Tournament Results - Pennsylvania K-12 State Championships
The weekend of March 6-8, hundreds of scholastic chessplayers converged on Carlisle, PA for the 2009 Pennsylvania Scholastic Chess Championships. Many Silver Knights players were in attendance in the K-3, K-6, and K-6 U/800 sections, including six of the top ten finishers in the K-3 section:
- Benjamin Lu (1st grade; Kutz Elementary) scored 5-0 and finished in a tie for 1st place. Benjamin is also the national 1st grade champion.
- Remi Zheng (1st grade; Jarrettown Elementary) was 4-1 and finished in 4th place. This was only Remi's 2nd chess tournament!
- Kevin Zhou (2nd grade; Galveston Elementary) also went 4-1 to finish in 5th place. Kevin tied for first place at last year's national 2nd grade championship.
- Jacob Guynee (3rd grade; Churchville Elementary) scored 4-1, good for 7th place.
- Praneeth Ramesh (3rd grade; Pickering Valley Elementary) went 4-1 and finished in 8th place.
- Joshua Hagerty (3rd grade; Simmons Elementary) went 4-1 and finished in 10th place.
- A team of four players from Ithan Elementary (Jake Fortay, Jason Hurle, Jacob Calamaro, and Ben Verbofsky) finished in 4th place in the K-3 section, scoring 12.0 team points.
Coach Daniel shows Jason, Jake, Remi, and Remi's sister the Fried Liver Attack. (Jason seems to be more interested in the camera than the chess game...)
Coach Daniel plays a game with Kevin.
Praneeth has an unusual way of preparing himself for a big game. Does this really look like one of the 10 best K-3 chessplayers in the state?