Madison chess league sweeps first places in North Alabama Open
On Board 1 at the North Alabama Open, Boone Ramsey, at left, and Will Bao competed in the K-12 Knight section. (PHOTO/SCOTT WILHELM)
MADISON – Madison City Chess League swept all ten places in the Knight (grades K-12) section and nine of ten in the Pawn section (grades K-5) at the North Alabama Open.
Trinity United Methodist Church hosted the competition on Jan. 10. Students in three sections competed as one Madison City Chess League team and “came in first place in each section,” league director Ranae Bartlett said.
In individual awards for Novice, Caleb Chen from Rainbow Elementary School rated third place and Charlie Makowski from Discovery Middle School was sixth.
For Pawn (Under 600), winners in second through tenth places, respectively, were Zachary Calinsky, Rainbow; Pranav Somu, Mill Creek Elementary School; Madeline Edwards, Rainbow; Cameron Baker, Mill Creek; Madhushalini Balaji, Heritage Elementary School; Rishi Sethuraj, Mill Creek; Simon Fellows, Rainbow; Neha Chopade, Columbia Elementary School; and Ryan Shurtz, Rainbow.
Rainbow’s Will Bao captured the Knight’s first place (Under 1200). The other Top Ten places, respectively, were Lawrence Zhang, Liberty Middle School; Boone Ramsey, Rainbow; Jonah Tuttle, Rainbow; Chris Baker, Liberty; Hayden Billmann, Rainbow; Alex Edwards, Rainbow; Douglas Zhang, Discovery Middle School; Aubteen Pour-Biazar, West Madison Elementary School; and Pranaav Satheesh, Columbia.
Mill Creek’s Om Badhe tied for second in the Reserve section (Under 1600), involving students and adults.
Students also participated from Huntsville, Decatur and Birmingham.
School teams’ sponsors attending were Bartlett; Lisa Large, Mill Creek; and JoAnn Taylor, West Madison. Paul Mulqueen, Madison and West Madison coach, competed in the Open section.
The next tournament will be the Rookie Rally at Blossomwood Elementary School on Jan. 31.
The league will sponsor “Learn To Play Chess Night” at Rainbow on Feb. 2 from 6:30 to 8 p.m. Children, at least four years old, will learn to set up a chess board, pieces’ names, movements and play games with volunteer student chess coaches and an experienced instructor. Parents are welcome.
Also, parents can register for the 30-minute introduction to ChessKid.com, accessible to Madison students at signupgenius.com/go/4090e4ea8a829a64-learn.
For more information, visit madisoncitychessleague.weebly.com.
