Chess devotees brave weather for Winter Knights

MADISON – The 2024 Winter Knights Scholastic Chess Tournament attracted more than 150 youth who braved freezing weather to compete in the game that they enjoy.

“We were lucky to have a brief reprieve from the extreme weather so that we could hold our Winter Knights Chess Tournament on Jan. 13,” Todd Guthrie said. Guthrie is Executive Director of Madison City Chess League or MCCL.

Guthrie thanked the teachers and administrators at host school Columbia Elementary, along with volunteers, who “allowed us to fit this tournament in between dangerous winds and a major ice storm.”

“Thirty of our newest chess players competed in a non-rated section, and almost 130 competed in our six rated sections,” Guthrie said.

The following students placed in their respective section, starting with first place and descending:

* Non-Rated K-3 Section – Pratham Kothari, Ulyana Osipychev, Andrew Wyatt, Elam Phillips, Rishika Baipu, Diego Royas and Top Females Teresa Lin and Emersyn Black.

* Rated K-2 Section — Samuel Liao, Udara Sarathchandra, Warner Smith, Eli Walker, Theodore Malak, Henry Saulters, Medha Prashanth and Top Female Cali Giuffre.

* Rated 3rd-4th Section — Charlie Saulters, Milan Malak, Lucas Osipychev, Arjun Sathees, Aryaa Sathees, Jonathan Lam, Dennis Lenski, Donald Kosak, Joanna He, Alice Zou, Samuel Ellis, Annabelle Hsu, Ananth Ravishekar and John Park.

* Rated 5th-6th Section — Kylie Zou, Esteban Jerez, Emerson Phillips, Andrew Tkach, Sughan Manoharan, Isaac Kreusser, Esinam Tettey, Isaac Doyle and Top Female Abigail Barbe.

* Rated 7th-8th Section — Noah Hsu, Caden Jordan, Holland Lang, John Chen, Tim Lee, Mason Harrison, Sophia Jerez and Top Female Luna Qu.

* Rated 9th-10th Section — Jacob New, Caroline Wang, Pragya Kothari, Aaron Chen, Rushi Ratel, Sean Rowe and Top Female Faith Nguyen.

* Rated 11th-12th Section — Grattan O’Neill, Vachan Kurki and Rachael Ehrman.

In Rated sections, players in first through third places received individual trophies. In each section, players in fourth through sixth places and Top Female earned individual medals.

In the Practice Tournament for Non-Rated players in grades K-3, the first- through sixth-place winners and Top Female received individual medals.

For more information, visit madisonchess.com or Facebook/Madison City Chess League.