Introduction

Hampton Cove puts a lot of effort into this tournament every year and it shows. Chess puzzles lined the walls, the stage was decorated with a chess motif, they provided nice trophies, and a raffle was held before each round of play where they gave away various prizes. This is the tournament students in the Huntsville area look forward to every year.

Running the Show

After the first round hallway fiasco things ran fairly smoothly... but not flawlessly. Every round had players claiming that the pairings posted in the cafeteria did not match the pairings used by the section TD's. The pairing sheets were printed in duplication from the same computer so I have to attribute this discrepancy to player error. Just before the start of one round there was a "true" pairing problem that caused a slight delay. I happened to be in the Elementary/Primary Room at the time. The kids were all sitting at their boards prepared to play. Soon the "Can I start now?" questions came. Soon after they were stacking and spinning the chess pieces in an effort to entertain themselves. Pieces started falling on the floor so I tried to settle them down a bit until I saw Bill Melvin start building a tower of chess pieces himself. (If he denies it I have pictures.) This inspired the kids to imitate his efforts and another wave of pieces started falling around the room. Soon the round started and normalcy was restored.

Nothing was left to chance in the TD room. Gerald Larson and David Campbell had three laptop computers setup along with three printers. That's two backup computers and two backup printers! All data was input by one person then double-checked by another. Gerald's "no errors accepted" policy was in effect and appears to be a success. There were no errors, conflicts, or disputes that I'm aware of.

	Individual Competition

There were four sections in this tournament: Open (K-12), Jr. High (K-9), Elementary (K-5), and Primary (K-3). The flyer for the Bishop Bash advertised trophies to the top three players in the Open and Jr. High sections and to the top 10 players in the Elementary and Primary sections. Because of the large turnout the top five players in the Jr. High section and the top 15 players in the Elementary and Primary sections would get trophies.

Although the turnout for this tournament was phenomenal, only three players registered in the Open Section. Because of this the Open and Jr. High Sections were merged into one. They would still be competing for separate prizes. Miles Melvin, the Open Section winner in the last two Bishop Bashes, decided not to enter this one. That doesn't mean this year's Open Section was without talent. With a rating of 1549 Joseph Chaffee was rated more than 400 points higher than anyone else in the Open and Jr. High sections. On paper it looked like Joe wouldn't have too much trouble taking the first place trophy home this year but it wasn't to be. Unrated Nathan Saint went undefeated and took it. Although Nathan was listed as unrated, he did win the Percy Priest Scholastic tournament in Nashville a month earlier. Not enough time for his rating to reflect that effort. Joe's only loss was to Nathan but he ended up in third when Philip Clark edged him out for second on tiebreak points. Third is last. What a brutal section!

The Jr. High Section had 37 players. The five trophy winners all had a score of four wins and only one loss so all awards were determined by tiebreaks. Karthik Sola ended up in first place. His only loss was to Nathan Saint, the overall winner.

The Elementary Section was the largest with 68 players. Going into the final round four players had perfect 4-0 scores: Kyle Julian, Gavilan Brown, Christopher Szlenk, and Alex Weiner, so there was a good chance that there was going to be multiple perfect final scores. Gavilan and Christopher drew in their final game against each other and Kyle beat Alex so Kyle ended up being the only one with a perfect score and took first place.

The Primary Section had 62 players. With a rating of 920 Dennis Dergunov was rated head and shoulders above them all. He performed just as his rating would suggest and ended up with a perfect 5-0 record. He did not end up with the first place trophy however. Unlike the Elementary Section the Primary Section did have two perfect scores, the second one belonging to the colorful Allen Davis. Allen was a fidgety boy jumping in and out of his seat throughout his games. He ended up beating Dennis on tiebreaks.

	Team Competition

Teams are made up of players from the same school and in the same section. The team score is determined by adding the top four scores of the individuals on that team. The names mentioned as members of a team in the tables below are only the ones whose score contributed to the team score, including ties. Trophies were awarded to only the first place teams in the Open and Jr. High sections and the first three places in the Elementary and Primary sections.

With only three players representing two teams in the Open Section, the team competition here was not that exciting. Nathan Saint and Philip Clark representing Huntsville CC High School took first place over Catholic High School represented by Joseph Chaffee.

The Jr. High School Section had 9 teams. After all was said and done Discovery took first place with 13.0 points, Randolph took second with 12.0 points, and Horizon took third place with 10.5 points.

The Elementary Section had 16 teams. Central CC (Vestavia) from Tennessee took first place with an outstanding 17.5 points. Hampton Cove, by far the largest team in this section with 24 players, took second place with 12.0 points. Randolph got third with 11.5 points.

The Primary Section had 13 teams. Hampton Cove's 27-member strong Primary team took first place with 15.0 points. Team Horizon tied Hampton Cove with 15.0 points but earned the second place trophy due to tie breaks. Considering Horizon only had 5 members this was an outstanding performance. Jones Valley took third place with 11.0 points.

• Primary Individual and Team Standings
• Elementary Individual and Team Standings
• Open/Jr. High Individual and Team Standings