Newport takes 1st in King County, shares 1st in WA State!
in Bellevue on March 2-3, 2018. It's the central annual event of the Washington State school chess life.
The board order (1 to 5) of each school team is constant: board 1 the strongest player, board 2 the next
strongest player, and so on. Some schools had more than one team, e.g. Team A and Team B.
The 28 participant teams were selected according to the results of the chess league in their respective
counties, a great achievement in itself.
Naomi's Newport High School Team A took first place in King County! Congratulations!
And then ... drumroll ...
Naomi's Newport High School Team A shared first place in WA State! Double congratulations!
Newport A winners: Gabriel Tafalla, Ronen Huang, Luke Xie, Naomi Bashkansky (Joseph Truelson is absent)
Remarkably, Gabriel Tafalla from Newport A got 5 out of 5 possible points, playing on board 3.
A statistically improbable event has occurred -- FIVE high school teams (each with 5 players) each took exactly
18 points after 5 rounds and shared 1st place: Newport A, Garfield A, Interlake A, Bellevue, Lakeside.
It's a strong tournament. The players on the first boards in the winning schools all have high USCF ratings:
Garfield A - Roland Feng (2481), Lakeside A - Bryce Tiglon (2472), Newport A - Luke Xie (2159), Interlake A -
Derek Zhang (2150), Bellevue - Wenyang Du (1955), and the runner-up Inglemoor - Kyle Haining (2262).
In short, all Washington State high school chess stars were here! Here's the winning teams collective photo:
5 teams -- Newport A, Garfield A, Interlake A, Bellevue, Lakeside A -- share 1st place
To play for the school, Naomi and many other participants had to forgo a very interesting tournament with 3 (!)
Grandmasters especially invited to our state. Games with Grandmasters would look impressive on the chess
players' resumes. That tournament was held at the same time in the Seattle Chess Club.
***
However, on the eve of March 1, the Seattle Chess Club hosted lectures of the three Grandmasters:
- GM Andrey Gorovets: "How to improve the pieces"
- GM Julio Sadorra: "My Secrets in Conducting an Effective Attack"
- GM Yaroslav Zherebukh: "How to do the impossible: reflections on beating world’s #3 and losing to 1200"
The lectures were followed by a blitz tournament, where Naomi played with GM Yaroslav Zherebukh:
