Magnus League’s Sixth Season Continues Its Second Half With Rounds 9-10 On March 3rd!

Berkeley Carroll Takes The Lead In The Team Competition With 25 Points,

With Columbia Prep. In Second At 23 Points And Hunter High School Third With 21.5.

 

Aidan Ahram Leads The Premier Section With 6-4,

Dylan Singer Stays Atop The Under 1800 Section With 8½-1½,

 While Kyrel Burnett And Christopher Kretschman Both Top The Under 1200 Section with 7-3.

Darrien Williams And Kyrel Burnett Hold The Lead On The Mixed Doubles Team Competition:  12-8!

By Steve Immitt, National Tournament Director

            Columbia Grammar and Preparatory School, 36 West 93rd Street, just west of Central Park West in Manhattan, hosted the fifth regular season match of the 2018-2019 Magnus High School and Junior High Chess League’s Sixth Season, on March 3rd.  As is her custom, League Founder and Commissioner, International Arbiter, International Organizer and National Tournament Director Sophia Rohde, the 2018 U.S. Chess Organizer Of The Year, provided the tasty and plentiful provender of snacks and refreshments to help start everyone’s Sunday morning, and once again followed it all up with more pizza in the afternoon!

          Thanks again to Shaun Smith and Chess-In-The Schools, for the turnout for our fifth match date of our sixth season: 48 players representing 25 schools from all five Boroughs of New York City!

          The Magnus League is pleased to welcome back for this season its returning schools.  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 ten have now been totaled.

          The three-section format saw 15 players competing in the Under 1200 Section, 29 in the Under 1800 Section and 4 players, rated between 1851 and 1891, 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, Sean Cushman (1735) of Berkeley Carroll won both his games-- for the second time in a row! Noah Kay (1335) a Hunter 7th grader, David Pozo (1465) of the Unity Center for Urban Technologies and Staten Island Tech’s Helen Xue (1459) each scored two points as well. 

 

          In the Under 1200 Section, Kyrel Burnett (Medgar Evers Prep.)’s rating shot up from 1089 in January to 1335 in March! As a result he was promoted to the Under 1800 Section, with a maximum of six half-point byes, as per the tournament rules.  His score in the Under 1200 Section will determine his prize result, but he will continue on in the tournament in the Under 1800 Section in May.  Two Berkeley Carroll sophomores, Youssef Ellozy (898) and  Christopher Kretschman (1099) both won their games Sunday— and this was the second match in a row for Kretschman! Juniors Justin Leong (691) of Brooklyn Latin High School, Daeshaun Morrison (809) of Bronx Collaborative High School and senior Rodrigo Sanchez De Lozada (628) of Ethical Culture Fieldston School were all double-winners as well.

          The Under 1200 Section’s Andrew Perrone (207), a Bronx Collaborative High School or World View High School freshman, also reached his rating peak of 288, although he has subsequently gone up even more.  Richard Sanchez De Lozada (628) of Ethical Culture Fieldston School, once again turned in a career-high post-tournament rating-- for the second Magnus match in a row--  climbing to 714 this time!

          Medgar Evers College Prep. senior Kyrel Burnett (1335)’s jump to the Under 1800 Section didn’t stop his rating from reaching another new high, for the second consecutive match, of 1365, after a win and a draw--  and it’s still climbing!  His teammate, junior Chance Deas (1592) also scored1½ points, sending his own rating to its new peak:  1608, the second Magnus meet in a row he’s done that!  Berkeley Carroll sophomore Sean Cushman (1735)’s double-victory also pushed his rating to its all-time high of 1789.  For the second match in a row, Alfred Franco (1343)’s result was enough to boost the City College Academy of the Arts junior’s rating to a new high of 1487, which he later eclipsed at the NY State Scholastics in Saratoga Springs the next week.  Freshman David Pozo (1465) of New York’s Unity Center for Urban Technololgies notched a new high of 1549 for his rating, after its previous high from last match (and which has continued to go up).  Senior Helen Xue (1459) of Staten Island Technical High School also reached her new post-tournament peak of 1505 on March 3rd.

          Brooklyn Tech junior Aidan Ahram (1851), the leader of the Premier Section, for the second match in a row, notched his rating up one more point to match his career-high of 1852, and it has gone up even more since. 

          Berkeley Carroll’s pickup of 5.5 points shook up the team competition, as they took the lead, with 25 out of a possible 40 points, over the Columbia Grammar and Prep’s Lions, last season’s League Champions, who now hold Second with 23 points.  New York’s Hunter High School maintains its grip onThird with 21.5 points.

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.

          Twelve Mixed Doubles Teams are officially competing for the Mixed Doubles prizes.  The duo of Darrien Williams (958) of  Brooklyn’s John Dewey High School and Kyrel Burnett (1335) of Medgar Evans Prep., maintained their lead with 12 out of a possible 20 points.   Tied for 2nd-3rd, one half point behind, are the teams of Veda Safranek (1581) of the Dalton School and Booker T Washington Junior High 54’s Dylan Singer (1795), and Nayah Nieto (824) and Chance Deas (1592). 

          Sophia Rohde once again set up a live broadcasts of five boards each round.  We now have 38 of the top games posted at the Magnus League website!  We plan to broadcast five games each round live via the DGT Boards to the Magnus League at www.magnusleague.org on May 5th as well!

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

          Thanks to Harry Heublum and Daniel Rohde for valuable assistance in directing the event, and also to Alfred Franco of the City College Academy of the Arts, Andrew Perrone of either Bronx Collaborative High School or World View High School and Calvin Yang of Brooklyn’s Millennium High School, for helping to set up Sunday morning.

          The Magnus League is also very grateful for FM Nils Grotnes’ vital work as the League’s webmaster.

            The complete results from Rounds Nine and Ten on March 3rd are posted at the Magnus League website at: www.magnusleague.org

          along with the USCF-rated results, as well as the DGT Board games.

            Players will be able to register for our final two games, Rounds 11-12, which begin 10:00 am Sunday May 5th, including players who missed Rounds 1-10 (there is a limit of 6 half-point byes available for missed rounds) at the Magnus League’s website at www.magnusleague.org through 6 pm Saturday May 4th!

Thank You Everyone for continuing our promising and exciting second half of our Sixth Magnus League Season!

 

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