2016 Turkey Shoot Results
River Shepard and Larry Schwartz bag a turkey! Both players scored 4.0 points and are labeled the co-Champions of the annual tournament where players compete to fill the table with Thanksgiving delights. The tournament had 21 players turnout for G/15; d0 games (30 minute games) during 5 rounds at Chess Club Wednesday night, Nov. 16.
The tournament began with a quick review of tournament rules as there were several players that have never played in a tournament and after a quick round with higher rated players socking it to the noobies, everyone enjoyed some pumpkin pie and hot apple cider. And it was hotter than some of the chess during the first rounds that had 2 Scholar's Mates and some fun check mates. The young players said the apple cider was like "hot lava!", and it was.
Round 2 had Levi Renner playing a great endgame with a king vs. a rook pawn and dark-square bishop which successfully blockaded promotion. Levi could have claimed a three-move repetition had he asked but eventually was forced to lose on time. Round 3 had upsets with Otto Olson beating Larry Schwartz in a tense endgame and it appeared that Otto was headed for the winner's circle with very solid games. Round 4 was not very friendly for Otto when he blundered a draw to River Shepard. In the final round, Otto drew against Tyler Wolfley in a 50-move claim!
Though the tournament was unrated, club ratings made the pairings more robust. But an afterschool program such as ours gets a bit crazy with kids wanting to enter and exit as the tournament progresses. By round 5, 14 players were left. In Round 3, our usual pumpkin pie drawing went to Alezander Hanks.
