Entrants in Halloween Chess Tournament take to stadium field

MADISON – Most of the youth competing in the Halloween Chess Tournament wore costumes, which were imaginative – some funny, some historical, some scary.

“We saw some wonderful costumes during our largest Halloween Chess Tournament yet! Over 160 registrants and great weather made this the best one yet,” Ranae Bartlett said. Bartlett is Executive Director of Madison City Chess League.

Ninety players competed in the Rated sections. “Rapid ratings were on the line with a time control of Game 20 minutes,” Bartlett said.

The following paragraphs summarize the winning players. Rated sections appear first, followed by non-rated. The place-winners start with first place and continue with descending rankings.

In the K-3 (kindergarten through third grade), the winners were Milan Malak, Asher Allison, Annabelle Hsu, Christopher Chan, Charlie Saulters, Lucas Osipychev, Dennis Lenski, Daniel Lee, Hannah Kuang, John Park and Joanna He, Top Female.

Winners for K-5 were Daksh Sunil, Esteban Jerez, Andrew Tkach, Dheeren Pammina, Margaret Lin, Isaac Doyle, Micah Salter, Theodore Piper, Cora Newberry, Mason Park and Abigail Barbre, Top Female.

For the K-8 group, Jethro Jones won first place, followed by Jacob New, Sophia Jerez, Christina Yang, Abigail Chan, Joseph Park, Caden Jodan, Genji Niinomi, Anna Ai, Noah Hsu and Katherine Meyer, Top Female.

Leading the K-12 section were Caroline Wang, Isaiah Mares, Aaron Chen, Sahishnu Saha, James Lewis, Aedan Campbell, Jackson Martin, Janvi Prajapati, Simon Kibbey and Kalief Farrell.

“Sixty-eight players competed in the Non-Rated K-2 and K-5 sections of the Halloween Tournament. We had a few drop out due to illness who registered, but this was still a record-setting tournament,” Bartlett said.

“We are always excited to see so many new players trying out their first chess tournament in a non-rated section. We hope everyone will obtain a U.S. Chess membership so they can play in the upcoming Queen’s Quest tournament in November,” Bartlett said.

Starting with K-5 for non-rated play, the winners were Ronan Price in first place, Lincoln Jeffreys, Lauren Weisenberg, Rohin Seal, Medha Akarapu, Sterling Turner, Arvin Yang and Kathleen Hilderbrand, Top Female.

The top-placing players for K-2 were Junpei Noda, Ananth Ravishekar, Aryaa Sathees, Medha Prashanth, Arjun Sathees, Alexander Rhodes and Emily Rytting, Top Female.

“We want to thank our sponsor Sullins Eye Care Center, Superintendent Ed Nichols for greeting all the competitors and their families and Assistant Superintendent Eric Terrell who helped us give out costume and dance-off prizes and cheered on our kids as they played chess throughout the day,” Bartlett said.

“A big thank-you goes out to all the parent and student volunteers who helped us set up and clean up the football field. And the awesome photos were taken by photographer Scott Wilhelm,” Bartlett said.