Checkmate: Ransom Chess Team Competes In Festival

May 16, 2010

Seventeen students from Ransom Middle School’s Chess Club, the Ransom Knights, recently competed in the 17th Space Coast Open Chess Festival at the Crowne Plaza, Melbourne Oceanfront Resort in Indialantic, Florida.

The students competed in a five round tournament over three days and competed against chess players whose ages ranged from five to 85. Eight of the students placed in the top 25 slots out of 51 players. One student, Peter Bennington, placed seventh in the top 10 players.

All of the participants were ranked at 1200 or below by the United States Chess Federation. The students who participated in the tournament received national rankings as the tournament was sanctioned by the USCF. As a result, if students improve their ranking above 1500 they may be eligible for college scholarships.

At the Chess festival, the Grandmaster and Woman’s world champion, Alexandra Kosteniuk, played a 50 board Simultaneous Chess Exhibition match. One Ransom Middle student, Dave Nolen, was able to last against the champion for an astounding 28 moves. Overall, the Ransom Knights, some of whom participated in a chess tournament for the first time, won a total of 23 matches.

Comments

One Response to “Checkmate: Ransom Chess Team Competes In Festival”

  1. Shoe Fits on May 17th, 2010 11:05 pm

    Congrats Team! I think this is wonderful! More schools should have chess teams.

Written by William Reynolds · Filed Under News