ORCA Hosts Orlando Magic Chess Championship
The Orlando Magic Chess Championship was held in Orlando, Florida on Sunday, March 2, 2025 at the Kia Center, home of the Orlando Magic basketball team. The event was organized by the Orlando Regional Chess Alliance (ORCA), a newly founded chess nonprofit, and sponsored by the Orlando Magic, Chessbook, and Wheelzy.
“For our first official tournament, I am extremely happy with the amazing field of players that joined us,” Eliza Eggert, President of ORCA, said. There were 112 participants including GM Larry Kaufman, NM Theo Slade, NM Ryan Hamley, and the 2023 Florida Girls State Champion Zoe Zelner.
NM Theo Slade and NM Ryan Hamley faced off against each other in the deciding round of the Open Rated section. While the match ended in a draw, NM Theo Slade claimed the title of Orlando Magic Chess Champion due to the strength of his tiebreak score, which was bolstered by a key victory over GM Larry Kaufman in the prior round.
Jacob Vassiliev won the Scholastic Rated section with a score of 4.5/5, winning a free entry donated by the USCF to SuperNationals. Jacob won the honor of participating in the pre-game ceremonies of the Orlando Magic vs Toronto Raptors game held after the tournament, along with NM Theo Slade.
“It was so cool to present the game ball before the Orlando Magic game!” Slade said.
Aspen Sinurat finished in 2nd place and automatically qualified for the Florida State Championship, courtesy of the FCA, and Gus Bleakley took home the 3rd place trophy.
ORCA Executive Director Nick Perez, who oversaw the tournament, crowned Deyvison Pereira the champion of the Open Non-rated section and noted, “Pereira was the only player out of the four sections to win all 5 of his games – a truly amazing performance!” Ricardo Solorzano placed 2nd. Fernando Gutierrez came in 3rd, an impressive feat accomplished while juggling his duties as an ORCA director during the event.
All of the top 3 finishers in the Scholastic u600 section received trophies and lessons with Kiani Walker of the Backyard Chess Club, who also generously donated T-shirts to the top finishers in this section. Roman Venturello edged out Jason Kaburnacius (2nd place) and Anton Vassiliev (3rd place) by half of a tiebreak point to win 1st place.
To recognize the outstanding performances of more players, Tristan Lucas-Squire was named Best Player Rated Under 1600, Robert Perez was named Best Player Rated Under 1200, and Jephte Francois was named Best Newcomer. The tournament featured many intense battles, including a few dramatic upsets. Vincent Bercx claimed one of the “Best Upset” awards after defeating a player who was rated over 600 points higher than him while Anya Rahming won the other award for beating a player rated 500 points higher than her. Both players won a Chessable course authored and donated by Florida Chess Association president NM Bryan Tillis, who said, “Congratulations all for a fantastic event!”
WIM Jen Hansen had her chess art on display during the tournament and gave this set of canvas prints from her store to a lucky participant. Chess.com and Chessbook generously donated memberships to their apps and GM Larry Kaufman donated autographed copies of his book Chess Board Options. All participants received free tournament T-shirts that were very generously donated by Wheelzy. Lessons were provided by GM Aryam Abreu Delgado of Chess Potential, NM Theo Slade, NM Ryan Hamley, CM Phil Durand, Zoe Zelner, Kiani Walker and Todd Kay.
“I really appreciate each coach’s generosity and eagerness to help our scholastic section,” Sammy Lou, ORCA VP of Scholastic Affairs, said. “They helped make this event so much fun to be a part of.”
