Home Page arrow Press arrow Record Attendance at 2008 Greater New York Scholastic Champs
Record Attendance at 2008 Greater New York Scholastic Champs Print E-mail
By Richard Krueger   
February 8, 2008
Record Attendance at 2008 Greater New York Scholastic Chess Championships. Underscores Resurgence in Chess Throughout the New York Metro Area

Richard Krueger
[email protected]


New York, NY, Feb. 8, 2008 -- More than 820 students, representing K-12 schools from around the NY Metro area came to play at the 2008 Greater New York  Scholastics Team and Individual Chess Championships, Jan. 26 - 27, 2008 at Manhattan's New Yorker Hotel.  The Kasparov Chess Foundation organized and sponsored the annual tournament, in association with the Chess Center of New York.

Players competed in one of the four main divisions: High School (K-12), Junior High (K-9), Elementary (K-6) and Primary (K-3). Divided into 5-round Swiss-style one-day tournaments, the two day event drew top-rated competitive players throughout the New York Metro area.

Tournament highlights include:
Fifteen-year-old National Master Marc Arnold, the 2007 U.S. Junior Chess Champion and a freshman from Manhattan's Columbia Grammar and Preparatory School, posted a perfect 5-0 score, to capture First Place in the High School Varsity Section. 

Brooklyn's Intermediate School 318, comprised entirely of eighth graders, managed to dethrone Brooklyn's Edward R Murrow High School, one of the longest-running dynasties in high school chess.  

Alec Getz, an eighth-grader from Hunter School whose rating recently eclipsed the National Master threshold, successfully defended his 2007 title of Junior High Varsity Champion, winning the 2008 edition with a perfect 5-0 score

New York's Hunter School took the First Place team honors by a mere one-half point, 14.5 to 14, over the Intermediate School 318 in Brooklyn-the same quartet which won the High School Championship the very next day!

Top-ranked New Jersey third-grader Christopher Wu was perfect for the third year in a row, winning all five games, followed by winning the special "sixth-round" playoff over sixth-grader Alex Yung of New York's Lab School, in the Elementary Varsity Championship.

biggerNYgreater.jpg
Alex Yung and Christopher Wu


For a complete recap of tournament results, please visit www.chesscenter.cc

Special thanks go to Chief Tournament Director and Organizer Steve Immitt and Assistant Tournament Director and Organizer, International Arbiter Sophia Rohde, as well as the entire staff of tournament directors and volunteers.

About Kasparov Chess Foundation

Founded by World Chess Champion Garry Kasparov, KCF's mission is to bring the many educational benefits of chess to children throughout the United States by providing a complete chess curriculum and enrichment programs. The Foundation promotes the study of chess as a cognitive learning tool in curricular classes and after-school programs for elementary, middle and high schools, both in the public and private school sectors. The not-for-profit educational organization also organizes tournaments and competitions on a local and national basis. For more information, please visit http://www.kasparovchessfoundation.org/
 
Advertisement