All the Right Moves

As advertised, the Second Tai Lam Tournament took place last Saturday in Downtown Silver Spring from 2-5pm.

Just like last year, the tournament was organized by David Mehler of the U.S. Chess Center -- thank you so much, David! 

The tournament format was an informal round robin style that kept everyone playing with the next available opponent, rather than eliminating anyone from play.

Registration for the event was brisk in the final few days, so that a total of 69 students registered.  Not all could make it -- maybe the U.S.-U.K. World Cup soccer match had something to do with that? -- but 16 middle and high school kids played each other in the older bracket, while 36 elementary school children competed against each other in separate play.

Everyone got a certificate of participation, while individual awards were based on winning percentage.  The top three team awards went to schools sending more than one player; the top three scores were added and the school with the most points from those top three players won the prizes.  Team runner-up awards went to the rest of the schools.  Winners included:

Elementary school team

1st place: Broad Acres ES

2d place: Oak View ES

3d place: Pine Crest ES

(Runnerups: Moravia Park ES (Balt.), Piney Branch ES, Rock Creek Forest ES, Rosemary Hills ES, Barrie ES (priv.), Pine Crest ES, Sally Ride ES, Lakewood ES, Bruce Monroe ES (DC))

Elementary school individual

1st place: Jordan Best (Moravia Park ES) 

2d place: Ryusei Taguchi (Broad Acres ES)

Middle/high school team

1st place: Takoma MS
2d place: Montgomery Blair HS
3d place: Silver Spring International MS

Middle school individual

1st place: Hardy Xu (Takoma Park MS) 

2d place: Ronald Best (Moravia Park MS, Balt.) 

High school

1st place: Kate Collins (Montgomery Blair HS)

2nd place: Samuel Keating (Albert Einstein HS)

As ever, many thanks to Downtown Silver Spring for their generous support of the event with tables, tents, and setup crew.  The staff and management also quickly solved an inadvertent scheduling problem by moving tournament tables and tents to a breezeway as a simultaneously scheduled concert began.

Trophies were obtained with money donated by Safe and Drug Free Schools. 

We are also indebted to the Community Foundation for Montgomery County and an anonymous donation for a generous donation that has allowed us to buy chess equipment for the tournament, open play events, and supply and instructional kits for school chess programs that need them. 

Finally, we're very grateful to Linda Kahn and IMPACT Silver Spring for banking donations to All the Right Moves and helping with purchases.

For more photos of the tournament, click here; please feel free to leave comments!