Enclosed are the wall charts for the February Rochester Scholastic Chess Tournament, which took place on February 17 at Mayo Clinic. Thanks to Chief TD Matt Markland for directing a successful event and to the numerous volunteers who helped the event run smoothly. Special thanks go to coaches Matt Jensen, Justin Ricker, Jacob Arroyo, and Kevin Gaustad who analyzed games with the players between rounds. This immediate feedback helps players understand their mistakes and to improve more quickly. Congratulations to the 36 participants who all grew their brains by playing chess all day. 🙂 The players are listed in order of tiebreaks. The tournament has been rated by USCF: https://www.uschess.org/msa/XtblMain.php?202402171432-16371832

In Section Two, Logan Anderson (4th grade at Ben Franklin) finished with 4.5/5 points to earn first place. Logan improved on his results in the January Scholastic tournament, in which he finished tied for second and third place. Claire Niu (3rd grade at Jefferson) and Colin Severson (5th grade at Longfellow) finished tied for second and third places with 4/5 points each. Caleb Laber (4th grade at Ben Franklin) and Jack Connelly (10th grade at Mayo) tied for fourth and fifth places with 3.5 points

Section One was won by Joshua Wang (8th grade at Kellogg) who finished in first place with a score of 4.5/5. Jayan Jayachandran (12th grade at Century) finished undefeated in second place with 4 points. Chase Stenzel (8th grade at Byron) finished in third place with 3.5 points. Calder Nguyen (8th grade at Dakota), James Devlin (10th grade, home school), and James Hill (6th grade, homeschool) finished tied for fourth – sixth places with 3 points each.