Tournament helps young chess players hone skills

December 18, 2011 6:09 AM
JAKE RUSSELL

By the time the fourth chess game came around for Our Saviour seventh-grader Caden Beddingfield, he was doing all he could to keep his cool.

“You just keep a straight face, kind of like poker,” he said.

Beddingfield, son of Merle and Sandy Beddingfield, came in first place in the Central Illinois Scholastic Chess Tournament, a cooperative effort between Our Saviour Grade School, Franklin Junior High School and Riverton Junior High School.

This was the first time for the tournament, held Saturday at Grace United Methodist Church. Forty participating students felt the pressure as they used clocks and kept notation in four 1 1/2-hour rounds.

“They were exhausted by the end of the day,” organizer Dave Tonry said. “It’s mentally exhausting.”

Beddingfield agreed.

“It fries your brain a little bit but you kind of get used to it after a while,” he said.

Tonry hopes to make this an annual event.

The group started with the same age groups, then used a Swiss pairing system for the next rounds based on who won, tied and lost.

“At the end of four rounds, you’re really playing yourself and it should be the hardest game of the day,” Tonry said.

The Central Illinois Scholastic Chess Tournament began because children in the region like to play and compete in chess but the nearest tournaments are north near Bloomington and Chicago or south near St. Louis.

More here.

Chess Daily News from Susan Polgar
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