Results of the President's Day Open and Scholastic
Congratulations to Benjamin Kim who finished atop the High-School section at 3.5, ahead of eight other strong players at 3-1. Aurelia White finished 4-0 in the middle school section, taking the gold medal. Second and third were Kevin Ching and Micaiah White. In the Elementary section Kulia Shirota-Kapalu and Aaron Uezu tied for first at 3.5 while 8 others tied for third at 3-1. The three trophies for the K-2 division went to Tiago Lum, Pierce Wicker and Alexander Bow-Smith.
The last-round match between #2 Kyle Ching and #1 Benjamin Kim. In the background Gabriel White, the 2022 Hawaii Chess State Champion at every time control, watches the top boards.
The exciting draw between Kevin Ching and Austin Uezu drew a crowd. At the far left, Open section co-winner Akash Deb analyzes a game.
HCF President Ryan Tongg (left) watches a casual blitz game between legendary Hawaii chess coaches Cornelius Rubsamen (masked) and Chet Gionsen.
The 2022 President's Day Open and Scholastic was the largest tournament in Hawaii since the US Open in 1998, and it was paper-free. It was also a perfect storm of serious technology problems, starting with a laptop that wouldn't boot up on Sunday, the purchase of a new laptop Sunday evening, and importing all the tournament data into the new computer until 5am the day of the tournament. It ended with the pairing fiasco during the blitz tournament. It was a very difficult tournament for one person to run, and I apologize for all the delays that players and families experienced. We have made adjustments that should eliminate those problems at future events. I am grateful to all the parents and coaches who stepped in to help in one way or another.
Hawaii is experiencing a crisis of licensed chess tournament directors! Anyone who is willing to volunteer (especially to help with data-entry before, during and after the tournament) would be an angel for the whole chess community.
To eliminate the problem of a delayed first round, anyone who registers or pays after Thursday 3/23 will be required to take a first-round 1/2-point bye on Saturday. This will let us start and end on time. Also, because teams have grown so large, for the rest of the season we will count the top four individual scores in each division for the team awards, not the top three.
We look forward to seeing you again on March 25th. Please register for the tournament as soon as possible.
Damian Nash and the HCF Board.
