Two Klamath Falls City School teams and several individuals competed at the Chess for Success state tournament held in Hillsboro, OR on April 26 – 27. Teams from Ponderosa Middle School and Conger Elementary School each earned a spot to attend the team tournament on Saturday and the individual tournament for these groups was held the following day. High school students only had the individual competition, which was played on both days.
Students participating in the event were as follows (grade in parentheses).
KU students: Willard McClintock (12) and Gideon VanderWaal (10); Ponderosa Middle School students: Brayden Henderson (7), Wallace Stevens (6), Aiden McPherson (6), Audric Singer (6), James Xu (6), and Isaiah Quintana (6) of Klamath Home Learning Academy; Conger Elementary students: Silas Moon (4), Brogan Henderson (4), Alex Huang (3), Olivia McPherson (3), Jaxon Ogborn (2), and Brannon Henderson (1); Roosevelt Elementary students: Emery Singer (5), and Oliver Singer (2).
The best chess players in the state attend this huge tournament, which hosts hundreds of competitors. After a grueling two days of tough competition, KFCS students performed incredibly well with most earning two wins for the day both in the team and in the individual competitions. Places are dependent on how others in the tournament score. Special congratulations to Wallace Stevens who won a second-place trophy with three wins/points in the individual 6-8 grade middle school tournament on Sunday, and also to Willard McClintock of KU who placed fourth in the high school division with three points resulting from two wins, two ties and only one loss in the challenging high school level. Congratulations to all of our Klamath Falls chess players – we are so proud of you all.
