Palm Beach Gardens plays host to Florida Invitational chess tournament
Florida students vie in three-day contest at Gardens hotel
By C. Ron Allen South Florida Sun-Sentinel
May 18, 2009
Palm Beach Gardens – Jeffrey Haskel and his opponent Luciano Aguilar sat at a table with a vinyl-mat chessboard and plastic pieces in front of them.
A hush fell over the room inside the Embassy Suites, which was converted to a battleground for the Florida Invitational Super Stars Chess Tournament.
For the next 3 1/2 hours, their eyes were riveted to their boards as they played several games in silence.
When a game was over, the two shook hands and then raised their arms for the official.
“In the beginning I wasn’t really winning until the very end,” Haskel, 17, a junior at Spanish River High School, said after receiving his trophy in the K-12 Division, the highest. The three-day tournament featured the “cream of the crop” from in the state. More than 250 players from kindergarten through high school, vied for trophies in five divisions. It was the first time the event was held in Palm Beach County.
There was a strong contingent from Freedom Shores Elementary in Boynton Beach, and Calusa, Discovery Key and Equestrian Trail elementary schools and Spanish River High School each had one student participant.
All across the hotel, parents, coaches and well-wishers camped out awaiting the results of the matches.
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Go Joel Channing!