Kids are often underrated and so it’s normal to see one or two of the top seeds go down in National Scholastics. However at the National Elementary Championship in Nashville, Tennessee, the upsets are getting out of control.
In the K-6, K-5 and K-3, not a single one of the top 3 seeds has made it to 5-0. In fact none of the top two seeds even made it to 4-0!
K-6 Championship:
Only two players have made it unscathed thus far.
Anthony He is 5-0 after winning a tough endgame in the fourth round. What move did Anthony find to easily hold on to his extra pawn?
Jason Wang: Jason is just in fourth grade and is actually undefeated. The playing schedule is so difficult for him that he opted to take a half point bye in Round 5 because his bedtime is8PM and he would not be prepared to play a game that lasts until 11 PM! I hope organizers notice players doing this and ensures that the rounds end no later than 9PM in future National events.
4th grade 2100 player Jason Wang is also 3/3 in the K6 Open.”My hardest game was actually my first round vs a 1300!” pic.twitter.com/EhnWcYMiQa
1. Nastassja Matus: Perhaps she was inspired by Maggie Feng becoming the first girl to ever win a National Championship. As the top U12 girl in the nation, Nastassja hopes to become the second girl to win it all.
2. Gus Huston: Gus and his impressive 5-0 performance are the reason why Dalton currently leads the K5 team standings.
Others to Watch:
Maximillian Lu: Max is the #1 seed and also holds the record for youngest master in U.S. history. He’s just a half point out and is certainly going to be a dangerous opponent for anyone.
#1 player in the K5, Max Lu, wins again. “I’m just gonna take it one game at a time”. pic.twitter.com/6XwOxS4YtP
Shelev Oberoi: Shelev is the only player to have drawn Max, so you know he must be a strong player!
K-3 Championship
Everyone was dropping like flies today in the K3 Championship section. In the end we have just one player with 5-0 as #10 ranked Lucas Foerster-Yialamas beat the number #3 seed tonight.
Lucas Foerster-Yialamas wins to become the only player with 5/5 in the K-3. “I had an intermezzo that he didn’t see!” pic.twitter.com/7BMtbLx4kH
None of the top three seeds have 4.5 points, so it looks pretty certain that we will have a surprise winner of the K-3 section.
K-1 Championship
Harshid Kunka is still 5-0 and outrates all of the other undefeated players by about 300 points. He has played impressively thus far and will be hard to stop.There are still 6 undefeateds here so we could see two co-champions at 7-0. Another section could be added to the K1 in the future to avoid this type of situation.
Meanwhile at the tournament there is an awesome “girls club” where girls can go to hang out and play chess with other girls.
Awesome to see so many girls playing chess! These girls were hanging out and playing in the “girls club” pic.twitter.com/K7cmElK362
“The playing schedule is so difficult for him that he opted to take a half point bye in Round 5 because his bedtime is8PM and he would not be prepared to play a game that lasts until 11 PM! I hope organizers notice players doing this and ensures that the rounds end no later than 9PM in future National events.”
I agree, but this is difficult to do when folks are from different time zones. For example when this event is held on the West Coast, it will be 9:00 o’clock at home (and on their internal clocks) for many of the players when it is 6:00 o’clock at the tournament site.
There is a similar problem at the start of the day. I’ve taken my children to a couple of these tournaments. They are usually back East somewhere and they often have rounds starting at 9:00 a.m. For us, that’s 6:00 o’clock our time. I have to get my children breakfasted and to the tournament site and to their board by 6:00 a.m., and they end up losing the game before their normal waking up time. So clearly later start times and earlier finish times would be helpful, but very difficult to do.
I wonder if some organizer might be willing to experiment with alternative start times and time controls in certain rounds for those who sign up for the alternate schedule. Just as some tournaments have shorter schedules by having a section with several quick rounds merging with the slower schedule, perhaps there is a way to allow East Coast folks to sign up for an “early evening” schedule (where nothing lasts past 9:00 p.m. East Coast time) and West Coast folks to sign up for a “late morning” schedule where nothing starts before 9:00 a.m. on the West Coast).
Kids are often underrated and so it’s normal to see one or two of the top seeds go down in National Scholastics. However at the National Elementary Championship in Nashville, Tennessee, the upsets are getting out of control.
guoing for it |
arthur guo is in 4th grade
guottie |
he guot this!
Bob Allyn |
“The playing schedule is so difficult for him that he opted to take a half point bye in Round 5 because his bedtime is8PM and he would not be prepared to play a game that lasts until 11 PM! I hope organizers notice players doing this and ensures that the rounds end no later than 9PM in future National events.”
I agree, but this is difficult to do when folks are from different time zones. For example when this event is held on the West Coast, it will be 9:00 o’clock at home (and on their internal clocks) for many of the players when it is 6:00 o’clock at the tournament site.
There is a similar problem at the start of the day. I’ve taken my children to a couple of these tournaments. They are usually back East somewhere and they often have rounds starting at 9:00 a.m. For us, that’s 6:00 o’clock our time. I have to get my children breakfasted and to the tournament site and to their board by 6:00 a.m., and they end up losing the game before their normal waking up time. So clearly later start times and earlier finish times would be helpful, but very difficult to do.
I wonder if some organizer might be willing to experiment with alternative start times and time controls in certain rounds for those who sign up for the alternate schedule. Just as some tournaments have shorter schedules by having a section with several quick rounds merging with the slower schedule, perhaps there is a way to allow East Coast folks to sign up for an “early evening” schedule (where nothing lasts past 9:00 p.m. East Coast time) and West Coast folks to sign up for a “late morning” schedule where nothing starts before 9:00 a.m. on the West Coast).