Murrow chess masters win national championship
By Gary Buiso
Edward R. Murrow laid claim to first place at the national chess championships this weekend, an emphatic defense of a dynasty which has attracted national attention.
At the National High School Chess Championships, held April 12-15 in Kansas City, Mo., Murrow finished in first place with 22 points.
Murrow’s doppelganger in the southwest—chess powerhouse Catalina Foothills High School—also earned 22 points.
According to the Tucson Citizen, Catalina was awarded first place based on a tie-break formula that takes into account cumulative performance.
“It’s a very arbitrary method,” Eliot Weiss, Murrow’s coach, said of the tie-break formula. “We scored the same amount of points.
We’re in the same place,” Weiss said. “We were announced as co-champions,” Weiss noted, adding that the team also walked away with first place trophies.
Some 1447 students from 39 states representing 415 teams descended on the Hyatt Regency, where the championships were held.
Here is the full article.
How about winning with grace and losing with dignity? The NY coach sounds like neither.
The other team got the first place team trophy. What does that say.
http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/viewArticle.asp?articleID=24668
K12 Team Championship: Catalina Foothills H.S. from Tucson, AZ won the trophy after a tie-break with the Edward R. Murrow H.S. from NY. Tied score was 22.0 points. Catalina has won two of the past three National High School Championships!
also the official uscf website gives Catalina the win on tiebreaks.
http://www.uschess.org/tournaments/2007/hs/
1 AZCFHS Catalina Foothills HS, Tucson,A (12) 22.0 94.5 127.5 185.0 42.0
2 NYERMH Edward R. Murrow High School, B (7) 22.0 90.0 127.5 198.0 42.0
The first tiebreak was 94.5 to 90.0
If the official USCF website says Catalina won 1st place then I have to go along with them.
American Heritage Dictionary – dop·pel·gäng·er
n. A ghostly double of a living person, especially one that haunts its fleshly counterpart.
There was just one 1st place trophy and Catalina Foothills took it home. Murrow got the 2nd place trophy due to the tiebreaks. However, both teams are considered co-champions, with Catalina Foothills supposed to be mentioned first in all publicity.
Catalina Foothills won first place on tiebreaks because they lead almost the entire tournament. Therefore, at the end of the event, their tiebreaks were higher. It is not surprising that the NY school and all the NY Times articles and other NY newspaper articles failed to properly state the facts. Both teams deserve credit, but there is only one Champion, Catalina Foothills.
I have reviewed several sites and all confirm that Catalina Foothills is the National High School Champion. It is amazing that the east coast bias is so pervasive, even in chess.
Glad to see at least the official sites reported the result correctly. It is laughable that Murrow got a first place trophy – when they finished 2nd. Murrow doesnt seem to get it amd they sound a little bitter about finishing 2nd. Such is life I guess.
Congratulations are in order for both teams. However, only one team walks away with a first place trophy, and that was Catalina Foothills High School in Arizona. If I were the coach of NY, I would say they were recognized as co-champs but that Catalina Foothills was the overall champion. Complaining about tiebreaks is silly. Sometimes tiebreaks are fair, sometimes they are not fair. It looks like Foothills lead for much of the tournament, and therefore their tiebreaks should be higher overall.
Did anyone else find it odd that one of Murrow’s best players doesnt even attend class and is failing his classes. The school is not doing this student any favors by just keeping him at the school for his chess abilities. What kind of message does that send?
Again congrats to Catalina Foothills High School as the 2007 National High School Champion. With a team like that, they have obviously worked very hard and deserve all the credit in the world.