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| Eric L., the 2015 IHMS Chess Champion |
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Chess is a popular winter pastime at IHMS 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. |
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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| The 5 classroom champions with their certificates at the end of the playoffs |
These classroom champions played a series of games against each other in order to narrow the field down to 2 finalists, and within a week or so, Nicholas and Chantel were quickly eliminated, followed a few days later by Roman in the semi-finals. The remaining two players, Collin A. and Eric L., moved on to the chess finals.
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Collin and Eric are both experienced chess players, and both have been class champion for their respective classes every year since grade 4. Eric placed 3rd overall in grade 4, 2nd in grade 5 (the first grade 5 student to make it to the finals), and 2nd last year when he was in grade 6. Collin had never made it to the chess finals until this year, but he placed 3rd last year, |
So in the final round of play, Collin 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 2015. Eric had the better winning record, but Collin was older and more experienced.
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| Collin and Eric playing the first of their final three games |
| Well, unlike the tension and excitement of previous few years, this year’s finals turned out to be a blowout! The whole thing was over quickly with Eric very easily winning 3 straight matches and emerging as the 2015 IHMS Chess Champion! |  |
| 2015 Chess Club final standings
1 – Eric L. |