The District Chess Tournament

The District Chess Tournament
Posted on 04/16/2018
Chess Club Participants

On Sunday, March 25th, 18 student members of the Barkley, Manavon, and Schuylkill Elementary Chess Clubs gathered for a chess tournament held at the Phoenixville Area Middle School library.
The purpose of this tournament is to give young chess players the opportunity to play in a competition environment and against players from the other elementary schools in the district. This year the competition was very strong with the top 3 players, Silas Swamley and Robbie Ferrand from Schuylkill and Chris Clineff from Manavon with perfect 3-0 records. Tommy Whitsel from Barkley and Oliver Weakley from Manavon trailed by a half point having only a single draw to slow their start.

 During games 4-6, Micah Gates from Barkley and Sophie Zhang from Manavon both stepped it up winning all three of their games while Andy Walton from Barkley finished strong with 2 wins and a draw picking up 2 ½ points. In the leader bracket however, Robbie Ferrand and Chris Clinoff both scored 2 ½ points with a draw between the two of them the only blemish on their records. Each of them ended with 5 ½ points sharing the championship with Micah Gates, a ½ point behind with 5 points taking 3rd place and Sophie Zhang in 4th.

Other students participating in the tournament from Barkley were Irene Klapper, Davin Tanner and Wyatt Barber. Bowen Collett represented Schuylkill Elementary. The large Manavon contingent also included Timothy Smeltzer, Siggie Gangwar, Diana Lemus, Toby Messere, Nathan Stackhouse and Dorian Tezla.
The elementary chess program is supported by a grant from the Phoenixville Community Education Foundation which helped purchase of the chess equipment used in the tournament and during their club meetings after school throughout the school year under the direction of Mr. John Odell, a PAMS 8th grade science teacher and the faculty advisor of the PAMS Chess Club, Chess Team and Academic Team. More Photos

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