The Delphian School’s Regional Chess Champs Battle It Out At States

Held on March 11th and 12th at the Portland Convention Center, the state championship tournament was the culmination of Oregon’s scholastic chess season. Nearly 300 competitors, all of them top champions from the qualifying regionals held earlier in the year, converged to match wits and lay claim to the state’s top chess honors.

A tournament involving Oregon’s best scholastic chess players is always fierce, and this year was no exception. The Delphian School’s Gabi Ruiz, a sixth-grader from San Diego who has been attending the school for the last two years, stormed through the qualifying Yamhill County regional tournament in January, winning four and a half out of five possible points and taking first amongst the region’s sixth-graders. Playing against the other regions’ sixth-grade champions at states, Gabi was two-for-two going into the final round and locked into a tense end-game battle against his opponent from Coos Bay. A pawn sacrifice by Gabi led to a knight fork and an irresistible checkmate combination, giving Gabi three points out of five possible and a trophy for a third-place tie amongst Oregon’s sixth-graders.

The Delphian School’s middle school team ended up two-for-two going into the final round against Portland Christian middle school. Led by eighth-graders Jonathan Huang and Chase Von Ach, the Delphian School’s team also included eighth-grader Evan Franklin and sixth-graders Gabi Ruiz, Jason Knickerbocker and Daniel Song. In team competition, four students from each school’s team face off against each other, arranged with the top players opposite each other at "first board," the second best players at "second board," and so on. The students play one game against their same-ranked opponent. Playing for third in the State, the evenly matched teams put out tremendous efforts to win the majority of games and gain the victory, but had to settle with two games apiece. The final match was a draw, giving each team the overall score of two and a half points out of five and in a tie for fourth place.

Rounding out the Delphian School’s state championship play this year was Lukas Ott, who was co-champion of the fourth-grade-and-under players in the regional. A newcomer to serious chess competitions, young Ott nevertheless put in a solid performance, managing two points out of five in individual competition.

The Delphian School is an independent, co-educational day and boarding school offering college preparatory, English-as-a-Second-Language and summer programs for elementary through high school students. The Delphian School is licensed to use Applied Scholastics educational services.