'Good games' at Ephrata chess tourney

Trustee advises next year's competitors work on endgame

EPHRATA - More chess players showed up at an Ephrata scholastic chess tournament than coordinators were expecting.

The 2008 Waypoint Foundation Scholastic Chess Tournament took place Saturday at Parkway Elementary School in Ephrata, and foundation trustee Troy Pugh reported it went well.

"We had a few more participants than we were planning, so we had a few come who hadn't even registered and we were able to fit them in," he said. "So we had a good turnout and also there were a lot of good games played. It's kind of fun to watch these kids come out of some holes they put themselves in. We think everybody had a fun time."

Pugh estimated there were 46 participants.

The championship game had to be played with an extra game in order to come up with a clear winner, between Ephrata High School ninth-grader Renuka Thiry and Grant Elementary School third-grader Michael Novitsky, who both entered the fifth round having won all of their games.

Thiry ended up winning the playoff round and being the tournament's returning champion, as she won during the tournament's debut year in 2007.

Pugh said the tournament will open up to the Moses Lake area next year.

"The sportsmanship was fabulous. I think everybody walked away having had a good time," he said. "There were a few disappointments throughout the tournament, but all in all, it was a very good time. The nice thing is that we had a lot of parents who showed up to support their kids."

Pugh advises participants in next year's tournament to brush up on their endgames.

"Practice some drills with just a few pieces on the board, working on checkmating people with limited resources," he suggested. "One area where we saw kids struggling was ending the game with just a few pieces. You know, working on strategies where you don't have your queen to help you."

Pugh said the tournament ended up having to turn away a few people who were not students who asked if the competition would be open to them. He does not anticipate the foundation would ever create an adult tournament.

"The reason is we're workers, we own a business," he said. "We would love to be independently wealthy, spend all of our time doing things like this, but realistically speaking, if we were to focus our time on an area, it would be a scholastic-style tournament. If we were to expand things, it would simply be to try to help the kids participate in other tournaments around the state and things like that."

Most adult tournaments require entrance fees, Pugh said.

"We're not looking for opportunities where we're just shuffling money between participants," he said. "We want to do this for the kids and try to keep it free."

Pugh said results would be posted on the foundation Web site, at www.waypointfoundation.org, by the end of the week.