Story posted Thursday, January 28, 2010
Battle Of The Boards At Indian Trails Chess Championship
The Renaissance Knights Chess Foundation held its second annual Indian Trails Library Championship on Sunday, Jan. 10.
The group teaches classes, chess clubs, and individual children how to play the game of chess. It also subsidizes school teams and runs several independent tournaments.
"We're reaching out to help as many as we can to be involved in chess," said Sheila Heiser, executive director of the foundation.
Some of the local school districts involved in the program include East Maine School Dist. 63, Palatine School Dist. 15, and Niles High School Dist. 219. The foundation also runs programs at the Prospect Hts. Library. "We ran a simultaneous: a chess master playing 30 children at the same time," Heiser said.
The foundation runs tournaments rated through the United States Chess Federation, but also has an unrated competition at many of the events, allowing children that may not be able to afford membership the chance to compete.
At the recent library event, about 63 players competed in six classes. The Middle/Open class combined the middle school kids (grades 6 through 8) with the high school and adult players. The Elementary class was for grades 4 and 5 while the Primary class included grades kindergarten through 3. There were separate groupings for each class for rated and unrated players.
Competitors came from several municipalities including Wheeling, Arlington Hts., Palatine, Lake Zurich, Mundelein, Diamond Lake, and Chicago.
The rated Middle/Open class ended in a four-way tie with Michael Malis taking first place on tiebreakers. The other three top point earners were Sritej Vontikommu, Michael Chammany, and Phillip Engstrom.
The rated Elementary class was won by Daniel Bronfeyn; the rated Primary class was won by Mark Noonan.
In the unrated groupings, Rene Luna took the Middle/Open category, Chris Lee won the Elementary section, and David Shargorodsky took honors in the Primary division.
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