Rookie Rumble Draws Many New Players
Brenda Ahlemann

March 3, 2007 marked the first Rookie Rumble Rated Beginner Open held at the University of Utah. This tournament was open to players rated under 1200 or unrated by the USCF. Expectations were for 20-30 players, but this proved to be a popular event. A total of 62 players participated, including 34 players that were brand new USCF members or were previously unrated.

The players competed in 3 sections U1200/unrated 7th grade to adult, U800/unrated 4th-6th grade, and U400/unrated K-3rd grade. All sections were extremely competitive with 18 players each in the U1200 and U400 and 26 players in the U800. Trophies were given for 1st – 3rd place with medals to all plus scores.

The winners included:

U1200 -1st -Calvin Nguyen
2nd – Jamie Visker (2nd on tie breaks), Oscar Jones (3rd on tie breaks), Marissa Eng (4th on tie breaks)

U800 -1st – Noah Katzman (with an impressive 5-0 score)
2nd – Charles Yang
3rd – Dominic Croce (3rd), Connor Nelson (4th), Ben Hayes (5th), Rachel Nelson (6th)

U400 -1st – Isaac Miller
2nd – Mia Chase
3rd – Avi Gupta

Amazingly in this young section, all players scored at least 1 point. Congratulations to our youngest new members!

The feedback on this event was extremely positive, so look for more events with U1200 sections in the future from Brenda Ahlemann and House of Comments Chess Club.

Here are the links to a couple of photos:

http://i124.photobucket.com/albums/p39/brendaa11/2007_0303RookieRumble0005.jpg
http://i124.photobucket.com/albums/p39/brendaa11/2007_0303RookieRumble0003.jpg

Special thanks to Brenda Ahlemann for the report!

Chess Daily News from Susan Polgar
Susan Polgar March 21, 2007 General News, USA Chess 4 Comments
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