Magnus League’s Seventh Season Continues With Rounds 9-10 On February 9th!

Success Academy Charter Myrtle Middle School And Columbia Prep. Are Once Again Tied For The Lead In The Team Competition At 26 Points, With Myrtle Ahead On Tiebreaks While Stuyvesant Is Now In 3rd With 24.5;

Success Academy Myrtle Middle School Still Leads The Second Half Team Competition With 8.5!

WFM Sophie Morris-Suzuki Takes Sole Possession Of First In The Varsity Section With 7.5 Points;

Julian Daniels Also Has 7.5 Points To Top The Junior-Varsity Section;

While Annika Parsia Leads The Novice Section With 8!

Sophia And Alan Morris-Suzuki Lead Mixed Doubles Team Competition With 13.5 Points, With Annika Parsia And DaGuy Vava Close Behind At 13.0, While Makenna Blaise And Amado Balde Are In Third!

By Steve Immitt, National Tournament Director

Columbia Grammar and Preparatory School, 36 West 93rd Street, just west of Central Park West in Manhattan, was the scene once again for the fifth regular season match of the 2019-2020 Magnus High School Chess League Seventh Season, on February 9th. League Founder and Commissioner, Sophia Rohde organized the signature plentiful provender of bagels and spread to help start everyone’s Sunday morning, followed by pizza in the afternoon!

Thanks again to Shaun Smith and Chess-In-The Schools, for their continued help with recruitment for our seventh season.

The fifth match date this season saw 53 players representing 27 schools from all five boroughs of New York City, as well as two schools from Westchester County.

The Magnus League especially welcomes our new and returning schools, such as New York City’s Columbia Secondary School. Thank you all for joining the Magnus League!

The tournament is a 14-round event, with two games on each match date. Season Seven’s ninth and tenth round results have now been totaled.

The three-section format resulted in a good distribution of players: 13 played in the Novice (Under 1200) Section, 23 more were in the Junior-Varsity (Under 1800) Section, while 17 players, rated between 1767 and 2216, turned out for the Varsity Section (the Varsity Section is also FIDE-rated this year; all the sections are still USCF-rated as well).

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 two scorers in each section, for the four top-scoring players from the same school across all three sections, and for the winning Mixed Doubles Team!

We also have additional special free entry prizes and other prizes as well!

Woman FIDE Master (WFM) Sophie Morris-Suzuki (2253), a Senior from John Jay High School in Lewisboro, won both her games Sunday, catapulting her into Clear First in the Varsity Section, while Top-rated International Master (IM) Hans Niemann (2541), a Columbia Prep. Junior, dropped into Second at 6.5 with two half-point byes for the day. Brooklyn Tech sophomore Mark DeDona (2155), High School of American Studies sophomore Pedro Espinosa (2133) and Summit School 8th-grader Alan Morris-Suzuki (2110) are all tied for 3rd-5th with 6 points each. Columbia Prep. 7th-grader Daniel Mero (1767) also scored 2 points, driving his unofficial post-tournament rating to a new peak of 1878 (which he then eclipsed twice more in the next two weeks). Brooklyn Tech. junior Aidan Ahram (1956) also saw his post-tournament rating climb to a new career-high of 1980.

In the Junior-Varsity Section, Julian Daniels (1781) a Columbia Prep. Freshman, chalked up 1.5 points to move into First Place with 7.5 points. Medgar Evans Prep. senior Chance Deas (1682)’s 7 points gave him sole claim to Second, and Columbia Prep. freshman Joshua Luo (1762) and Stuyvesant junior Michael Wang (1656) are tied for 3rd-4th with 6.5 points. Sophomores Elian Garcia (1641) of Midwood High School and Tia Zheng (1370) of Staten Island Tech. notched double wins February 9th. Kevin Feng (1510), a junior from Brooklyn Tech, took his post-tournament rating to a new high of 1575 (which he later surpassed the following weekend at the US Amateur Team Championship in Parsippany). Fort Hamilton High freshman Lingxuan Shi (1335) also lifted his rating to a new all-time high of 1348.

In the Novice Section, Success Academy Myrtle Middle School 7th-graders Sabrina Addo (1106) and Annika Parsia (1064) along with Ft. Hamilton High freshman Fei Lin (645) were all 2 for 2 Sunday. That locked Parsia into Clear First atop the Novice Section with 8 points. NEST+m junior Gerald Lynch (863) is alone at Second with 7 points, and he also sent his post-tournament rating up to its new all-time-high of 979 (which he, too, eclipsed the following weekend in New Jersey). Myrtle 7th-grader Amadou Balde (972) and Brooklyn Tech junior Hao Duong are tied for 3rd-4th with 6.5 each.

In the team competition, Success Academy Myrtle Middle school picked up a net gain of 6 points, for a running total of 26 out of a possible 40 points. That was enough to bring them once again into a tie with Columbia Grammar and Prep’s Lions, who picked up a net gain of 5 points. Both teams are also tied in tiebreaks, but Success Academy Myrtle Middle ended up on top on secondary tiebreak points. Perennial powerhouse Stuyvesant High picked up 4 points, winding up in Third Place with 24.5 points.

In the Second Half Team Competition (beginning in Round 8), Success Academy Myrtle Middle School is the sole leader, with 8.5 out of 12 points, followed by Columbia Prep. with 6 and Stuyvesant High with 5.5. In the second-half competition, half-point byes do not count towards the Second Half Bonus prizes.

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.

The duo of Sophie (2216) and Alan Morris-Suzuki (2098) leapfrogged into the lead with 13.5 points, followed by two Myrtle Middle School teams: Annika Parsia (1064) and Daguy Vaval (1675), who are one half-point back with 13, while Makenna Blaise (1225) and Amadou Balde (896) put together a combined score of 11.5 points after 20 total games.

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.

We will also be judging games for the 3rd Annual William Lombardy Brilliancy Prize- if you have any good games from the Magnus League, please submit them for consideration!

We now broadcast 12 games live from the DGT boards to the league website at: www.magnusleague.org as they are being played!

Steve Immitt was the Tournament Director, assisted by Sophia Rohde, Dan Rohde and Harry Heublum.

The complete results from Rounds 1 and 2 on October 6th, Rounds 3 and 4 on November 10th, Rounds 5 and 6 on December 8th, Rounds 7-8 on January 12th and Rounds 9-10 on February 9th, along with the USCF-rated results (and FIDE-rated results in the Varsity Section), can be seen at the Magnus League webpage at www.magnusleague.org as well).

Players may now register for Rounds 11-12, which begin 10:00 am on Sunday March 1st, including players who missed Rounds 1-10 (with a limit of 8 half-point byes) at the Magnus League website at www.magnusleague.org through 6 pm Saturday February 29th!

Thank You Everyone for making such a promising and exciting Seventh Magnus League season!