Nevada Chess, Inc.

The 2020 National Open has been rescheduled for September 16-20. For more information, please visit https://chess.vegas/national-open/.

As you may have heard, Clark County is canceling large events at parks and recreation facilities over coronavirus concerns and Clark County School District is suspending all district and non-district sponsored extra-curricular activities. The Governor of Nevada has just declared a State of Emergency. For these reasons, the 2020 Nevada Scholastic Chess Championship has been cancelled.

It is unclear at this time when or if we will be able to reschedule it in fall. Watch our web site for announcements.

All individual entry fees will be refunded by March 27th.  If you paid by personal check, we will return it uncashed. If you paid online, we will issue a refund through PayPal.

We apologize for the inconvenience and hope you will be able to participate next year. Next year’s event is tentatively scheduled for March 6, 2021.

Best Regards,

Alan Losoff, President
NEVADA CHESS, INC
US Chess Affiliate for Chess in Nevada

The 2020 Nevada Scholastic Championships will be held on March 14th at Springs Preserve, 333 S Valley View Blvd, Las Vegas.

Complete details are here.

The Nevada Girls’ Scholastic Championship will be held at the Las Vegas Chess Academy on Saturday March 21st. Details will be available soon.

Editor’s Message
by A. Magruder

The Annual Members Meeting of Nevada Chess, Inc. was held as scheduled on Saturday, April 21, 2018 at the Las Vegas Chess Center, 2560 Montessouri St. Suite 206, Las Vegas NV 89117. The first order of business was tabulating and announcing results of the 2018 election. All officers on the ballot were reelected to a two year term: Allen Magruder, Robert Wheat, Gail Winds and Charles Chinnici. However, Robert Wheat has recently moved out of state, and former director Jerry Weikel was appointed by A. Losoff to serve a one year term as director to complete the seven members of the board of directors.

The following directors volunteered to serve in their current positions with some revisions and responsibilities:
a) A. Losoff will continue as President
b) Juan Juaregui will assume responsibilities as Webmaster of nevadachess.org
c) Juan Juaregui will assume responsibilities as Treasurer
d) Tom Brownscombe will assume responsibilities as Secretary
e) Jerry Weikel will assume responsibilities as Vice President
f) Tom Brownscombe will continue as our Scholastic Chess contact/coordinator
g) Tony Chinnici will continue to serve as principal contact for Northern NV activities and responsibilities
h) Allen Magruder will resign as Treasurer but wishes to continue his two year elected term of office as director and assist other directors with their duties whenever possible and will continue to serve as editor and distribute the Nevada State Bulletin Quarterly issues until the end of the year if needed, but not including the January 2019 Ballot issue.

Finally, we will no longer mail the April and July issues of the Nevada Chess Quarterly Bulletin, and ask all those members who requested a mailed copy to provide an email address where you should be able to find all the information in those issues on our website, nevadachess.org. The membership entry form in this issue provides a space for the email address you choose. All current members will continue to receive by mail the October issue which contains the Call for Candidates for the next election of officers, and the January issue which contains the Election Ballot with the list of candidates.

On Saturday, March 17th, 2018, 256 young chess players came to the Las Vegas Day School in Las Vegas, NV to compete in the 2018 Nevada State Scholastic Chess Championship, setting a new attendance record for our state scholastic chess championship. The previous attendance record for the Nevada State Scholastic Chess Championship was 235 players, set in 2017. The tournament was divided into four sections: a five round high school section for players in grades 12 and below, a five round middle school section for players in grades 8 and below, a six round elementary section for players in grades 5 and below, and a six round primary section for players in grades 3 and below.

In the high school section, 9th grader Ethan Silva from Advanced Technologies Academy (ATECH) defeated the top seeded player, 10th grader Michelangelo Barozzi from The Meadows School, in the second round. Both players finished with four out of five points, with Silva winning the third place trophy and Barozzi taking home the fourth place trophy. In the fourth round, 10th grade ATECH student Omid Najibzadeh upset third seeded 12th grader Naomi Santiago from Edward W. Clark High School. This set up a final round game between Najibzadeh and 12th grade ATECH student Royce Pereira, in which Pereira prevailed. Royce Pereira is the 2018 Nevada state high school chess champion, and Omid Najibzadeh finished the tournament in second place. Advanced Technologies Academy won the high school team title with 17 team points. Edward W. Clark High School finished second in the team competition with 12.5 points, and Palo Verde High School took home the third place team trophy with 12 points.

