Twenty four scholastic chess players competed in the USCF-rated June Scholastic Swiss which was held on June 10 at Mayo Clinic. Five of the participants were playing in their first ever USCF-rated event. One of the five, Joshua Wang, finished in first place with 5/5 points in the reserve swiss. Joshua, a 7th grader at Kellogg Middle School, is a fearsome competitor. Andrew Markel (7th grade, Kellogg), Dylan Park (8th grade, St. John’s), Max Tiede (7th grade, John Adams), and Gavin Zabel (9th grade, Byron HS) all tied for 2nd place with 3/5 points in the reserve swiss.

The Championship Swiss was won by Cole Lappi who finished with a perfect score of 5/5. Cole will be attending Century High School next year and plans to play on their varsity chess team as a freshman. Ryder Selnes (7th grade, Dakota) finished in clear second place with 3.5/5 points. Jayan Jayachandran (12th grade, Century), Nolan Schnaedter (12th grade, Century), and Wilson Wang (6th grade, John Adams) all tied for 3rd place with 3/5 points.

Chess coaches Kevin Gaustad, Justin Ricker, Jacob Arroyo, Chuck Handlon, Matt Markland, and Grant Jones helped make this an immersive chess event by analyzing games with the participants between rounds. Thanks to parents Walter Park and Megan Garrity-Park for their tireless assistance with this and other scholastic chess events.

The tournament has been rated by USCF: https://www.uschess.org/msa/XtblMain.php?202306109242.2-16917452

We are hopeful that many of the players will compete in the Rochester Open on July 8, 9. You can register at this link https://onlineregistration.cc/tournaments/index.php?txn=1t7l&view=zt7g2Q==&tid=mqekow==