Chess club dominates at first tournament

Friday, April 8, marked the first chess tournament that the newly created SPCHS Chess Club has competed in. The tournament was hosted in the cafeteria of D’Iberville High School.  There were eleven teams competing in the tournament; each team was comprised of three players.  Out of the eleven teams, the SPCHS Club was represented by five, and every grade at St. Patrick was represented (see bottom of article for full list of team members).

The tournament was played with the regular five-minute blitz rules where a player can win if 1) he or she checkmates his or her opponent 2) his or her opponent is runs out of time 3) his or her opponent makes an illegal move.  Games were indeed decided by all three of these means and there were a few stalemates, or ties, as well.  There were ten rounds overall in the tournament making it a round-robin style tournament.  After the first five rounds of play, there was an intermission and pizza and refreshments were sold. After these first five rounds of play, there were only three teams in the tournament with a winning record and two of those teams were from St. Patrick.  Matthew Bisner, a member of team “WyRM,” (one of these teams with a winning record) had this to say about the tournament, “It was a lot of fun just to be able to play a game I love with some good friends and against some exceptional opponents.”

As the tournament continued, two teams were extremely close and for most of the game tied for first.  It was not until the final round of play that the “(K)night’s Watch” team from St. Patrick was able to edge out their rival, the “Chessmeisters.” Diego Riojas, Juan Ramon Riojas, and Evan Smith were the three members of the champion team.  “Well, for a one-month old team, it was pretty awesome to not only compete, but actually to have of our St. Patrick teams win the tournament,” said Evan Smith.

The following students competed in the chess tournament for SPCHS Chess Club: James Frazier, Jonathon Galle, Hayden Miller, Matthew Bisner, Raven Gonsoulin, Will McMackin, Desiree Goodfellow, David Alexander, Julia Hancock, Andre Nguyen, Christian Baca, Braden Barton, Evan Smith, Diego Riojas, and Juan Ramon Riojas.

Mrs. Gollot is the sponsor of the SPCHS Chess Club.  She was instrumental in both the creation and the success of the club and the entire club would like to thank her for her dedication.

Story by J.R. Riojas