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Chess Life Online 2015 April Baird and Mechanics Host 2nd San Francisco Scholastic
Chess Life Online 2015 April Baird and Mechanics Host 2nd San Francisco Scholastic | Baird and Mechanics Host 2nd San Francisco Scholastic |
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| By GM Nick DeFirmian | |
| April 2, 2015 | |
 The 2nd Annual San Francisco Scholastic Chess Championship was held March 28th at the County Fair Building in Golden Gate Park. Mayor Ed Lee sent his deputy Joaquin Torres to welcome the 400 kids and parents who came for the event. "On behalf of the City and County of San Francisco, it is with great pleasure that I welcome you to the 2015 San Francisco Scholastic Championship," wrote Mayor Lee. The championship was free for all participants as it was sponsored by the financial firm Robert W. Baird & Co. It was organized by the Mechanics' Institute as the high point of the Mechanics' Youth Outreach Chess Program, which teaches chess for free in the San Francisco schools. This is San Francisco's version of the New York "Chess in the Schools" program. The beautiful playing hall was decorated with colors for the different sections. This was courtesy of the Baird events team, which also produced colorful t-shirts with a chess/SF skyline motif featuring the Golden Gate Bridge. Side events provided much entertainment. There was a courtyard simul by GM Daniel Naroditsky who played 35 players. (He defeated them all - a warm up for the US Championship.) GM Jesse Kraai gave an entertaining blindfold simul, Iris Kokish, a local women's class A player and coach gave a (mostly) all-girls simul, and chess clowns entertained the kids in downtime. A free lunch was graciously donated to all participants by Zoe's Meats.  There were six sections: High School, Middle School, grades 4-5,grades 2-3, grades k-1, which were unrated sections and one rated section with first prize being an all expense paid trip to the Nationals (2nd and 3rd prize were free entry to the Mechanics' Summer Chess Camp). The tournament was 4 rounds. Results: Rated Section: 65 players 1st Jayson Shi 4 points , won blitz playoff 2nd Callaghan McCarty-Snead 4pts 3rd Aaron Thompson 4 pts 4rth Robert Reyes 3.5 pts 5th Adrian Kondakov 3.5 pts 6Easwar Srree Kurli 3.0 pts High School Section 22 players 1st Jacky Kuang 4 pts. 2 Andy Kuei 3.5 pts 3 Christopher Natividad 3 pts 4 Elisa Huang 3 pts First Place High School Team: Lowell High School Second Place High School Team: Wallenberg High School Middle School Section 24 players 1st Manas Manu 4.0 pts 2nd Marco Monfiglio 4.0 pts 3rd Aadi Sharma 3.0 pts 4rth Kathy Ly 3.0 pts First Place Middle School Team: Francisco Middle School Second Place Middle School Team: Kennedy Middle School 4rth-5th grade section 27 players 1st Cesar Morales 4.0 pts 2nd Gabrielle McMillan 3.5 pts. 3rd Steven Yu 3.0 pts 4th Satvik Namburu 3.0 pts 2nd-3rd grade section 32 players 1st Timur Magomedov 4.0 pts (won playoff) 2nd Makoto O'Donnell 4.0 pts 3rd Ryan Wolk 3.0 pts 4rth Mustafa Malik 3.0 pts K-1st grade section 34 players 1st Ethan Jin 4.0 pts 2nd Lucas Wu 3.0 pts 3rd Ishani Krishnan 3.0 pts 4rth Jonathan Hwan 3.0 pts First Place Elementary School Team: SF Pacific Academy 2nd Place Elementary School: Brandeis Hillell  |
