Wednesday, August 16, 2006

Nelson Lopez II and Abby Marshall win the Denker and Polgar tournaments both with 5.5. points!

Nelson M Lopez II scored 5.5/6 to take clear first at the Denker Tournament of High School Champions. The tournament, which attempts to feature high school champions from every state, hosted a field of 46 young chess stars. Lopez, the North Carolina champion, entered the tournament as the 10th seed.

Alexander Chua, the top seed, finished second with 5 points, while four players tied for 3rd at 4.5: Evan Ju (NJ), Tyler Hughes (CO), Corbin Yu (OR), and Brian Goldstein (FL).

The Denker Tournament also has a counterpart for young female chess champions: the Susan Polgar National Invitational Tournament for Girls. This tournament brought together 44 top young chess minds for a closely contested six-round competition.

In the end, Abby Marshall of Virginia came out on top, winning five games and drawing one to score 5.5 points, good enough for clear first place. Abby finished a half-point ahead of both Louiza Livschitz of California, and Elina Kats or New York, who shared second place.
A complete crosstable for the Denker Tournament can be found here, while the Polgar Tournament crosstable can be found here. Marissa Wai was the girls Hawaii Representative this year, she was also the only Hawaii player to play in the U.S. Open this year! Also won the under 1200 blitz tournament.

To review the top games from these two tournaments go to the following link from www.monroi.com For more direct link to games (click here)

Also check Hawaii Denker representative - Robert Lau third round game using the French opening! Denker Round 3

To qualify for both of these National tournaments you need to play in at least the March 2007 Hawaii State Scholastic Tournament and win the High school Championship section for the Denker and for the Polgar be the top Girl scorer at the same event. Please review the Hawaii Chess Federation calendar to be sure to play in six HCF scholastic tournaments. www.hawaiichess.org .

All these tournaments will be rated by CXR - Chess Express, Inc. www.cxrchess.com and HICL - Hawaii Interscholastic Chess League a local rating for scholastic chess players who play in these events.

Why should you play chess, the winner of the Denker and Polgar tournament's both won - 4 year scholarships to the University of Texas in Dallas! Now that's a new award just for playing chess an winning a tournament!

So are you ready to try! Good, now breakout the chessboards & chess books and start practicing , NOW! Visit your local school chess club or any of Hawaii's public chess clubs!

The first Hawaii scholastic tournament scheduled is Sept 30, 2006 at Le Jardin Academy, for tournament details (click here)



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