26th USA Jr. Chess Olympic results

The 26th USA Jr Chess Olympics set a new record (71 entries!) last Saturday. The event was held at the Pioneer Middle School, Yorkshire,NY. This tournament showcased some of the strongest scholastic players and teams in Western New York, Western Pennsylvania, and Canada.

In the grade 7-12 section, The International Dark Knights team, made up of mostly Buffalo players with 1 Canadian student and coached by Michael A. Mc Duffie, took 1st place out of 9 teams. The host team Pioneer finished 2nd, while the Wilson Foundation Academy of Rochester took 3rd. Other teams were Barker Road Middle School(Rochester) Bishop Timon (Buffalo), Fairport (Rochester),Johanna Perrin School (Rochester), Mackenzie team (Erie,Pa) and newcomers to the USCF Cattaraugus/Little Valley.

Ryan Madden of Pioneer took the individual gold in the section on tiebreaks as there were 6 students tied with 4pts! Abe Glasser and Ethan Yung, both of Barker Road Middle School took silver and bronze. Nathan Braasch, Webster Kehoe, and Nolan Henrie also had 4pts.

In the K-6 section the Gold was won by the Global Concepts Charter School of Lackawanna, coached by Antonio Cirrillo. Pioneer took 2nd and the Mackenzie team of Erie,Pa finished 3rd. Also competing were the French Road School, Scribner school, Indian Landing School (all of Rochester), SS Peter and Paul (Hamburg NY) and the International Dark Knights (Buffalo).

Individual gold in this section was won by Alden Mackenzie of Erie,Pa. Reagan Lyle of Global Concepts won the silver and Jacob Chen the bronze. Sam Santora finished 4th. All four players had 4pts.

In the unrated section Zach Yung of Rochester went undefeated 5-0 to win the gold. Hunter Witt took the silver and Mike Pinzel won the bronze. Both are Pioneer students and had 4pts. Mike Dunaevsky of Rochester also had 4pts.

There was also an adult tournament with 6 players. Pat Patterson continued his fine play of late and won with 4 wins 0 losses.

Thanks to all the coaches, parents, and kids for making this event a memorable one. Also to Dr. Meith for donating the medals and Bob Simpson for doing a fine job emceeing at the awards ceremony! Lets do it all again next December!