Saskatchewan Scholastic Chess Association (SSCA)

Team Saskatchewan had an up and down tournament, characterized by a sweep of P.E.I. in the first round (when was the last time Team Sask. beat anybody, 12 - 0), but that brief tournament lead was short lived as we then played Ontario (the eventual tournament winners), followed by Quebec (who finished second). We managed a total of two points against those two provinces although there were a number of games that could have gone our way but didn't. After collecting 5.5 points against New Brunswick, we played the 3rd seed, B.C., and only managed one point from two draws.

The May long weekend is here, and twelve Saskatchewan student chess players are on their way to Alberta's capital, Edmonton, for the National Scholastic Championship, the Canadian Chess Challenge. Team Saskatchewan will face very stiff competition, with Ontario and Quebec once again fielding formidable teams. Just behind those powerhouses will be Alberta and B.C., and New Brunswick looks to have a solid team this year. To get some idea of how strong the competition is at Nationals, take a look at some past champions.

Hi All:

It's taken a while, but the new web site is operational. I still have some work to do, tweaking where things are and what they look like, but that will take place in the coming weeks, hopefully on rainy days.

For those of you with sufficient privileges, when you log in you will see a "Create content" link to your left. Click on it, and from there you can create a new Story, which will appear on the front page just like this one.

If you are playing at Nationals, take a look at the main Chess'n Math Web site, click on the National Chess Challenge box on the Main page, and check out all the information about the Edmonton tournament. http://www.chess.nl.ca/year/2007+2008/ccc/national/results/english/index...

Although Saskatoon saw lots of snow on Friday night (and the highways leading into the city were bad Saturday morning), the big blizzard predicted did not hit, and 45 of 46 who registered showed up.
Our Tournament Director, Roger Blum (thank you Roger), had a tough job arranging pairings as most of the grades had an odd number of players. When the dust settled, these were the results:
In grade one, Fraser McLeod was first, and Olekso Wasylow came second:
In grade two, Avram Tcherni was the winner (and he got to play both grade one's at the tournament in a double round robin):
Grade three witnessed a new winner, as Kaden Nilson edged out two time winner Daniel Zhou. Daniel's second place finish was followed by Saif Marei in third place:
Grade four was captured by Quinn Taylor, with Howard Li second and Stephen Fisher third:
Grade five went to Vincent McRorie, his first provincial championship, with Dylan Wendel placing second followed by Josh Pechawis:
Grade six's champion was Nigel Reynoldson, with Levi Kirkby one point behind. Nathan Tanner captured 3rd place.
Grade seven was a two player match between last year's champ, Zachary Lintott, and the champ from two years ago, Maegen Krajewski. After 5 games, they were tied, each with two wins and one game drawn. Then in the playoff, Maegen won, to claim first place in grade seven.
In grade eight, Nic Carverhill overcame a bad reaction to a needle to narrowly claim first place. Josh Timm was second and Roarke Cheetham (who drew Nic), placed third.
Grade nine witnessed Keith MacKinnon winning his grade for the 6th consecutive year, with Remy Beaudet second and Riley Thomas third.
Grade ten saw Kevin Me win his grade for the 10th consecutive year, with Jordan Hoffus in second place.
Grade eleven was won by Dakota Wagner by forfeit as his opponent was unable to attend the tournament, and Ron Umpherville won grade 12 in the same manner. Ron as a past winner, and Dakota as a new winner, will have their work cut out for them at Nationals.
The parent meeting of the SSCA at lunch was lively with many good ideas about getting chess more exposure in Saskatchewan schools. The new Executive consists of Don MacKinnon as President, Al Taylor as Vice President, Camille Gionet as Secretary and Marusia Kobrynsky as Treasurer. Fred Titanich, Marley Tcherni, and Lauri Lintott are Members at Large.
Thanks again to Roger Blum and Tyler Janzen who assisted Roger doing the Tournament Directing. Thanks to Camille for handling registrations and thanks to Monique for getting us her school basically at cost. Thanks to the many parents who helped set up and take down tables, boards, etc. Thank you to all those parents who brought their children to the tournament. Lastly, thanks kids for behaving so well during the tournament.
Once the picture portion of the web site works again, I'll post some pictures from the tournament. Keep playing chess!