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| The 2013 IHMS Chess Champion – Hunter T. |
Chess is a popular pastime at IHMS, especially in winter when students are looking for a quiet activity to do during indoor recesses. Appropriately, the chess club begins in January, and runs until March or April. Students who wish to participate sign up, and after a schedule is created, play against other students from their own grade. Everyone is responsible for arranging their own games and recording the outcome of those games.
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Students are given about 2 months to challenge and play other students in their class. On the day of the deadline (usually the beginning of March), the person from each class with the most wins is declared the ???classroom champion???, and is scheduled to participate in the playoffs. This year, there were 5 classroom champions from grades 4 to 8. They were: |
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| Four of the five classroom champions posing with their certificates |
These classroom champions played a series of games against each other in order to narrow the field down to 2 finalists, and within a few weeks both Collin A. and Roman M. were eliminated. Kendrick A. played well but was also eliminated in the next round of play. The remaining two players, Hunter T. and Eric L., moved on to the chess finals. Last year, Hunter was the IHMS chess champion, and Eric placed third overall (while only in grade 4).
| Hunter and Eric squared off to determine the winner in a set of five games – the first person to win 3 games out of 5 would be the chess champion for 2013. It turned out to be a more exciting set of matches than anyone anticipated! |  |
Hunter won the first two games, and was on the verge of becoming the overall champion when Eric roared back, winning the next two games. So after dozens of games played over the past few months, the overall championship came down to whoever won one last, crucial game.
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| Eric (left) and Hunter (right) during their final game |
| After a very tense and closely matched game, the winner was … Hunter!
Demonstrating the analytical skills that made him last year???s champ, Hunter emerged victorious as the IHMS chess champion for the second consecutive year! |
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