RESULTS OF THE FIRST DAY AT THE CALCHESS STATE GRADE LEVEL

Let me start out by saying our young teams did far better then I expect & you have mostly happy players and happy parents plus a happy coach.  While the 4, 5, 6 grade Teams do not finish until tomorrow our K, 1, 2, 3 grade teams shined today.  Our 3 rd grade and  2nd grade Teams are State Champions tying with Mission San Jose Elementary School not teams in both division had 10.5 pts.  Mission San Jose Elementary School came in as top seed by far.  They did take the first place trophies on tie-breaks, but both teams are State Champions.  Tie-breaks, in short, are based not on how well your team plays, but how well the people they played did.  So if player one and two have same points and player one’s opponents won a total of 12 games while player two’s opponents one 13 games, player two would get the first place trophy, but since they had equal individual scores they are both State Champions..  Mission & Weibel years back continued to tie for first and often we took the tie-breaks.  One year the coach from Mission knowing that we tied for first but not yet knowing the tie-breaks, challenged me to an arm wrestling match for the first place trophy.  I suspect he was the only person in California that didn’t know what the outcome would be.  He has not challenged me to an arm wrestle for first place since, although I wish he had today. ;-)

The one thing I was fairly sure of is that our Kindergarten Team would win first place and they did not disappoint.  They one the titled of State Champion. We set up a special Kindergarten Team directed by Serafina Show with four other Junior High and High School students.  Our kids did great and besides they were cutest children in the whole meet.  One Kindergarten child, Edward Miu,  was not in the special Kindergarten class.  I realized, that thanks to early preparation by his parents, he had a solid foundation in chess so I put him in my team class.  I told him Friday that he would be the next State Kindergarten Champion.  He proved me right going undefeated and winning a trophy as tall as himself.

I do not have the names from the results of all, and their were a lot, of our trophy winners.  I will pass those on when I receive them.  However, one player does stand out, Erin Law.  She took second place in the Second Grade Championship far ahead, in points, of many player with far higher ratings.
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Chess is Forever!
Alan