Halloween Chess Tournament draws 159 players, most in costume

MADISON – A few raindrops didn’t dampen the determination of zombies, princesses and knights for the 2021 Halloween Chess Tournament.

“We set a record in our second year to host the Halloween Chess Tournament, sponsored by Sullins Eye Care Center. In both rated and non-rated sections, 159 kids registered to play,” Ranae Bartlett said. Bartlett is Executive Director of Madison City Chess League.

“A big thank-you to Horizon Elementary and chess sponsor Beth Bero. (Horizon) served as our rain location for the tournament,” Bartlett said. “Our costume contest and dance-off added additional fun to a great tournament.”

The rated sections had the most contestants, who worked for a place win:

* K-3 — Esteban Jerez in first place, followed by Isaac Kreusser, Dennis Lenski, Annabelle Hsu, Alice Zou, Jimmy McHugh, Isaac Doyle, Cora Newberry, Jacob Kuang and Sam Romanoff. Top Female (who did not place otherwise) Saisha Iyer.

* K-5 — Noah Hsu, first place. Kylie Zou, Sophia Jerez, Samsara Rajbhandari, Genji Niinoi, Andrew Tkach, Emma Kuang, Xander Yem, Mason Park, Emerson Philips, Brantley Davis and Jethro Jones. Top Female Margaret Lin.

* K-8 — Marek Fries, first place. Artem Starenki, Nathan Chiu, Kate Meyer, Caden Jordan, Joseph Park, Holland Lang, Tim Lee, Isabelle Park, Caroline Wang. In a tie for eleventh place were John Chen, Abigail Chan, Anna Ai, Christina Yang, Aaron Chen, Jack Meyer, Aaron Wiswesser, Sean Rowe and Lily Harper. Top Female Anaya Naphade.

* K-12 — Nirvana Rajbhandari, first place. Jackson Martin, Andrew Park, Andrew Yang, Jason Park and Ryan Phillips.

The Halloween tournament also offered two non-rated sections:

* K-2 — Avyaktha Subramania, first place. Arjun Sathees, Gregory Ryan, Aryaa Sathees, Christopher Chan, John Park, Yuito Oda and Hannah Kuang. Top Female Savannah Orndorff.

* K-5 — Vedanth Siva, first place. Alex Yiyang, Theodore Piper, Owen Suckow, Cohen Phillips and James Hoogstra. Tied for seventh place were Tyler Pysh, Seth Fleming, Anushka Singhai, Victor Stephenson and Kayden Barbour. Top Female Madison Dew.

For information about Madison City Chess League, visit madisonchess.com. Diana Ng and Scott Wilhelm volunteered as photographers for the day. For more photos, visit Facebook/Madison City Chess League.