Master 'Trekkers' Clean Up at AZ State Championship and Governor's Cup

It was a crazy, chess packed couple weekends for all of Arizona's chess players. I know that for me personally, both the 2009 AZ State Championship and 2009 Governor's Cup were chess tournaments that I will not soon forget for many reasons. Children of all ages and chess levels competed for a chance at 'Arizona Chess Glory' before another school year would come to an end. Every year there are many story lines to cover after the busiest week for scholastic chess in Arizona, but seeing as we have to choose one, ACE Chess decided to report on the progress and results of some of the regular 'Trekkers' as well as some other outstanding performances.

It seemed to me that the K-1 and K-3 Sections had a cross over of the same players throughout different points of these two wild weekends of chess, and so, having you thoroughly confused already, we thought that 'the little guys' sections would be the best place to start. In the K-1 Section of the State Championship we saw pre-tournament favorite, Zac Smith, do exactly what he was supposed to do: Go undefeated to win the event. Zac surrendered only a draw in the last round to Stanley Wang, who finished tied for second place with six points. Transitioning to the K-3 Section of the Governor's Cup (there was no K-1) we saw Zac duke it our against several other Trek regulars, who all placed very well when the final standings were released. Among the top ten finishers was Thayer Alethia-Zomlefer in fourth, Zac Smith in fifth, Rahul Reddy in sixth, and Carl Riley Marget in tenth.

Finally, are confusing ride of 'just which grade are these kids in anyway' ends with a recap of what happened in the K-3 Section at the State Championship. Tucson's Daniel Shevelev surprised many with his calm demeanor and focused attitude throughout the entire weekend. In the end, he had outlasted pre-tournament favorite, Richard Qi, by half a point (Richard suffered an upset loss in round five and finished in second place) to win first place with six and a half points out of seven. The top thirty places were filled with 'Trekkers' including: Michael Sauer in fourth; Zak Cancio in twelfth; Lucas Johnston in thirteenth; Carl Riley Marget in fourteenth; Nathaniel Schmidt in fifteenth; Nandna Lahoti in eighteenth; Dillon Shipley in twentieth; Rahul Reddy in twenty-sixth; and Thayer Alethia-Zomlefer in twenty-seventh. Woo, glad that's over!

In the K-5 Section of the State Championship we saw a four way tie for first place with Jarod Coulter, Yash Pershad, Kendrick Nguyen, and Jeffrey Liu placing in that respective order on tie breaks. There were so many 'Trekkers' in this section that naming them all would take way too long; however, rounding out the top ten was Jonathan Booher, Bohan Li, Cortez Schenck, Travis Hueber, and Alec Andersen.

The K-6 Section at the Governor's Cup had many similar faces from the K-5 in Gilbert, as well as some whom competed in the K-6 at the State Championship. Starting with the Governor's Cup, the battle for first place in the K-6 Section happened in round six when Luc Lalonde and Shunta Hashimoto met for the umpteenth time. WCCA's Luc Lalonde got the better of this match up, and he went on to hold serve for the remainder of the tournament to finish in first place with eight and a half points out of nine. Shunta finished in second with eight points and following him was Richard Qi and Rachael Eng in third and fourth place respectively. Seventh place belonged to Alek Pensky, Jeffrey Liu finished in eighth, Steven Adelberg in eleventh, Austin Fletcher in twelfth, and Tre Berdeski in fifteenth.

Although Shunta may have lost the battle for the Governor's Cup, he did emerge victorious from the State Championship war that occurred a few days previous. Shunta achieved a long term goal of his to be Elementary State Champion and had one of the best tournaments of his life in the process. He was able to out last Tucson's best Kinsleigh Wong and Derek Chen, as well as WCCA star and pre-tournament favorite Daniel Percheski, throughout the grueling seven rounds of the State Championship. He finished in first place with six and a half points out of seven, while rounding out the top ten was Daniel Pecherski in second, David Wang in third, Rohan Mittal in fourth, Kinsleigh Wong in fifth, Derek Chen in sixth, Luc Lalonde in seventh, Senbao Yu in eighth, Bryce Tood in ninth, and Nick DesMarais in tenth.

The Junior High Section (K-9) of the State Championship was dominated from start to finish by 'THE Trek regular', Daniel Bryant. I don't think anyone can remember the last time Daniel missed a Master Trek Grand Prix Cup tournament, and it showed as he was the only player to win his section with a perfect score' He finished seven out of seven, and led by a full point heading into the last round. There were many other 'Trekkers' littered throughout the top fifteen, and to name a few we have Peter Fenger in second place, Vincent Nguyen in third, Justin Arnold in fifth, Manoj Panikkar in seventh, Chris Dussik in ninth, and Soren Alethia-Zomlefer in eleventh.

The Open Section (K-9 and K-12 merged) of the Governor's Cup was a fun filled and 'loaded' section of great players. Eleven, yes eleven, of the top twenty-five places belonged to Chevalier Noir, while just about every other place belonged to the 'ACE Chess' team (4 of the top 5) or a WCCA club member. Listing them all here would be ridiculous, but you can check out the full list of results by clicking here. The top five rounded out with John Gurczak in first (a perfect nine wins and zero losses score), Eric Qi in second with eight points, Daniel Bryant in third place, Randel Eng in fourth, and Brian Cassidy in fifth. The first place team award went to Chevalier Noir, while the ACE Chess team (competing against no one in our own 'club division') took first place as well.

The Championship Section (K-12) of the State Championship had the best chess games from both weekends as far as we are concerned, and it was a nail biting race to the finish line. Coming out on top was another player who rarely ever misses a Master Trek in John Williams. He finished with a five and a half point score out of six and had to face very, very strong competition to do it (an average rating of over 1850 through the six rounds of play). The remainder of the top fifteen was like a 'who's who' of Arizona's best scholastic chess players, with the exception of David Adelberg. Dipro Chakraborty, Andy Lin, and Jeffrey Green finished second through fourth place respectively with five points each. Rounding out the top ten was Nick Thompson in sixth, Bryan Hu in seventh, John Gurczak in eighth, Jacob Maneth in ninth, and Fletcher Peavy in tenth.

We hope you enjoyed our States and Governor's Cup Recap. Good luck next year to all those returning, and best wishes to the senior's graduating on to bigger and better things (just hopefully not college ?)' See you at the Trek tomorrow!

Daniel Rensch, President
American Chess Events, LLC
Info@AmericanChess.net

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