Magnus League’s Sixth Season Continues With Rounds 3-4 On November 18th!

Columbia Prep Leads The Team Competition With 11.5 Points,

Berkeley Carroll Surges Into Second With 11.5,

Stuyvesant High Tops Brooklyn Tech On Tiebreaks (Both Are Tied For Third With 9.5);

IM Hans Niemann, Arjun Rai, Harris Lencz, Aidan Abram and Calvin Yang Lead The Premier Section,

Dylan Singer and Manuel Najera Are Both 4-0 In the Under 1800 And Under 1200 Sections, Respectively;

Jasmine Yang And Manuel Najera Are Tied For First With Sarina Motwani And Jacob Teitelman In The Mixed Doubles Team Competition!

By Steve Immitt, National Tournament Director

Columbia Grammar and Preparatory School, 36 West 93rd Street, just west of Central Park West in Manhattan, was again the host for the second regular season match of the 2018-2019 Magnus High School and Junior High Chess League’s Sixth Season, on November 18th. League Founder and Commissioner, International Arbiter, International Organizer and National Tournament Director Sophia Rohde, the 2018 US Chess Organizer Of The Year, provided another tasty and plentiful provender of snacks and refreshments to help start everyone’s Sunday morning.

Thanks again to Shaun Smith and Chess-In-The Schools, as the turnout for our second match date of our sixth season-- 67 players representing 35 schools from all five Boroughs of New York City-- was another record for the Magnus League!

The Magnus League is pleased to welcome (and welcome back for this season) some new and returning schools: the Ethical Culture Fieldston School of Manhattan and the Bronx, Simon Baruch Middle School, the Browning School and Benjamin N. Cardozo High School in Manhattan and the All City Leadership Academy and Williamsburgh Preparatory High School, both in Brooklyn. Thank you all for joining the Magnus League this season!

The tournament is a 12-round event, with two games on each match date. The results for rounds one through four have now been totaled.

The three-section format saw 28 players competing in the Under 1200 Section, 35 in the Under 1800 Section and 4 players, rated between 1811 and 2063, in the Premier Section.

Each section follows a team and individual Swiss-System format. There are prizes for the both the top-scoring individuals in each section as well as the team of the four top-scoring players from the same school across all three sections.

Among the prizes we are awarding this season are free entries to specified Continental Chess tournaments, for the top-scorer in each section, for the four top-scoring players from the same school across all three sections, and for the winning Mixed Doubles Team!

In the Under 1800 Section, Elian Garcia (1475) of Midwood High School, Sarina Motwani (1468) of the Spence School, Dylan Singer (1686) of Booker T Washington Junior High 54, Jacob Teitelman (1544) of Columbia Prep, Charlie Welch (1543) of the Berkeley Carroll School and Helen Xue (1502) of Staten Island Technical High School each swept both games.

In the Under 1200 Section, William Braffman (973) of Browning, Justin Goldman (876) of Columbia Prep, Hala Marrakchi (1067) of City College Academy of the Arts, Manuel Najera (1160) of Fort Hamilton High School, Nayah Nieto (903) of Williamsburgh Prep, Ayden Santiago (1184) of Brooklyn Tech and Diego Turturro (553) of Berkeley Carroll School also scored double victories on Sunday.

Fort Hamilton High’s Manuel Najera (1160) achieved his all-time-high post-tournament rating of 1294 on November 18th! William Braffman (973) of Browning pushed his post-event rating to a new high of 977 (after a 3-year break from rated play!). Matthew Green (400) and Gilaisy Herrad (644), both of Bronx Collaborative High School turned in career-high post-tournament ratings of 420 and 676, respectively, while the Berkeley Carroll School’s Diego Turturro (553) pushed his own post-event unofficial rating up to a new personal peak of 741.

In the Under 1800 Section, Dylan Singer (1686) of Booker T Washington Junior High posted his own career-high unofficial post-tournament rating of 1734! Chance Deas (1381) of Medgar Evers College Prep took his post-event rating to a new high for the second time at the Magnus League— this time to 1529. Kevin Feng (1334) of Brooklyn Tech is also on a roll with the Magnus League: for the second consecutive month he posted a new career-high post-event rating (this time he’s up to 1387). Elian Garcia (1475) also matched his own peak rating of 1591 once again as well.

In the team competition, Columbia Grammar and Prep’s Lions, last season’s League Champions, once again retook the lead this month with 11½ out of a possible 16 points— one point ahead of Brooklyn’s Berkeley Carroll School, a new addition to our League this season. Longtime league members Stuyvesant High School is tied for 3rd-4th place with Brooklyn Tech, with the Manhattan competitors currently ahead on tiebreaks.

We also have Mixed Doubles Team Bonus Prizes in the Magnus League! Mixed Doubles Teams consist of two players, one male and one female. The players do not need to attend the same school (but they can), and may be in the same or different sections; however the average team rating of both players must be Under 2200.

Thus far, nine Mixed Doubles Teams competed for the Mixed Doubles prizes. The duo of Jasmine Yang (1312) of Midwood High School and Manuel Najera (1160) of Fort Hamilton High School, who roared into the lead with both of their perfect scores last month, have now been joined the team of Sarina Motwani (1468) of the Spence School and Columbia Prep’s Jacob Teitelman (1544). Both teams have 7 (out of a possible 8) points after 4 rounds, with last month’s leaders ahead on tiebreaks this month. Although they lead the field by a point, the deadline for signing up for Mixed Doubles Teams is not until January 27th, so more teams may still enter the fray!

Sophia Rohde acquired five DGT Boards for use by the Magnus League, and she ran the broadcasts of the games as they were being played. We now have our first eight games posted at the Magnus League website! We hope to broadcast five games each round live via the DGT Boards to the Magnus League at www.magnusleague.org on December 9th!

Former New York State, Manhattan Chess Club, Marshall Chess Club, U.S. Open and National High School and National Junior High Champion Grandmaster Mike Rohde was once again on hand to review the players’ games and answer their questions. Mike will also be providing analysis and some annotations of selected games from previous rounds as well.

We will also be judging games for the 2^nd Annual William Lombardy Brilliancy Prize- if you have any good games from the Magnus League, please submit them for consideration!

Thanks also to Kevin Feng of Brooklyn Tech, Alfred Franco of City College Academy of the Arts and Partho Nath of Benjamin Cardozo High for much needed help in setting up on Sunday morning, and also to Harris Lencz for his help in packing up in the afternoon. Sarina Motwani from the Spence School helped in organizing the scoresheets, and Dan Rohde also assisted in running the tournament. Finally, the Magnus League is very grateful for Nils Grotnes’s work as the League’s webmaster.

The complete results from Three and Four on November 18th, along with the USCF-rated results, can be seen at the Magnus League webpage at www.magnusleague.org as well.

Players may register for Rounds 5-6, which begin 10:00 am Sunday December 9th (including players who missed Rounds 1-4) at the Magnus League website at www.magnusleage.org through 6 pm Saturday December 8th!

Thank You Everyone for making such a promising and exciting beginning for our Sixth Magnus League sixth season!