Pioneer, GCCS Repeat at Jr Chess Olympics

For the second year in a row, Pioneer Middle School won the Grade 7-12 section while Genesee Community Charter School (GCCS) of Rochester won the K-6 at the 24th USA Jr Chess Olympics this past Saturday.

In the 7-12 Section, Pioneer held off a strong challenge by the Buffalo Urban Knights team. The outcome was in doubt until the last round when Pioneer's Wesley Darling won his game to clinch the trophy. Pioneer's Ryan Madden (1381) won all of his 5 games to win the individual Gold Medal. Losing only to Madden, William Deuschle (1134) of Buffalo won the Silver, and Morgan Beach (880) of Pioneer defeated Willie Smith (598)of Buffalo in a playoff to win the Bronze. Other players for Pioneer were Robert Becker, Randall Beach, Wes Darling, and Andrew Joslyn. The members of the Silver Place team from Buffalo were William Deuschle, Willie Smith, Dakaylah Winfield (the only girl and as a 5th grader played "up" a section), Shakyle Topps, and Daniel Wyatt.

In the K-6 section, Genesee Community Charter School led all the way to win the Gold. The Silver placing Pioneer Team tried hard, but in the end could not keep up with Webster Kehoe (1398) and Connor Wagner (1179)-the top 2 boards of GCCS, who both finished 5-0. Buffalo Urban Knights took the Team Bronze. To win the individual Gold Medal, it took Webster Kehoe 3 playoff games (the first 2 were draws) to finally best Connor Wagner. These two kids, who are both 4th graders, are excellent players and have a really bright future ahead of them in chess! Sam Cherin (828) of GCCS won the individual Bronze Medal after an exciting playoff series against Pioneers-Ryan Palmisano, Austin Kossow,and Carl Raymore.

Sam's brother Jason rounded out the Gold Medal GCCS team. For Pioneer, Ryan Palmisano, Austin Kossow, Carl Raymore, Nathan Palmisano, John Beyer, Trevor Owens, Chris Darling, Austin Will, Sam Tillinghast, Trevor Hodge, Orion Dolan, and Ravo Root competed. Miles James represented the Buffalo Urban Knights.

Thanks to all who helped keep this tournament running smoothly, including Mike Mcduffie (the Chess Ambassador), and the "Chess Moms" Angel Madden, Judy Darling , and Patty Palmisano for taking care of food and pictures. See you next year!

The full cross table is available at: http://main.uschess.org/assets/msa_joomla/XtblMain.php?200903073301