04.26"]
[White "Pan, Zachary S"]
[Black "Costello, Alex"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "C50"]
[WhiteElo "1605"]
[BlackElo "2332"]
[PlyCount "89"]
[EventDate "2019.??.??"]
1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 Bc5 4. Nc3 Nf6 5. d3 h6 6. O-O O-O 7. Be3 Bxe3 8.
fxe3 d6 9. Qe1 Na5 10. Bb3 Nxb3 11. axb3 c6 12. Qg3 Qe7 13. Nh4 Nh5 14. Qf2 g6
15. b4 Kh7 16. b5 f5 17. exf5 gxf5 18. Kh1 f4 19. Ne2 Be6 20. e4 Nf6 21. h3 c5
22. b3 Nh5 23. Nf3 Rg8 24. Qh4 Qe8 25. Ra5 Ng3+ 26. Nxg3 Rxg3 27. Kh2 Qg6 28.
Qe7+ Kh8 29. Nh4 Rxg2+ 30. Nxg2 Rg8 31. Rf2 Bxh3 32. Qh4 Bxg2 33. Ra1 Bf3 34.
Rd2 d5 35. exd5 Bxd5 36. Qh3 Qg5 37. c4 Bf3 38. Qxf3 e4 39. dxe4 Qe5 40. Rg1
Re8 41. Rf2 Rf8 42. Rg4 Qh5+ 43. Kg2 Qe5 44. Rxf4 Re8 45. Rf8+ 1-0
[/pgn]
Maximillian Lu replaced Costello on board one in round two, and won a quick and pretty game against Kabir Ahmed.
[pgn]
[Event "?"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "2019.04.26"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Ahmed, Kabir"]
[Black "Lu, Maximillian "]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "A48"]
[PlyCount "46"]
[SourceVersionDate "2019.04.26"]
1. d4 Nf6 2. Bf4 b6 3. e3 Bb7 4. Nf3 g6 5. c3 Bg7 6. Nbd2 O-O 7. Be2 d6 8. h3
Nbd7 9. Qc2 Re8 10. e4 e5 11. dxe5 dxe5 12. Be3 Qe7 13. O-O Nc5 14. Bxc5 Qxc5
15. Ne1 Bh6 16. Nb3 Qe7 17. f3 Be3+ 18. Kh1 Nh5 19. Kh2 Qg5 20. g4 Qf4+ 21. Kh1
Qg3 22. Bd3 Qxh3+ 23. Qh2 Ng3# 0-1
[/pgn]
Top seeds in the K-8 Championship include Shunaki Peng and Raghav Venkat. Both started with clean wins in round one.
[pgn]
[Event "2019 Junior High School K-9 National Cha"]
[Site "Grapevine, Texas, United State"]
[Date "2019.04.26"]
[White "Peng, Shunkai"]
[Black "Pulido, Emma R"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "B31"]
[WhiteElo "2362"]
[BlackElo "1445"]
[PlyCount "59"]
[EventDate "2019.??.??"]
1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Nc3 g6 4. Bb5 Bg7 5. Bxc6 bxc6 6. O-O e6 7. d3 Ne7 8. e5
Nd5 9. Ne4 Qb6 10. c4 Ne7 11. Nd6+ Kf8 12. Ng5 f5 13. exf6 Bxf6 14. Ngf7 Qc7
15. Qf3 Nf5 16. Nxf5 exf5 17. Bf4 Qb7 18. Nxh8 Bxh8 19. Rae1 d5 20. Bd6+ Kf7
21. cxd5 Qxb2 22. Re7+ Kg8 23. Qe3 Bd4 24. Re8+ Kg7 25. Bf8+ Kg8 26. Bxc5+ Kg7
27. Bxd4+ Qxd4 28. Qxd4+ Kf7 29. Rfe1 Bd7 30. R1e7# 1-0
[/pgn]
[pgn]
[Event "2019 Junior High School K-9 National Cha"]
[Site "Grapevine, Texas, United State"]
[Date "2019.04.26"]
[White "Clifford, Jame"]
[Black "Venkat, Raghav"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "B50"]
[WhiteElo "1445"]
[BlackElo "2269"]
[PlyCount "66"]
[EventDate "2019.??.??"]
1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. Bc4 Nc6 4. c3 e6 5. d4 cxd4 6. cxd4 d5 7. exd5 exd5 8.
Bb3 Nf6 9. Nc3 Be7 10. O-O O-O 11. Bf4 Bg4 12. Qd3 Bxf3 13. gxf3 Qd7 14. Kh1
Nb4 15. Qb5 Qf5 16. Qxb7 Qxf4 17. Qxe7 Qxf3+ 18. Kg1 Qg4+ 19. Kh1 Qxd4 20. Rad1
Qb6 21. Na4 Qb8 22. Nc5 Re8 23. Qb7 Qf4 24. a3 Ng4 25. Kg2 Qxh2+ 26. Kf3 Ne5+
27. Ke2 Nc4+ 28. Kf3 Qh3+ 29. Kf4 h6 30. Ne6 g5+ 31. Nxg5 hxg5+ 32. Kxg5 Re5+
33. Kf4 Rf5# 0-1
[/pgn]
In other Friday activities, local GM Jeffery Xiong, former World Junior Champ, swept his 12-board simul and continued his winning ways with a 27-0 score in a "take-on-all-comers blitz" on Friday afternoon.
https://twitter.com/USChess/status/1121779185909936128
Follow the
US Chess twitter feed for more updates from Dan Lucas, as well as a special takeover tomorrow
@USChessWomen by Leila D'Aquin, who is managing the Girls Club Room.
https://twitter.com/USChess/status/1121868693473058823
Junior High School Championship Quick Links:
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