EOM Spring Cycle: Leg 2

On a very sunny last day of May, 31 of our students found their way to Discovery Bay to join the second leg of the EOM cycle. Let's dive into the results!

Fun and even more chess on the big chess board after finishing their games

C/D

No fewer than 22 students competed in a very friendly setting. After three rounds only Fox Wang and Derek Li had a perfect score, but there could have been one more player! Can Guerkan and Zavanna Zee faced off on the third board. The winner would join the two leaders and it looked like Can had good chances to do that. Then, in a winning position, he proclaimed a loss for himself - claiming a second illegal move. Nor the arbiters nor Zavanna saw what happened, but Can was adamant about losing the game. In an ultimate display of fair play, Zavanna suggested they drew the game instead which Can accepted - leaving everyone happy. Hats off to both players!

Work ethic - Step Book in between rounds!

In the direct encounter between Fox and Derek, we saw a tense struggle with Derek ultimately holding his cool the best. Eli Chang, who lost to Derek in the second round after a queen blunder, continued his comeback with a win over Can on the second board. Zavanna won her match against Joseph Chan on the third board after Joseph resigned in a position that looked like checkmate when it was not!

Coach Nomi overseeing the C/D group

In the last round Zavanna and Derek were playing for the title. Zavanna's streak of good fortune ended and lost the game after an oversight. This means Derek clinched first place with a perfect 5/5! Eli Chang couldn't complete his comeback and drew his game against Fox after delivering a stalemate in difficult but winning pawn endgame. Eli Guan and Marc Gueancia were the ones who made use of the situation by winning their games and claiming second and third place.

C/D players in action

Cheston Ho emerged on top in the D-group with 3/5. In second and third place, we find Tsz Chun Lo (2/5) and Leo Wang (2/5). Silvia Stankovic (2/5) came in fourth place with a worse tiebreak.

A/B

In the A/B we only had 9 players this time around. Four boards and one bye player. It was interesting to see how different students used their "time off" with the bye: from working hard in their step book to annoying Coach Matthew, we saw a bit of everything.

All 9 contestants in the A/B group

Yuki Ying was the first player to get a bye-point and that extra rest translated in four straight wins! With this clean sweep, Yuki clinched first place. She continues the trend where the A/B group is won with a perfect score and becomes the first player in this list to repeat that feat!

The other players showed great fighting spirit in a very closely contested tournament. Throughout the entire event, not a single draw was recorded. No player allowed another to race ahead which resulted in five (!) players ending up in shared second place with 3/5. Daniel Yang had the best tiebreak and took the second place medal home while Richard Li (3/5) ended up in fourth place to take the B-group first place medal home. Nicholas Cher (2/5) was second in the B-group.

Prize winners

All photos