Several Oak Ridge teams advanced to the state chess team championship this month after a regional tournament in Lenoir City on March 4.
Two teams from Oak Ridge High School qualified, and so did teams from Jefferson Middle School, Woodland Elementary School, and Linden Elementary School, a press release said.
The Tennessee Chess Association regionals held at Lenoir City High School on Saturday, March 4, included 151 students on 32 teams from 18 schools across East Tennessee, the press release said. In each of the four grade divisions, the top four teams qualified to play in the state team championship at Tennessee Tech University in Cookeville on March 25.
The K-9 division was won by the ORHS freshman team of Logan Ogle (captain), Justin Blanchard, Edward (“Bear”) Moran, and Minwoo Kim, the press release said. They were tied for first with top-rated Episcopal School of Knoxville at the end of the last round, necessitating a blitz (10 minute) match to determine the winner. This match was tied 2-2 so a second match followed, which ORHS won. This matched the result of the 2016 ORHS freshman team, which also won the team regionals in a playoff.
In the K-12 division, ORHS’s team of junior Andrew Chan (captain), senior Michael Ma, junior Carson McGhee, and sophomore Michael Lambert also qualified for state with a second-place finish, the press release said.
Other Oak Ridge teams qualifying for the state tournament were Jefferson Middle School (fourth in K-9 and second in K-6), Woodland Elementary School (third in K-6, fourth in K-3), and Linden Elementary School (fourth in K-6, third in K-3).
You can see photos here, here, and here.
Tournament results have been posted at https://www.reg4chess.com/results/Reg1Team2017results.pdf.
This press release was submitted by Gilbert Chan.
More information will be added as it becomes available.
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