Moses Lake teen wins chess tournament
Kids write down moves at the start of a round at the Waypoint Foundation chess tournament in Ephrata on Saturday.
EPHRATA — Moses Lake High School junior Garret Sands was the winner of this year’s Waypoint Foundation Chess Tournament.
He defeated Ephrata’s Anna Pugh to win the five-round tournament, as well as $500, according to tournament organizer Troy Pugh.
“The tournament came down to a single tie-breaking matchup after both of these players made it through the five round tournament undefeated,” Troy Pugh wrote in an email. “Even this last championship game was a tense battle that came down to the final seconds of allowed match time.”
Anna Pugh will receive $200, and all other participants will receive “a cash prize,” Troy Pugh wrote.
The Waypoint Foundation has staged the chess tournament every year for the last 15 years or so in honor of Roger and Troy Pugh’s brother Ryan, a three-time high school chess champion who died in a car accident in 2001.
This was also the first year the event was open to participants across Grant County, with 56 chess players coming from all over the county, including five players from Mattawa, and one player each from Royal City and the Almira/Coulee/Hartline area.
Most came from Moses Lake and Ephrata.
“We were excited to see participants come from far away to participate in the tournament this year,” Pugh wrote. “As we expected, the tournament was a great success, even though we did have fewer participants than we have had in the last many years.”
The foundation announced that next year’s tournament will be held on Saturday, Feb. 6, in Ephrata.