Gu & Patel Clear Winners in Orlando
July 31, 2014
guslide.jpgChristopher Gu (RI) won clear first at the 30th Annual GM Arnold Denker Tournament of High School Champions held in Orlando from July 27-30. With his victory he earned the University of Texas at Dallas, four-year scholarship.  The strong field included four Senior Masters and 12 Masters.  Gu recently tied for second in the Cadet Championships, but this time he switched places with his rival.

2014 Cadet Champion Edward Song (MI) was the clear second place finisher with a score of 5/6.  There was a three way tie for third through fifth place, each scoring 4.5/6 led by Nicky Korba (CA-S), Christopher Wu (NJ) and Joshua Colas (NY).  Full results can be found here.   
 
Gu is also playing the US Open, where he was paired against another top-rated Denker competitor, Colas:

7477

advaitpatel.jpg
Advait Patel, Photo Todd Andrews

Barber
Advait Patel (WV) won the 2014 Barber Tournament of K-8 Champions with a clear first of 5/6.  The participants included a record nine Masters.
 
There was a four way tie for second  through fifth place each scoring 4.5/6  led by Angel Hernandez-Camen (PA), Bovey Liu (TX), Joshua Sheng (CA-S), and Michael Chen(MI).  Tournament results can be found here.

NGIT

ClaudiaJessicaJennifer.jpg
Claudia Munoz, Jessica Regam & Jennifer Yu

Jennifer Yu (VA), Jessica Regam (PA) and Claudia Munoz (TX) tied for first at the National Girls Invitational with 5/6 each.

Munoz, who also recently tied for first at the 1st Junior Girls Closed (winning the scholarship on tiebreak), tied for first in the NGIT despite losing her first game. Here is Claudia’s victory over Becca Lampman. Becca was featured in Melinda Matthews’ earlier article for her win over top seed Annie Wang.

7479

Claudia wrote, "After losing the first round of this tournament, I thank God and my family for their support in such a difficult time because without them I could not have gone on a 5-game winning streak in order to win back to back nationals."

Jessica Regam, also playing in the US Open, pulled off a major upset vs. GM Alonso Zapata: 

7478  

Team Championship

This year for the first time a competition was organized among the states.  The scores of each state’s Denker, Barber and NGIT representative were combined to identify the state team score. 

With a total of 13 points, New Jersey (Christopher Wu, John Burke, Kimberly Ding) won the inaugural competition.  Tied for second through fifth place with 12.5 was New York (Joshua Colas, David Brodsky, Lilia Poteat), Southern California (Nicky Korba, Joshua Sheng, Annie Wang), Rhode Island (Christopher Gu, Ryan Sowa, Alana Mc Guinness) and Michigan (Edward Song, Michael Chen, Soumya Kulkarni).  
       
This report was compiled by Dewain Barber and Jennifer Shahade. Many of the champions in this report who are also competing in the Main Event in Orlando, the US Open. Follow along and find more information here.