2012 Washington State Elementary Chess Championship

This Thursday, April 26th will be the last meeting of chess club for the school year.  There will be no more chess club meetings after April 26th.  We are planning to play kids vs. adults and celebrate the results of the state championship and all of the many accomplishments from throughout the year.  But don't mention it to the kids, tell them that there will be a final exam at our last meeting.  

Travis, the chess club's official photographer, has taken many pictures from the tournaments.  If you would like a copy, please bring a thumb drive on Thursday.   Please do not send a thumb drive with your student.  If you can't make it, and would like the pictures, please contact me. 

Thursday is a fun day for chess club and all parents are welcome and encouraged to join. 

The Washington State Chess Championship was held on Saturday, April 21st, in Pasco, Washington.  17 students from Frank Love attended.  One more was scheduled to compete, but was sick (hope you're feeling better, Liam!). 


The night before most of the Frank Love Chess Team met up at the hotel for a pizza dinner and a night of swimming in the pool and soaking in the hot tub. 

Early the next morning, we met for breakfast.

We arrived before 8am at the tournament ready to play.

We waited for the first round to start.

And we waited.

About 90 minutes later, round 1 started.  With two wins and one loss, our kindergartners were off to a great to start.  Out of the remaining 15 players, our team only had 5 points.  It was a dismal forecast. 

In round 2 the Frank Love chess team became more serious and walked away with more wins than losses and continued a steady improvement from there.

After round 5, 3 of our players won 4 out of 5 games.  Congratulations to Rohan, Kenney and Roshan!  Roshan won 10th place for second grade!!

Liam S. got a score of 3.5 in his division and won second place.  Congratulations Liam!

4 students earned 3 out of 5 points.  That includes all 3 of our kindergartners...  again!  Congratulations to Alex V., Austin, Hayden and Curtis!

Dylan D., Henry, JazMinh, Alexander J., Cameron, and Kobe all got 2 points and Tyler, Lakshey and Cooper came through with 1 point. 

All of those scores contributed to our team scores.  There were over 150 schools represented in the tournament.  The top 25 teams won trophies.  Last year Frank Love just squeezed in at 25th place for grades 1-3.  We didn't even have enough players in grades 4-6 to even be considered a team.  This year Frank Love Chess Team won 17th place for grades 1-3 (wish they would count the kindergarten scores!) and 14th place for grades 4-6!  We beat out some of our rivals and ran up on stage.  It was a fantastic finish to an amazing day and a great year of chess club!  One thing I learned, is not to promise that your child can attend the Elementary Chess National Championship in Tennessee if they win 5 out of 5 games in the state tournament.  They will come as close as they can just to scare you!

Frank Love Kindergarteners Lead the Way at Shelton View Tournament

March 31st was an amazing day for the Frank Love Chess Club Team.  24 students represented Frank Love at the Shelton View Tournament.  Previously the most students we had at any given tournament was 13.  It is great to see so many kids representing our school.

Going into the last round 10 of our students needed to win (or in one case tie) their last game in order to qualify for the state tournament.  I think the parents were more nervous than the players.  The players walked out of the tournament room one by one with mostly smiles.  7 out of those 10 won their last match.  7 new players from Frank Love have now qualified for the state tournament on April 21st.  That makes 19 students total who have qualified.  Congratulations to Alexander J., Cooper, Henry, JazMinh, Lakshey, Liam R., and Zach!  It was especially heartwarming to see our second grader walk out of his game singing "Walked him down the board," putting to song a chess strategy that Mr. Adams had reviewed at one of the meetings. 

In addition to our new state qualifiers, a few kids who had previously qualified for state, did it again.  Aidan L., and Dylan D., won 4 games out of 5! Kenney and Tyler both had 3.5 points! Cameron had 3 points. Congratulations to all of them!

Liam R., also won the good sportsmanship award at the tournament and went home with 2 trophies.  This is a very prestigious award as it is only given to one or two players at any given tournament.  It makes the whole school proud to have him on our team.  Congratulations Liam!

Some of you may remember that Frank Love has won first place in the kindergarten section at this same tournament in previous years.  This year we topped that.  We had 2 kindergarteners competing.  Alexander V. won first place with 4.5 out of 5 points.  Hayden won second place in the kindergarten section with 4 points!  Congratulations to both of them!  Alexander V was the highest scorer on our team.  Frank Love Kindergarteners led the team in points and swept the kindergarten section.  Amazing! 

We had 9 players at this tournament who competed in their first ever tournament.  Congratulations to Alex K., Andres, Cooper, Drew, Ethan D., JazMinh, Josh, Kai, Lorenzo, and Rileigh.  It is wonderful to see our team growing so much!

All of our players' hard work and tough games came to a grand finale.  Frank Love won the second place team trohpy!

If your student has not qualified for the state tournament and would like to try again, there are some "last chance" state qualifiers on Saturday April 7th.  At least 2 of our players have signed up for the Seattle Last Chance State Qualifier.  You can register online at www.chess4life.com or contact Mr. Adams with any questions.

If your student has qualified for the state tournament you can register at http://www.chesschampions.org/2012.php and contact Mr. Adams or Long Duong for hotel information.

Chess club will be ending for the year after the state tournament.  Our final chess club meeting will be Thursday April 26th.  That's the Thursday after spring break.  Mark your calendars!