Excerpts from Chuck Handlon, Secretary/Treasurer Rochester Area Scholastic Chess League (RASCL) February 20, 2023.

The 23^rd annual Rochester Area Scholastic Chess League (RASCL) City Cup Tournament was held at Century HS (the 2022 City Cup Champions) on Saturday February 18^th.

Century was the top seed in the tournament and played a semi-final match against fourth place Byron High School. Mayo HS finished second and was pitted against Lourdes High School.

Each team has five players ranked in order from # 1 board to # 5. The top seed plays white on boards # 1, 3 & 5. A win earns one point for the team and a draw results in each team receiving ½ points. Century defeated Byron 3 – 2 and advanced to the championship round while Lourdes passed Mayo to also advance. Lourdes then defeated Century 3 ½ to 1 ½ to reclaim the City Cup. Lourdes team members were Jacob Arroyo, (junior), Cole Hafner (senior), Jack Nelson (freshman), Asa Cape (8^th grade), and Dylan Park (7^th grade), on boards 1-5, respectively. Freshmen team members Joseph Bell and Luke Waldbillig were unable to compete. This was Lourdes eighth time as City Cup Champion. Lourdes has won the cup five out of the last eight years.

There was a concurrent Swiss Style Junior Varsity City Cup Tournament of four rounds with 26 players mainly in middle and high school, including a new team from the Rochester STEM Academy that is coached by Kevin Gaustad. The top six finishers from first to sixth were Sam Blocksome (4 points), David Atwell (3.5), Elijan Nhean – Prom (3.5), Andy Ott (3.0), Ryder Selnes (3.0) and Noah Stanslaski (3.0). Gianna Deick finished in 7^th place with 2.5 points The John Marshall junior varsity team took first place with a team score (total of the top four players) of 12.0.

The RASCL Top Five Varsity players based on points attained from regular season games were awarded trophies. They are, in order from first to fifth, Jacob Arroyo (Lourdes), Jayan Jaychandran (Century), Ethan Zhang (Century), Nolan Schnaedter (Century) and Isaac Ahn (Mayo) tied with Jack Nelson (Lourdes).

The RASCL “All League Team” which has one player from each school nominated by the coach are Jayan Jaychandran (Century), Cole Hafner (Lourdes), Isaac Ahn (Mayo) and Cole Larson (Byron). Lourdes chess coach Dennis Mays was named the 2023 RASCL Coach of the Year.

Although the RASCL City Cup Tournament is the culmination of scholastic chess in Rochester, the Minnesota State Chess Association (MSCA) State K – 12 Championship Tournament will conclude the overall 2023 scholastic chess season. Many of the Rochester players will participate in the MSCA State Championship which will be held on the weekend March 4^th and 5^th at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul. https://onlineregistration.cc/tournaments/index.php?txn=y9Dg4A==&view=zt7g2Q==&act=ven&tid=mqWnnQ==

For more information contact RASCL Secretary Chuck Handlon chuckwheelerhandlon@gmail.com