The 100 player event saw top prize for kindergarten go to James Lockhart, and 3rd grade awarded to Andrew Zhong, both from Riverside School, while the 5th grade Greenwich City Champion for 2018 is Jackson Gerardi. Team prizes for grades 4 and up went to Stanwich followed by Brunswick School.
The city championship event is produced each year by the National Scholastic Chess Foundation, a non-profit working to advance chess in education since 1990. This year’s competition featured longer time controls for grades 4 and up making the event even more challenging than in prior years.
“With so many great young players being developed here in Greenwich, it was time to better test their mettle,” said NSCF Executive Director Sunil Weeramantry, a chess educator for 40 years and stepfather and first coach for one of the world’s elite chess grandmasters, Hikaru Nakamura. “Chess helps improve concentration and focus over extended times, and these players showed they have what it takes to succeed at chess or any other subject they choose to pursue with such passion.”
Each year, the NSCF produces a Grand Prix series of chess tournaments in addition to the Westchester County and Greenwich City scholastic championships. The next event in Greenwich will take place on February 25 at Greenwich Country Day School, but local players are welcome to participate at all area events. For a complete schedule, visit our events page
Photos: To the right above: Sunil with winners from the German International School of New York team.
Below show the students whose names appear in bold, left to right; each row matches one paragraph.
Annie Ulmer records one of her moves in the Greenwich City Scholastic Chess Championship. The Greenwich Academy student went on to become the citywide 1st Grade Champion. Greenwich Academy also took 2nd place in the K-3 team competition.
Colin Dean playing black in the Greenwich City Scholastic Chess Championship. The Brunswick School student went on to become the citywide 2nd Grade Champion. Serena Evans from GA and Miles Gillott from Brunswick were co-champions for 4th grade.
Andrew Zhong, from Riverside School, scored a perfect 4.0 to become 3rd grade champion, while his young schoolmate, James Lockhart won the Kindergarten Championship. Jackson Gerardi, from Stanwich School, placed second in the 5th grade competition, but became with citywide champ as the highest performing player from Greenwich. The annual event is open to all area scholastic chess players, with trophies for overall grade winners and plaques for the top performances by students from Greenwich.
Winner of the overall 5th grade section, with a perfect 4.0 score was Thomas Schiwek, while the Middle-High School winner was Jared Schwartz. In all, 100 students played in the tournament which, by all reports, ran super smoothly even with the longer time controls for 4th and 5th grades. Kudos to Ricardo and the rest of the NSCF staff for a job well done.
Final picture: Miles Gillott (Co-Champion), Nate Sweet (U600 special 1st place winner), Finn Sargent with the Gr 4 first place team trophy; the Brunswick K-3 winning team and the grade 4 team!
For a complete listing of results, please visit our 2017-2018 results page.
Photos by Polly Wright except for the Brunswick boys at the end which come from Brian Gillott. Thank you!
