State Scholastic Tournament 2012
On April 21st - 22nd, chess students gathered at the Santa Clara Convention Center to compete against the best the state of California had to offer, all vying to become state champion. The Berkeley Chess School brought it's brightest and best to hope to capture the title. All in all, the Berkeley Chess School brought 54 of its top students and the results could not have been better!
The Berkeley Chess School has a long list of top finishers at the states and that list got a little bit longer. Berkeley Chess School students took home not one, but two championships, along with six other top ten finishes! Joshua Cao, a Berkeley Chess School alumni, took home first place in the 9-12 Champ section, which is the top section for high schoolers. This is a great accomplishment for Joshua, seeing as how he is in 8th grade and decided to play up a division! Quite a remarkable feat! Congratulations Joshua!
Another extremely bright BCS student, who already has a list of accomplishment larger than him, is Ben Rood (1733). Ben also finished first in his section and also played up. At a mere eight years old, Ben played against the best fourth and fifth graders in the state and took home first place! Here is a game from his second round. In this game, Ben Rood is white vs. Garruk Su is black (1259):
Joshua Cao and Ben Rood werenot the only ones who had a great finishes at the end of the day. In total, Berkeley Chess School students had eight top ten finishes! Sophia Li took 8th place in 6-8 Champ. Zolboo Lkhagvasuren took 3rd in 6-8 JV. Coby Sphilberg took 2nd, Robert "Bobby" Reyes took 3rd and Kevin Z Yan took 10th in K-3 varsity. Finally, Julie Ganzorig took 5th in K-3 booster.