Final Results - NY State Scholastic Championships 2010

A total of 362 players participated in the New York State Scholastic Championships in Saratoga Springs, New York over Feb 27 - 28th, 2010 at the Hilton Hotel.

Here is how our local players performed:

Starting with the Primary (K-3) Championships, Samuel Santora, Chess Club of Buffalo, 2nd grade, seeded 10th out of 45 players, finished 29th overall in his first state championship with a record of 2 wins, 3 losses, and 1 draw. Sam lost to players rated 967, 1023 and 1120.

In the Elementary Open Championship, The Pioneer Middle Team, coached by Thomas Warner, finished 7th among 13 teams and won a team trophy as one of the top eight teams. Team members were Austin Kossow who finished 44th overall, Chris Darling who finished 47th overall, Ryan Palmisano who finished 54th, Carl Raymore who finished 57th, and Nathan Palmisano finished 59th out of the 65 participants in this section.

In the Elementary Novice Championship Section competed by players rated U 800 and Unrated with a total of 72 players, the Pioneer Middle Team won 6th place and Kenmore Middle 7th place of the 13 teams entered. Pioneer Middle School student, Samuel Tillinghast finished 7th overall with 4.5pts, Trevor D. Cohn, 6th grade,Urban Knights and Kenmore Middle finished 11th overall with 4 pts, Zachary Madden, Pioneer Middle finished 31st with 3pts and Sean V. Mc Donough, 6th grade, finished 39th. Urban Knights and Kenmore Middle earned the 2nd place trophy of the Top 3 Unrated Section.

In the Junior High School Section of 61 players, Benjamin W. Havey, 7th grader at Kenmore Middle earned 7th place overall, with a record of 4 wins, 1 loss and 1 draw, Ryan Madden, Pioneer Middle finished 13th overall with 4pts. Meanwhile John Osborn, Chess Club of Buffalo, Colden, NY, tied for 1st Place in the U1200 undersection with 3pts and finished 35th overall. Wes Darling, Pioneer Middle finished 50th and Robert Becker, Pioneer Middle finished 55th.

In the High School Section of 86 players, The Bishop Timon Team coached by Bowers and Alanna Katz had some tough competition. Sean Jones finished 27th with 4pts, while Joe Covley was 39th, Michael Dupere 44th, Daniel Schieber 46th, Devin Shea 56th, Tim Leahy 63rd , Scott Wilson 65th , John Nelson 68th , James Harris 71th, and Jesper S. Kontinen an exchange student from Sweden was 80th.

WGRZ-TV is scheduled to interview the students now that they have returned home to get their views on participating in the Championships. More details to follow as they develop.

We want to extend our special thanks to the Times Union newspaper for the article, published Sunday Feb. 28th, about the Championships which pictured Sean Mc Donough, John Osborn, Samuel Santora and Trevor Cohn (seen at the top of this blog post). If you would like to read the articlce see http://www.timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=905775&newsdate=3/4/2010 or please email sbarnes@timesunion.com

To all the Moms, Dads, and coaches from WNY who helped our chess players a whole hearted Thank You.

My apologies if I left out anything but I did want to quickly share the Championship experience with the chess community.

I hope that everyone in The Buffalo Niagara region will make room to participate in the 2011 State Championships.

Submitted by Mc Duffie, Chess Ambassador