Mercer Island Chess Tournament
For the past several years, Kate Elliot Smith has organized a wonderful Mercer Island-only chess tournament for kids in grades K through 6th grade. I like it because it promotes competition in a brainy way, as opposed to team sports which only emphasize athletics. If your kid isn't the athletic type, or you just want kids to be exposed to an activity that rewards a good mind over a good body, you can't beat chess -- and we need way more of these pro-brain types.
Unfortunately Kate is leaving Mercer Island so we desperately need a replacement organizer. My work keeps me too busy to devote more time to this myself (though I've been honored to be one of the judges for the past two events), but if you know somebody who can help, please let us know.
Meanwhile, the results for this year's competition are now posted online, so like last year I resorted the list to see the top 30 from K through 3rd grade:
| DIERKES, | CHRISTOPHER | 1230 |
| CUMMINGS, | CAMERON | 1196 |
| EVANS, | JACOB | 999 |
| CHANSKY, | JOSH | 961 |
| HO, | JUSTIN | 956 |
| STEDNICK, | TRAVIS | 926 |
| LEE, | ANDREW | 884 |
| CHANSKY, | MATTHEW | 856 |
| BOKSEM, | LUKE | 838 |
| SHIN, | JOSHUA | 802 |
| BENSON, | NATHANIEL | 800 |
| BERNSTEIN, | OWEN | 797 |
| BENSON, | ALEXANDER | 758 |
| LACRAMPE, | NIC | 752 |
| TATUM, | ROHAN | 734 |
| MA, | NEAL | 729 |
| PARK, | JOSEPH | 724 |
| NARAYAN, | SAYUJ | 713 |
| BAUMAN, | HUNTER | 704 |
| BATALOV, | PAVEL | 674 |
| PADGETT, | MATTHEW | 654 |
| HASSALL, | JACK | 651 |
| GERSCH, | COLIN | 644 |
| SPRAGUE, | NATHAN | 643 |
| BURGER, | DAWSON | 617 |
| NOONE, | THOMAS | 615 |
| BI, | ALAN | 613 |
| KAELIN, | ALEXANDER | 605 |
| RICCI, | VINNY | 600 |