The fifth annual Bishop's Bash on Saturday, March 4, 2006, wrote a new page in the annals of Alabama chess history (last year's report). With 189 student players, it was the largest rated chess event ever held in our state, breaking the 1992 record of 185 set at the Saitek-Kasparov Scholastic Open in Mobile. A major factor was the participation of students from several Birmingham-area schools. This marked the debut in rated competition for 71 of the kids, and it drew players from as far away as Olive Branch, Mississippi (near Memphis).

As usual, the tournament was hosted by Hampton Cove Elementary in Huntsville, and it ran smoothly as always despite the large turnout. This was due to the experience and dedication of the organizers and directors. Pam Zoller, Susan Daugherty, and Maria Ramsey led a cadre of parent and student volunteers who moved furniture, helped set up boards, assisted in gathering game results, kept everyone fed, and raffled off a huge collection of door prizes (a Bishop's Bash tradition). HCC provided experienced volunteers to handle registration and assist chief tournament director Gerald Larson.

The Primary section had 58 players representing 14 schools. First prize for individual performance went to Hampton Cove's own Tim Treiber, who scored a perfect 5.0 even though he was seeded 9th. Good job, Tim! Daniel Daugherty, also of Hampton Cove, finished 2nd and missed a perfect score only because of a requested bye-an exact repetition of his performance last month at the Blossomwood Rookie Rally. The 3rd through 9th place finishers each scored 4 points, and had to be ranked by tie breaks: Elora Holland, Charles Li, Stephen Adams, Justin Newcomb, Mohammad Einaam Alim, Benjamin Goodman, and Mustafa Hassoun. Top team honors went to the Hampton Cove home team, who amassed 16.5 points out of 20 possible based on the strong performances of Tim, Daniel, Alex Allen, Caleb Webber, and Dylan Clark. Vestavia Hills (Birmingham area) finished second with 14 points, and Weatherly Heights Elementary took 3rd with 10.5.

There were 77 Elementary players from 15 schools. Kayvon Deldar and Dennis Dergunov have long dominated their age group in north Alabama, and today was no exception. Both scored perfect 5s and pride of place had to be decided by tie-breaks, with Kayvon eking out the top spot. The pairing system denied them a chance to go head-to-head, unfortunately. 3rd through 11th places were taken by players scoring 4 points. In tie-breaking order these were top-seeded Danielle Newcomb, Jason Zhou, John Weber, Andrew Brown, Mark Reuter, Mario Treiber, Asutosh Nanda, Cole Senn, and Scott Bozeman.

In Elementary Team standings, the 13-player squad from Horizon Elementary finished first with 16 points, edging out the 21-player home team by ½ point. Third place went to Blossomwood with 12.5, followed by Weatherly Heights, 12, and Birmingham-area Advent Episcopal School, 10.5.

As usual, there were too few high schoolers for a separate section, and they were combined with the junior high entrants to form an Open section for pairing purposes; trophies were still awarded separately to the two groups. The combined section comprised 55 students from 16 schools.

Leading the junior high pack with 4.5 points was Ryan Brown of Ohatchee with Alex Weiner in 2nd as the top 4-pt finisher. Alex had a perfect score until he lost in the final round against the event's top seed, 1733-rated Luke Hellwig, an 11th-grader from the Birmingham area; Ryan was fortunate enough not to have been paired against Luke. The other 4-pt finishers captured 3th through 7th places: Patrick Bryant, brothers Lee and Trip Richert, Temple Price, and Blake Senn.

Among junior high teams, Discovery Middle School in Madison once again dominated, with its 17 players scoring a blowout 14.5 points over 2nd-place Advent Episcopal, 11. In its first-ever foray into rated play, the ten-player team from W.J. Christian in Birmingham took home the 3rd-place trophy after scoring 9.5 points. This team was coached by Charles Smith, who directs a scholastic chess league in B'ham.

There was no great surprise among the high-schoolers: Luke Hellwig conquered all to score a perfect 5.0 and take the top individual trophy, followed by sisters Nasiha Muna and Sabiha Runa (3.5 pts each), Michael Cooper, and Karthik Sola, each with 3 pts. The sisters comprised the entire Huntsville High team, which captured the top team trophy with 7 points. Columbia High's one-man squad of Michael Cooper took 2nd on tie-breaks over the one-man Bob Jones team of Karthik Sola.

Individual Results

• Primary Individual and Team Standings
• Elementary Individual and Team Standings
• Open Individual and Team Standings

Credits

My only question now is, how is Hampton Cove going to outdo themselves next year?