In the middle school section, the three top seeded players each won all their games in the first four rounds. In the final round third seeded 8th grader Samira Prieto from K. O. Knudson Middle School played the white pieces against 7th grader Darsh Patel from Davidson Academy of Nevada. Their game ended in a repetition of position in an equal king and pawn ending in which neither player was able to make any progress. Prieto finished the tournament in clear second place with 4.5 points. Meanwhile top seeded 7th grader Chris Bao from the Adelson Educational Campus was pressing an attack against the defending Nevada state middle school champion, 8th grader Divyam Muckherjee from Sig Rogich Middle School. Muckherjee successfully launched a counter-attack, using mating threats to win first a knight and then an exchange. Bao resigned in a rook down endgame. Divyam Muckherjee has won the Nevada state middle school chess championship for the second year in a row. Chris Bao took home the third place trophy for his 4-1 result. Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton Catholic School (SEAS) won the Nevada state middle school team championship with 12.5 team points, and Sig Rogich Middle School earned the second place team trophy with 12 points.

In the elementary section top seeded 4th grader Kagan Uz from Caughlin Ranch Elementary School and second seeded 5th grader Shenlone Wu each won all their games in the first five rounds, so they played each other in the final round for the title of Nevada state elementary chess champion. Wu quickly won Uz’s queen. Even though Uz had two minor pieces for the queen, Wu demonstrated why the queen is the strongest piece in chess and won the game. Shenlone Wu is the 2018 Nevada elementary chess champion with a perfect 6-0 score. The Wu household now boasts two state chess champions, as Shenlone’s older sister, Shenmei Wu, won the Nevada State Girls’ Chess Championship held March 10th, 2018 at the Las Vegas Chess Center. Kagan Uz took home the third place trophy. 5th grader J. D. Gallo from Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton Catholic School had one draw and won five games to finish in second place with 5.5 points. Saint Viator Catholic School won the elementary team championship with 18 points. Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton Catholic School and Las Vegas Day School (LVDS) tied for second place in the elementary team competition with 16 points each. SEAS won the second place trophy on tie breaks, and LVDS captured the third place trophy.

In the primary section, 3rd grader Marius Cutitaru from Robert Taylor Elementary School and 2nd grader Nirav Natha from Foothills Montessori drew their fifth round game against each other and defeated 2nd grader Pranav Mahendran from the Coral Academy of Science and 3rd grader Fred Lewandowski from host school LVDS, respectively, in the final round to become 2018 Nevada state primary chess co-champions. Cutitaru earned the first place trophy based upon his tie breaks, and Natha took home the second place trophy. Saint Viator Catholic School earned the primary team championship title with 16.5 points. SEAS finished second in the team competition with 16 points, and LVDS finished third in the team competition with 14.5 points.

Divyam Muckherjee will represent the state of Nevada in the 2018 Barber Tournament of K-8 Champions, which will be held July 28-31 in Middleton, WI. Royce Pereira has earned the right to represent Nevada in the 2018 Denker Tournament of High School Champions, which will also be held July 28-31 in Middleton, WI. Gale Winds, Alan Losoff, Juan Jauregui, and Tom Brownscombe organized the 2018 Nevada State Scholastic Chess Championship Tournament on behalf of Nevada Chess, Inc. Tom Brownscombe, Alan Losoff, Juan Jauregui, Sabrina Jauregui, Allen Magruder, Janelle Losoff, and Gale Winds served as tournament directors. Complete results for all players can be found at the Nevada Chess website and the US Chess Federation website. We would like to thank all the players who participated in this tournament for their good sportsmanship, and we hope that we will see even more enthusiastic young chess players at the 2019 Nevada State Scholastic Chess Championship.

As part of the effort to promote chess among the girls in Nevada, it was decided by our State US Chess Affiliate to run a separate event for the girls a week before the State Scholastic, for the second year in the row Las Vegas Chess Center organized and hosted it. Sabrina Jauregui was the chief TD.

This year 14 players gathered in the LVCC to play in the tournament, IM and WGM, 2016 US Women Champion Nazi Paikidze- Barnes was in attendance, she addressed the participants and posed with them for pictures, Nazi is committed to help chess in our city, especially with girls. We are planning several events with her for 2018, like simuls, group class, etc.

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A USCF Rated Tournament in 4 Sections
Open to Nevada residents or students

March 17, 2018
Las Vegas Day School  3275 Red Rock  Las Vegas

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