Third Annual Spartan Chess September Scholastic a Success!

With the largest draw in its 3 years of existence, the 3rd Annual Spartan Chess September Scholastic, a USCF-rated tournament at Miami Country Day School, successfully crowned 2 section champions and 1 division champion. It was the first year that the tournament was split into 2 sections. With only 13 participants in 2006 and 18 in 2007, all of the participants in those years were put into the same draw. This year's sections were K-6 and K-12.

The K-6 champion was 6th grader and veteran scholastic player Lance Shkolnik, who went 4.0/4.0. First grader Julianna Piloto finished in second place and was recognized as the lower school division winner, scoring 3.0/4.0. Sascha Kappos earned a 3rd place finish with a score of 3.0/4.0 and was the highest finishing MCDS student in the section.

The K-12 champion was from Archbishop Curley-Notre Dame High School, 9th grader Nicolas Getty. Nicolas won his last round match against highly-rated Bruno Maggi, who finished second. Shuli Mishali rounded out the top 3 out of a field of 18.

International Master John Donaldson was on hand for game analysis. IM Donaldson is the Chess Director at the Mechanics' Institute Chess Club in San Francisco and has authored 30 books on chess covering all aspects of the game. He will be this year's captain of the U.S. Olympiad team that travels to Dresden in November. This marks the third year that MCDS has brought IM Donaldson to their campus and created opportunities for the chess community to interact with one of the world's best chess instructors.

To view a crosstable for the event, go to:
http://main.uschess.org/component/option,com_wrapper/Itemid,201/
and search for tournament ID 200809202591