Lisa Still hosted her 8th annual PE+ tournament on December 8. The first version in 2003 was called “PE+ Citywide” to distinguish it from a school “in-house” tournament. She soon had to drop “citywide” from the title because the event was attracting players from all over the state.
This year’s event was divided into seven small sections (small section = lots of trophies; PE+ is famous for abundant awards).
The Championship Prep section was a G/75 quad with David Wen (8th grade, Cheldelin Middle School in Corvallis), Matt Dalthorp (9th grade, Crescent Valley High School in Corvallis), Kareem El Badry (11th grade, Roseburg High School), and James Chen (6th grade, Leslie Middle School in Salem). In the final standings, Matt, James, and David tied for first with 2 points, while Kareem placed fourth.
Kareem plays exciting, attacking chess. In the first round, he played the Sicilian Dragon against Matt. The dragon is one of the sharpest openings in existence, with great attacking chances for both sides. Matt responded with the ultra-sharp Yugoslav attack. Grandmaster Sam Collins says of Yugoslav attack: “Complex stuff. Someone is getting matied, but theory hasn’t quite decided who.” Bobby Fischer gives the formula: “pry open the KR file, sac, sac, mate,” which is precisely what Matt did. In his game against David, Kareem launched a wild, double-edge attack but couldn’t quite find a win. The best line available to him was a perpetual check, but he missed it. When the attack fizzled out, Kareem was down a rook, and David had little trouble converting his advantage to a win. It may not have worked out for Kareem this time, but with his no-holds-barred approach to fighting chess, he’ll have his share of great days too — and always his games will be exciting.
In the final round Matt and David played a line of the French Defense and tested some lines they discussed in chess club earlier in the week. The game was a wonderful validation of Tartakower’s maxim: “The winner of the game is the player who makes the next-to-last mistake.” Matt dropped a knight early in the middle game but kept on fighting. Later he made the second-last mistake, when dropped another piece as he was trying to set up a desperation attack. Then, the long-awaited attack was launched: Rb8+. Block with the bishop or move the king? David then made the last mistake: Kh7, and Matt finds checkmate in three.
James started the day lowest-rated player in the section by nearly 200 points USCF and nearly 150 points NWSRS, but he showed he is a true Force To Be Reckoned With. He played incredibly solid chess to beat Matt in the second round and then beat Kareem in the final round to earn a share of first place. In the process he improved his USCF rating by a whopping 169 points. Incredible performance. Warning to anyone who has to play James Chen in the future: Watch out! He’s a terror on the chessboard.
In the Advanced Section, Carson Denison (8th grade, Cheldelin Middle School in Corvallis), Brett Horton (8th grade, Delphian School in Sheridan), and Leo Sun (3rd grade, Hoover Elementary in Corvallis) shared first place with 2.5/3. Carson plays in the impressive Cheldelin Middle School chess club. Today he came out on top after beating local rival Ian Dickson (9th grade, CVHS). Leo is just in third grade, but he regularly thrashes opponents who are many years his senior. He’s perfectly comfortable in the Advanced Section and does enjoy being at the top of the standings. Brett is an up-and-coming leader on the up-and-coming Delphian squad. Picking up nearly 100 ratings points, he joins James as a Force To Be Reckoned With.
The Amazing Delphian Team Showing Off Their Hardware
Full results at NWSRS.
In addition to section winners and individual performance trophies, a bunch of other awards were given out:
The Team Competition was extremely close, but was resolved as follows:
1st Place: Santa’s Elves 16 points and won the Delphian Playoff.
2nd Place : The Delphian Dratgons (16 points, but lost the blitz playoff)
3rd Place: The Knights of the Square Table with 15 points.
4th Place: The Flyin Sammiches from Delphian with 14.5 points.
Sportsmanship medals were given to the following kids:
Kevin Dai from Hoover
Dyshawn Hobson from Mt. View
Paul Denison from Mt. View
Dohyun Park from Cheldelin
Aaron Celeste from Cheldelin
Holden Garner from Lincoln
Grace Carroll from Adams
Artemas Phillips from Franklin
and Rowan Bennett from Delphian.
Team Chess Pins were given to the members of the team with the best team name:
Knights of the Square Table — members Artemas Phillips from Franklin; Charlie Benning, Cole Schneidecker, Kevin Dai, and Leonardo Sun from Hoover, and Tanner Barlow from Jefferson.
Runner-up team names were the Flyin Sammiches and Santa’s Elves
A medal for the best T-shirt or Costume was given to Noah Costa-Bolton, mostly for the gorilla feet slippers.
Trophies for top grade level performances were given as follows:
Championship Prep Section
Top 6 – 8th Grader: David Wen
Top 9th – 12th Grader: Matt Dalthorp
Advanced Open Section:
Top 2nd – 3rd Grader — Leonardo Sun from Hoover
Top 4th – 5th Grader — John Ornes from Mt. View
Top 6th – 8th grader –Carson Denison from Cheldelin
Top 9th – 12th grader –Ian Dickson from Crescent Valley
U900 Kings and Queens Section:
Top K-1st Grader — Quinn Reynolds from Ashbrook
Top 2nd – 3rd Grader — Paul Denison from Mt. View
Top 4th – 5th Grader — Crystal Still from Mt. View
Top 6th – 8th Grader — Nicholas Kapple from Cheldelin
Top 9th – 12th Grader — Michael Clarizio from Delphian School
U900 Rooks:
Top 2nd – 3rd Grader — Austin Cole from Mt. View
Top 4th – 5th Grader — Foster Kirsch from Mt. View
Top 6th – 8th Grader — Berkley Noble from Cheldelin
Top 9th – 12th Grader — JJ Gonzalez from Delphian
Novice Royalty:
Top 4th – 5th Grader — Dakota Rockl from Delphian
Top 6th – 8th Grader — Korbin Springer from Delphian
Novice Knights:
Top 4th – 5th Charlie Benning from Hoover
Top 2nd – 3rd Jacob Rautendranz from Mt. View
Novice Pawns:
Top 2nd – 3rd Grader — Kai Schlegelmann from Corvallis
Top K – 1st Grader — Rowan Bennett from Delphian
Gold Chess Pins were given to kids attending their first rated tournament:
Kindergarten:
Rowan Bennett from Delphian School in Sheridan
Second Grade:
Hunter Barclay from Adams Elementary
Quinn Bennett from Delphian School
Zachary Rautenkranz from Mt. View
Third Grade:
Max Franklin from Mt. View
Holden Garner from Lincoln
Elijah Shaw from Mt. View
Mikkos Willard Argyres from Adams
Fourth Grade:
Charlie Benning from Hoover
Charles DeRose from Liberty Elementary in Albany
Ethan Jordan from Delphian
Jeff Wang from Adams
Fifth Grade:
Grace Carroll from Ashbrook
Dakota Rockl from Delphian
Sixth Grade
Laurin Suchaneck from Linus Pauling Middle School
Seventh Grade
Dohyun Park from Cheldelin Middle School
Korbin Springer from Delphian
Eighth Grade
Noah Costa-Bolton from Delphian
Berkley Noble from Cheldelin
Nicholas Stone from Memorial Middle School in Albany
