Madison players claim Super Nationals awards

MADISON – Rainbow Elementary Chess Team received a record number of awards at the Super National Chess Tournament in Nashville on May 12-14. 

Held every four years, Super Nationals is the largest scholastic chess tournament in the United States. This year, a record-breaking 5,577 students in grades K-12 competed, Rainbow Chess Coach Ranae Bartlett said.

“Madison City Chess League set its own record with 78 students competing in individual and team categories,” Bartlett said. Coaches for teams from Madison City Schools were Ed Mullin, Will Stevenson, Paul Mulqueen and Jonathan Rasberry. Rainbow Chess Team sponsor Nancy Brandon and Bartlett, who also serves as the league’s executive director, helped support and supervise students.

Rainbow received five team awards:

* K3 U1000 team — Karsten Wallace, Artem Starenki, Caroline Wang, Marek Fries and Landon Drummond, second place.

* K3 U700 team — Arnav Maskey, Monica Chynoweth, Audrey Holschen and Andrew Nguyen, ninth place.

* K1 U500 team — Holland Lang, Noah Hsu and Blaise Bruni, ninth place.

* K5 U900 team — Luke Chynoweth, Catrina Holschen, Owen Lang and Corinne Wilhelm, 25th place.

* K12 U1600 team — Constance Wang, Victor Lundy, Geon Park and Xavier Bruni, 26th place.

Students who won individual awards are Constance Wang, 45th place tie, K12 U1600; Luke Chynoweth, 18th place, K5 U900; Karsten Wallace and Artem Starenki, 15th place tie, K3 U1000; and Holland Lang, 11th place, K1 U500.

Ethan Kueck (K8 U750), Zachary Calinsky (K5 U1200) and Rachael Ehrman and Ryan Shurtz (K6 U1000) also competed at Super Nationals.

“Congratulations to Ryan Shurtz who achieved a rating above 1,000 after Super Nationals allowing him to be inducted into the Madison City Chess League 1000 Club for elementary students who achieve a rating of 1000 or higher while in elementary school,” Bartlett said.

“If I could l name the one event that led me to start the Madison City Chess League, it was the first Super Nationals tournament I attended in May 2013,” Bartlett said. “I remember the spectacle of it all. I accompanied seven kids from Rainbow. We were so proud to end that event with one team of two students, Jenson Wilhelm and Mercedes Zich, winning 23rd place in K3 Unrated.”

“It was overwhelming, but at the same time, it made me realize we needed to step up our game to succeed,” Bartlett said.