This past weekend, 23 T. H. Rogers students
competed with 1563 scholastic chess players from all over the state of
Texas in the 2005 Texas Scholastic Chess Championship. Held in Dallas
this year, this annual tournament is the largest state scholastic meet in
the entire country. Only the nationals are bigger.
So how did we do? Great! Compared to last year, where we also had good
success, we tied or improved our finishes across the board in the
championship divisions. Large tournaments like this favor teams with not
only quality players, but a lot of depth. The top 4 scores per school per
division are summed to give a team score, where the highest total score
wins. So, if a team has less than 4 players in a division, it is the same
as adding in all zeros for the missing players. Similarly, if you only
have 4 players, everyone has to have a good day on the same day. While we
had minimal numbers, we were able to field full teams in each of the
championship divisions: K-1, Primary (2nd and 3rd grades), Elementary (4th
and 5th grades) and Middle School (6th, 7th, and 8th grades). Team
trophies are awarded by division. Our results are as follows:
Kindergarten - First Grade Championship Division
Team - 2nd Place - Last year's team also
finished in 2nd place. However, last year's team was made up entirely
of 1st graders.
Jackson Chang - 1st grade - tied for 2nd
Tassica Lim - Kindergarten - Honorable Mention
Seshni Naidoo - Kindergarten - Honorable Mention
Evan Xiang - Kindergarten - Honorable Mention
Primary JV (U700) Division
Team - 10th Place - Last year we had a
full team in this division and they came in first. With only 3 players,
this year's team, tremendously helped by Tristan's perfect 7.0 score,
still came in 10th, well ahead of many full teams.
Tristan Lim - 3rd grade - 1st place with a perfect 7.0
score - Congratulations!
Eleanor Gilbert - 2nd grade - Honorable Mention
Sarah Lew - 3rd grade - Honorable Mention
Primary Championship Division
Team - 4th Place - Last year we only had
2 kids with strong enough playing ability to compete in this division.
While the 2 of them did well enough to place 13th by themselves last
year, this year's full team moved all the way up to 4th.
Kevin Wang - 2nd grade - tied for 9th
Ellen Xiang - 2nd grade - Honorable Mention
Anderson Isdale - 2nd grade - Honorable Mention
Tommy Williamson - 3rd grade
Elementary Championship Division
Team - 7th Place - Last year we did not
have an elementary championship team, only a JV team. We moved from
13th in the JV division last year to 7th in the championship division
this year.
Shantan Chemeerla - 5th grade - tied for 15th
Edward Yun - 4th grade - Honorable Mention
Jim Jenkinson - 4th grade
Thomas Kuncewicz - 4th grade
Ankeet Mutha - 5th grade
Middle School Championship Division
Team - 8th Place - Last year's team
placed 9th, so we moved up one this year. We were helped by Jeff
Feng's willingness to come up and play on Saturday even though he could
not stay for Sunday's games. He played a violin solo with the Houston
Youth Symphony on Sunday. The games he won on Saturday ended up
counting in the overall team score. So many thanks for that effort!
Matthew Michaelides - 6th grade - tied for 14th
Jeff Feng - 6th grade - played Saturday only
Aman Sharma - 7th grade
Ace Isidro - 6th grade
Kartikeya Tayal - 7th grade
Middle School JV Divisions
No Team - You need at least 2 per
section to be considered a team.
Eric Lew - 8th grade
- Honorable Mention in U900
Matthew Resh - 6th
grade - Honorable Mention in U600
While our teams made some strong gains this year,
they still have a lot of growth potential. As the kids reach the upper
levels of competition, the incremental gains become tougher. Further
development will be the result of a lot of hard work.
Many thanks to our wonderful coaches, Larry Englebretson, David John, Jeff
Ashton, Neph Diaz, and Evan Michaelides. It is through their efforts that
this T. H. Rogers team has come so far so fast. Also, many thanks to the
parents who have been supportive of their children's efforts to excell in
the field of chess.
Martha