Results of the Prince Kuhio Day Tournament in March
Seventy chess players came to Washington Middle School to enjoy some games together over Prince Kuhio Weekend. Rob Turner was the Chief Tournament Director, assisted by Kurt Eschbach (Kazbock), while Damian Nash did the pairings from his home on Kauai.
Tournament Results USCF Rating Report
There is a saying, often whispered at chess tournaments around the world, that Caissa, the mythical goddess of chess (pronounced Kai-sah), favors players whose names start with with a K sound. The list of world champions provides remarkable evidence for this odd assertion. When Bobby Fischer forfeited the world champion title in 1975, it was to Karpov. He was at the top of the heap for a long time, fighting off the #2 world player, Korchnoi. In 1985 Kasparov won the title and kept it for twenty years until he lost it to Kramnik in 2000. When the world title was decided by an open tournament, Khalifmann won it in 1999 and Kasimdzanov won it in 2004.
Meanwhile, the top player from the USA was Kamsky, who played for the world title in 1996 but lost to Anand. The same result happened again in 2010. In 2013 Carlsen defeated Anand (bringing the K sound back to the top). Carlsen successfully defended his title against Karjakin and Caruana. After being the world champion and #1 player for 10 years, Carlsen declined the right to defend his title this year, so Nepomniachi and Liren are currently in a match to decide his successor.
Here in the USA, Kamsky won the US Championship title many times, along with Caruana and NaKamura. In this century, that title has also gone to Christiansen, Alexander Shabalov, Alexander Onishuk and Sam Shankland. The strongest female player, and seven-time US champion, is Irina Krush.
The Kuhio Day tournament provides interesting evidence that the trend could also apply here. Benjamin Kim usually wins the K-12 section this year, but in his absence two other players finished first at 4-1: Eric Arikura and Nick Biega. The players who usually win the K-8 section are Kyle and Kevin Ching, but they did not play. Of the six players tied for first in the K-8 section, half start with K: Kyle Hijirida, Kala David, Koapaka Satterfied, Spencer Pinho, Ty Dutoit, and Hadriel Goo. In the K-5 section only one player finished with a perfect 5-0 score: Aven Kim. Nova Galanto and Taj Wong tied for second at 4-1.
But the most remarkable story of the tournament came from the Open section. Third-grader Echae Kim finished in clear second place with a 4-1 score. Rated 885, he defeated players rated 1526 and 1783(!), losing only to first-place winner Igor Dmitriev. Tied for third place in the Open at 3-2 were Matt Kleman and MarK Phillips.
It is important to remember, "correlation is not causation." Just because two things often happen together (correlation), does not mean one thing causes the other (causation). Confusing causation and correlation can lead to superstitious beliefs. For example, cities with larger numbers of churches tend to have larger numbers of crimes each year. Does one fact cause the other? Should we be afraid of churches? No, of course not. The "hidden variable" is the population size of the city. When cities get bigger, they usually have more churches and also more crimes. Population size causes both.
Similarly, having a K sound in your name doesn't cause you to be a great chess player. But for some unknown reason, people with a K sound actually win far more chess titles than statistics would predict. What could the "hidden variable" be, that connects them? I don't know, and I haven't heard any good theories. Maybe it would also explain why Cornelius Rubsamen is Hawaii's 12-time state champion, why Lloyd Kawamura is the highest-rated player born in Hawaii, and why Team Kauai is doing better than both the Hawaii team and the HCF Scholastic team this year in the World Chess League? (Because our top board is Likeke Aipa!)
Congratulations to all the winners at the Kuhio Day tournament, and to all the cool competitors who taught and/or learned important chess lessons that day. We look forward to seeing you all again at the Guy Ontai State Scholastic tournament on Saturday, April 15th.
A hui hou,
Damian Knash
