Newton Conover HS 2008 Champion
– FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Jack Shaver, Hickory Chess Club PR flack, jack_shaver@hotmail.com 874-0668
John Thomas, Chief Tournament Director, tjohnboom@bellsouth.net
The Newton Conover High School Chess Team is the 2008 North Carolina champion.43 young people turned out for the 2008 North Carolina High School Scholastic Chess Championship in Newton Saturday, May 10th, with Newton Conover emerging triumphant in overall score.
Matt Embler of West Caldwell, Jordan Joseph of Newton Conver and Christian Laing of Harnett Central topped the field in individual performances, all with perfect 4-0 results. It was Laing’s first rated tournament.
The combined score of the top four players on Newton Conover’s team was eleven and a half games won to conquer the 2A division. West Caldwell (10) took top honors in 2AA, and second overall. Hibriten (7) took second place, and seventh overall, while Wilkes Central (3) rounded out the division in third place, 10th overall.
T.W. Andrews (8) led the 3A division and was sixth place overall, followed by Hunter Huss (5), which was 9th overall. Harnett Central (9.5) topped 3AA, tying for third overall, with second in the division going to Triton (8.5), which was fifth overall. Besides tying for third overall, Alexander Central (9.5) won the 4A division.
Statesville home-schoolers Grace and William Campbell (6), at the respective ages of 14 and 9 the tournament’s youngest competitors, won the At Large division with three wins apiece. They were eighth overall, despite the handicap of fielding only two of the four players-or more other teams had.
Christian Laing’s perfect score led Harnett Central in the 3AA division in individual perfomance. Three wins apiece tied Harnett’s Timothy Torres and Julius Leggett of Triton for second. Pratik Patel and Tyler Bass of Triton tied for fourth with two wins.
3A champion was Raymond Brown of Andrews High with three wins. Hunter Huss’ Jeremy Glenn, Wayne Walker and Joshua Chan tied for second.
West Caldwell’s Matt Embler, with four wins, was followed in 2AA by Kevin Chuang and Jayson Miller, both of Hibriten, and Trent Clark of Wilkes Central, each of whom won three games, in a three-way tie for second. Louis Bullock, Will Wilson, and Evan O誰eal, all of West Caldwell, won two to tie for fifth place.
2A individual champions were all Newton Conover High, with 4-0 Jordan Joseph ahead of Kyle Salvoterra (3), second, and Tim Heaton (2.5) in third. Gabriel Crider, Antonio Dominguez, Scotty Harvell and Kris Harvell each won two games to tie for fourth place.
4A saw Jared Beasley (3) in first, Arturo Suarez (2.5) second, and Vincent Aponte (2) and Andrew Bryan (2) tied for third. All four represented Alexander Central, under the coaching of Hickory Chess Club member Juan Sierra, and were playing in their first tournament.
All students winning at least two games also earned a medal.’43 players and 10 teams is an excellent turnout, ‘ said tournament organizer John Thomas.Embler, Miller, and Suarez have all trained at the Hickory Chess Club in the last year and Salvoterra is doing so lately.
The Campbells are regulars at the club, which welcomes students wanting to stay in training over the summer- or looking to learn for the first time- 5:00 Tuesdays, at the club’s summer meeting place in the Cardio Room of the Hickory Foundation YMCA, 701 1st St. NW, Hickory.
See http://www.hickorychessclub.org/ for more about the Hickory Chess Club, and the ‘Pictures’ page for more photos from the tournament.
Also see http://www.ncchess.org/ for more information about chess all over North Carolina.
The crosstable for the 2008 North Carolina High School Scholastic Chess Championship can be found online at http://www.uschess.org/msa/XtblMain.php?200805108951-13531398
How come the USCF website doesn’t mention events like this one? Why does everything have to be about CCA? Does CCA own the USCF?
Well you know, for one thing, someone has to go to the trouble to write it up… I almost didn’t get around to it.
I wonder if the USCF website would be interested if people sent them reports on events like this? I suspect few try. Hmmm…
I sent a few of them from my small events and they didn’t publish them. It seems that CCA events (run by Bill Goichberg) get the preferential treatment. On the other hand, every article I sent to GM Polgar got published immediately.
Why would you bother to send anything to CLO? More people read this blog than CLO.
Thanks for the article Jack. This is what chess is all about.
It’s dismaying to hear about our national federation turning up their nose at small events– when they’ve got the copy in their hands. Still, I’m sure that small tourneys and scholastic events simply don’t get written up often. I’m guessing here, but the fact -I assume- that it doesn’t come up a lot could help explain why they don’t know what to do with it when they get it…
Still, it’s a shame. The kids deserve the recognition. Heck the organizers deserve recognition, even if it isn’t a sexy ‘big money’ event. Especially then- it’s a thankless job.
In fact, let it be known that John Thomas is a gentleman and a scholar who has done more for youth chess in the region than anyone I’ve ever heard of.
Not to confuse anyone, but I believe this event is called the North Carolina High School Class Championship.
The N.C. State Scholastic Championship, where we select our Denker rep, was held in Feb. with almost 500 players attending. It was covered in this blog, as well.
Randy Wheeless
Pres., N.C. Chess Association
I also see the trend of CLO only posting events they want to cover. I remember CLO not covering Susan’s big event in Brownsville earlier this year where she gave out over $100,000 in prizes and scholarships to 350 kids. Both CLO and Chess Life ignored this event completely. CCA events and US Chess League get the biggest coverage by far. This is wrong and I think it’s politically motivated.