PA State Chess Championships Report: Pocono Mountain East HS Finishes 1st; Parkland HS 3rd

The 2013 Pa State Championships, held March 8-10, 2013 in Carlisle, PA, are complete and there is another year of preparation starting this week for all Pennsylvania Chess players to get ready for them in March 2014. It was a very respectably attended event with over 800 players from all over the state. Kindergarten through 12th grade comprised the majority of players with most of the trophies going to these contenders. There were masters and state collegiate players as well who played in the Open/Collegiate and Quick Chess Championships of which the latter has been converted by the US Chess Federation to Blitz Chess rating. This is the third category of rating for games of 10 minute or less created to follow the example of FIDE (world chess organization responsible for ratings and player titles) which has 3 as well. The Pa State Chess Championships are the place where top players go on to qualify to play in the National HS Championships. This year’s individual K-12 - 1st Place winners were as follows: HS K-12 Open: NM Kevin Mo; HS 7-12 U1300: Malumbo Chongolola; HS U1000: Dusty Myers; K-9 U1000: Ibrahim Muhammad; K-8 Open: Alexander Wlezien; K-6 Open: Adam Serota; and K-6 U800: Gabe Tiday. The Open and Collegiate individual Champions who placed 1st were Open Section: NM Peter Minear; Collegiate: Jonathan Pfefer (Bethlehem, PA); Open and Collegiate U1800: Alexandre Quantin won both; Open and Collegiate U1400: Tuan Do won both but shared 1st Place in a tie overall with Jeddiah Hall (not collegiate) in Open category. Pa Quick Chess Championship took place on Friday, March 8th in the evening and 1st Place winners were as follows: Open Section: NM Peter Minear; U1500: Rushawn Martin; U1000 Tykiem Gresham. The Special Event Winners for the “Bughouse” Tournament was team “Russian Mafia”. From our region of the state there were exceptional performances by Pocono Mountain East HS (1st Place K-12 Open Section), (Swiftwater, PA) and Parkland HS (3rd Place K-12 Open Section),(Allentown, PA). Ironically, Julia R. Masterman School (2nd Place K-12 Open Section), (Philadelphia, PA) rounded out the top 3. These 3 chess power house high school’s finished last year as the top 3 high schools at this event. However, Pocono Mountain East High School proved themselves worthy of 1st by knocking off Julia R. Masterman School and taking 1st this year instead of 2nd by a full team point. It was an extremely close race with each of the above teams scoring 12.5, 11.5 and 10.5 points respectively. Parkland HS also scored a 2nd Place HS Trophy in the 7-12, U1300 category which portends future victories in future PA States. Andy Weng (5th Place + PA 10th Grade Co-Champion), of Pocono Mountain East HS (Swiftwater, PA), lead the way for the team by scoring 4 of 5 points surely helping to make the difference for the team finishing as the Top High School in PA. Obviously, this team together is showing they can organize and cooperate to achieve great things to maintain a tradition of excellence to succeed. Jonathan Pfefer ( Bethlehem, PA), no stranger to this event and winning chess events. He returned to bring home the 1st Place Collegiate Trophy and Tied for 2nd overall and won Top player U2000 in the Open Collegiate (Premier) Section. Jonathan has amassed about (30) 1st Place trophies out of about (43) in his young career. This was his first 1st Place trophy at the PA State Championships. Last year he finished 10th K-12 Open overall in the 2012 Pa State Championships. Jonathan has worked hard developing his skills in a casual but determined manner at the Lehigh Valley Chess Club(www.lehighvalleychessclub.org), (Bethlehem and Allentown, PA) and by previously winning (7) K-12, 1st Place titles at the recurring and upcoming 12th Annual Northampton Community College’s “Horizons For Youth” Chess Championships to be held Saturday, March 23, 2013. The victory for Jonathan now advances him to candidate master level at a post tournament USCF rating of 2001. Other winners from the PME HS (Swiftwater, PA) team are as follows: Alex Quirindongo, K-12 Open, 1st Place U1600; Dawid Ryczek, K-12 Open, 1st Place U1400; Joseph Mele, 7-12 U1000, 10th Place Medal Other winners from Parkland HS (Allentown, PA) are as follows: Daniel Wang, 7-12 U1300, 4th Place, Roshan Paul, 7-12 U1300, 7th Place; Marcus Spiegel, 7-12 U1300, 1st Place Unrated; Alex Silvonek, 7-12 U1300, 3rd Place Unrated; Shashank Vithalani, 7-12 U1300, 2nd Place U900 Other local area club players who were winners: Alex Smith (Moravian Academy, Bethlehem, PA), 7-12 U1000, 10th Place Medal; Quick Chess Championship winners from our region who play in the Lehigh Valley, PA are NM Peter Minear (Reading area, PA), Open Section, 1st Place, FM Karl Dehmelt (Richlandtown, PA), Joseph Mucerino (Reading area, PA), and Ilya Shvartsman (Harrisburg area, PA), Open Section, All Tied 2nd thru 5th,