Ed Addis reports:  The Portland Area League held its first match of the season on Wednesday, November 7th at Lincoln High School in downtown Portland.  This year the League has 20 teams that have been split into two divisions.  The first division has the top team from each of the 10 schools participating in the League and the second divison has teams from schools that are participating with more than one team.

Last year’s League Champion Clackamas Cavaliers were completely surprised by their old time nemesis, the Lake Oswego Lakers by a score of 5 to 0.  Clackamas’ Hai Dao playing first board had very good chances against the Lakers’ Pranav Sharan but ran out of time just as he had won a Queen for his Rook.  The youngsters from Sylvan Middle School took down Cleveland by a similarly lopsided 5-0 victory.  Jesuit upended the Trojans of Wilson by a score of 3-2 by winning on boards 2, 4, and 5.  Access Academy (another middle school) slid by Westview by winning on boards 1,2, and 5.  The Lincoln Cardinals edged out LaSalle Prep by a score of 3-2 by winning on boards 1 and 2 and drawing on boards 3 and 4.

In the lower division the LaSalle Prep Falcons second team bested their fourth team by a score of 5-0.  LaSalle’s #3 took down Access Academy #3 by a score of 4 to 1.  Access Academy #2 beat Wilson #2 also by a 4 to 1 score and Lincoln #2 did the same to Jesuit #2.  Clackamas #2 eged out Lake Oswego #2 by a score of 3-1 (both teams forfeit the fifth board).

The Portland Area League will be competing until the end of February.  If you would like to join and are in grades 6 to 12 we will attempt to find you a place on an existing team.  We also offer a section we call “extra games”.  This section is for those schools that bring more players than is needed to play their League games.  This section is also open to anyone (grades 6 to 12) that would like to play a rated game.  However, you must sign up by 4 PM on the sign up sheet indicating your grade, school attending, and NW rating.