Club Championship crowns first "Club Champion!"

Thanks to the 67 players that braved the messy roads for the inaugural Indy Chess Club Championship on Saturday, January 20! Our special thanks to St. Paul's Episcopal Church for hosting it.

The Open section had a tie for first place with Tank He and Stuart Toliver (both 3.5/4.0). We could not livestream their last game for the championship because they were exhausted and let's just say it was shorter than the recent Dance of the Knights before they agreed to a draw to share the prize pot.

The highest scoring member of our club was none other than Michael Gant (3.0/4.0), so he gets the title this year of Club Champion and is getting his name engraved on the Club Championship Cup (see photo). Sean Uan-Zo-Li also had 3.0/4.0 to share 3rd place with Mike.

Here are the other top finishers:

Upper Section (1400-1799)

1st - Adam Michael Casselman (3.5/4.0, 1939P4)

2nd - Avichal Jadeja (3.0/4.0, 1778)

3rd - Yilin Zhu (2.5/3.0, 1560)

Middle Section (1000-1399)

1st - Brad King (4.0/4.0, 1376)

2nd-5th All with 3.0/4.0 - Logan Priest (1340), Vaughn Laptiste (1290P24), Jacob Maynard (1212), Steven Kneisler (1212)

Lower Section (Unrated to 999)

1st - Charles Han (4.0/4.0, 1092)

2nd - Jegyun Jung (3.5/4.0, 810)

3rd-5th All with 3.0/4.0 - Mason Sanders (962), Ashlesha Joshi (715P25), and Andrew Lerchner (963P4)

Puzzle Rush Competition (3 minutes):

1400+: Jay Carr and Alex Smith (score of 32)

<1400: Nick Edwards (score of 31)

67 players compete in the Club Championship

We also presented the following awards on the week of our one-year incorporation anniversary:

Volunteer of the Year: Mike Dugdale for setting up and tearing down more than 30 events (amongst many, many other things since even the Naptown Gambit days, like donating tables, sets, even a "tip" jar)!

Most Improved Player: Henry Norman, a scholastic player who went from 800 to 1600+ and now competes with our club's best. He is an exciting player to watch!

TD Recognitions: John Elmore and Xavier Colter, who served as TD for more than a dozen events for free while we started out, and were some of the first regulars in our original Naptown Gambit garage club three years ago.

Full results from yesterday's event: http://www.uschess.org/msa/XtblMain.php...

Our many thanks to Assistant TD Xavier Colter, Puzzle Rush organizer James Norman, and set-up/tear down volunteers Mike Dugdale and Derrick Satterfield. We could not have held the event without you!