Alberta Chess Report

Alberta Chess Report ● August 2013 32
tournament happen! See you in Edmonton
next year!
Final Standings are available at: http://
www.albertachess.org/2013Abschoolsprer
eg.html
Calgary Schools Championship
First AB Schools Championship
By: Vlad Rekhson
J Calgary hosted the first ever Alberta
Schools Chess Championship on Saturday,
June 8th. The tournament consisted of
three sections: Div I (Gr. 1-3), II (4-6) and
III (7-9). Div. IV will take place in
October in Calgary.
The format was borrowed from a very
successful American scholastic scene,
where players compete individually in
their Divisions, but the top four individual
scores from a school are accumulated for a
team score. This way, both individual and
team results are important.
The tournament itself was quite successful
considering that it was the first such event
in Alberta. A total of 54 participants took
part coming from Calgary and region (33),
Edmonton (19), Red-Deer and Lethbridge
(one player each). A total of 13 girls were
among the players.
Div. 1 had a total of 16 participants and it
was very tightly contested on the
individual level. In the end Quirck
Migrino from Calgary (Holy Cross school)
emerged as the champion ahead of
Kenneth Mah from Edmonton (Stratford)
due to head to head victory (4/5
each). Third place went to Julian Lau
from Edmonton (Grandview Heights) who
edged out Khino Tolentino (St. Jerome)
from Calgary due to head to head victory
(3.5/5 each).
On the team level, this division was not
close at all, as Stratford Elementary from
Edmonton won it easily.
Division II was the largest and the most
challenging. A total of 27 players took
part and in the end, the Tolentino brothers
took the first two spots. Patrick won all of
his games on the way to first, while Andre
took second with 4.5/5 (both from St.
Jerome). A total of six players tied for
third with 4/5 meaning that a special tiebreak
round-robin was required. In the
end, Sydney Mah edged out Dennis Robitu
(both from Stratford Elementary in
Edmonton) as she won the head to head
game between the two (4/5 in tiebreak).
This meant that the best girl prize
went to Shaira Munoz from St. Jerome in
Calgary. Best Unrated/U-800 went to
Jazer Buan (Erin Wood) from
Calgary. This division also head the
closest contested team competition as St.
Jerome from Calgary edged out Stratford
from Edmonton to take the first place.
Division III had 11 participants and first
place went to Sisan Escoegene Fregene
Elmer S. Gish in St. Albert. Sisan was
perfect! Second was taken by Josh Oba
from GS Lakie in Lethbridge with
4/5. Third place had to be figured out in a
complicated tie-break system. Rahul
Bhatnagar from Elmer S. Gish in St.
Albert emerged as the 3rd place finisher
since he defeated both other competitors
who finished 3.5/5 head to head. Bhumika
Jejurkar from T B Riley in Calgary
defeated Rachel Gagne to take the Best
Girl award. Best U-800/UNR in this
section was awarded to: Daniel Lund-
Rachinski from Elmer S. Gish in St. Albert
(2.5/5). At first it appeared that Bearspaw
from Calgary could give Elmer S. Gish
some competition for first, but it wasn't to
be this time as Elmer S. Gish was the clear
winner.
A special thanks goes to Angelo Tolentino
and Paul Gagne for directing and
organizing the tournament, and to all the
other volunteers who helped make the
A record 72 players attended the annual
Calgary Schools Championship which was
held at the Calgary Chess Club on May 4 th .
This year the event also served as a preamble
to the AB Schools Championship
which was going to be held a month later
in Calgary. The winning teams would
receive a free entry to the Provincial
competition.
The event was held in a team play format
where 3 players from a school faced
opponents of another team. The
competition included an Open Elementary,
a Novice Elementary and a Jr. High/High
School sections.
Due to the high attendance the organizers
decided to stagger the events as the
Elementary tournaments were held on
Saturday morning, while the afternoon
session took place in the afternoon.
In the morning the club was at pretty much
full capacity as the competition involved 8
teams in the Open and 10 in the Novice
Elementary sections, adding up to 54
players playing at any given time. The
five round event was quite exciting but in
the end St. Jerome school took first in both
events. St. Jerome won all five of their
matches in the Open section with the
Tolentino brothers: Patrick, Andre and
Khino showing their strength. Best
individual performance was shown by
Quirck Migrino from Erin Woods who
won all of his five games on board 1 and
Andre Tolentino from St. Jerome who had
a perfect 5/5 on board 2!
The Novice section was extremely
competitive as the Webber Academy had
three teams in this competition. All of