Century Chess Club Wins Ninth City Cup

The Century Chess Club might be forming a new tradition by winning the Rochester Area Scholastic Chess League 2013 City Cup Tournament. Century has now won the cup nine times in its 13 year history. Century hosted the tournament on Saturday March 9th.

This year Century was assured of having a team in the championship round because both Century A and B teams had qualified for the tournament. Century B team had qualified two days earlier by defeating John Marshall,the league's fifth place team, in a "play in" match. Fortunate as it was to have two Century teams in the tournament only one would advance because Century A had the top seed and played Century B in the semi-final match. Century A defeated Century B 3.5 - 1.5 while third seed Lourdes won its match against the Mayo/Stewartville team in convincing fashion 5-0. The championship round was close (1-1) when Rory Li defeated Lourdes' Mikael Paulik to swing the momentum in Century's favor. The final score was another championship for Century 3.5 - 1.5.

The Century A team had also won the regular season league going undefeated with three victories and one draw. Co-captains on the Century A team are Michael Ekker and Enoch Tan. Senior Gregory Nathan, junior Rory Li and freshman Maor Locker composed the remainder of the team. The Century B team was led by Kellogg 7th grader Richard Huong and Kellogg 8th graders Jack Moran and Zach Pischa also participated. Century B players included freshmen Austin Berg and North Seelinger; sophomore Ethan Kub; and seniors Duncan Steenburgh and Cheenar Banerjee.

The RASCL Top Five Individuals included Century's Maor Locker (1st), Michael Ekker (2nd) and Gregory Nathan (3rd). Enoch Tan was named to the varsity "All League" team. In the RASCL Junior Varsity City Cup freshman Austin Berg finished in second place with a 3-1 record. Duncan Steenburgh finished in a tie for fifth place.

Maor, Austin and Ethan will participate in the 2013 Minnesota State Chess Association state tournament March 23 & 24. Several varsity players will participate in the United States Chess Federation Supernationals April 9 in Nashville, Tenn. Here is a link to a nice news story KTTC did on the tournament.