Only 3 CCL players made the trip for the National Grade Level Championships this year: defending 2nd grade champion Jason Wang, Vincent Baker and Aristo Liu.  In this 7 round event, things looked pretty good after 5 rounds.  Jason was 5-0. while Vincent and Aristo were both at 4.5-.5.   However round 6 proved to be tough for the CCL team with both Jason and Aristo losing, while Vincent drew.  In the final round Jason and Vincent both won, allowing them to finish with very strong 6-1 scores.   This allowed Jason to tie for 2nd place in 3rd grade while Vincent tied for 2nd in 6th grade.  They all represented CCL very well.  To the right is the only picture that I received, of Vincent with his trophy.

After last year’s total dominance at the Ohio Grade Levels, I was ready for a slight let down this year.  Wrong!  You almost never let me down finishing with what may be an even greater show of chess power than last year.  There were so many strong performances at the Grade Levels that it is impossible to report them all.  With the exception of one player (who scored 4-1) all of the CCL players were in grades 2 -9.  In those grades we won every grade level championship and when there were co-champions, every co-champion was a CCL player.   How clearly you have separated yourself from the rest of the state.  For the sake of modesty, I am only going to list the CCL grade level champions.

Grade 2 Champion = Ethan Fang

Grade 3 Champion = Jason Wang

Grade 4 Champion = Karthik Kallan (he just graduated from  Pre-CCL a week before the tournament!)

Grade 5 Co-Champions =  Yutong ‘Elton’ Cao, Evan Huang, Dominic Mayhew, Ethan Ferkins

Grade 6 Champion = Vincent Baker

Grade 7 Champion = Luke Xie

Grade 8 Champion = Anagh Kulkarni

Grade 9 Co-Champions = Jasen Lai, Kian Souayvixay, Viktor Lim, Akul Rajan

Complete tournament results are posted at http://www.ohioscholasticchess.org/2014gradelevelresults.html

My favorite pictures from the tournament are of our 2nd grade participants.  The first one shows 2nd grade level champion Ethan Fang, shining like a bright light overrun by a mass of older and larger humanity.  Ethan is showing me that he has 4 points after the 4th round.  In the 2nd picture, clear 2nd place finisher Joseph Winkler tries to figure out a way to hold both his individual and team trophies.

 

 

 

 

 

Below are the pictures for the grade levels:

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Luke Xie tied the Ohio Grade Level Championship record by winning his 7th grade level championship, and Luke just did this in 7th grade! He tied the record that was solely held by Jonathan Hilton. This was a record that no one has come close to in the past. An amazing feat by USCF Expert, Lukie Dukie. He is expected to break the record next year at the 2015 Grade Level Championships.

CCL went to “The Triangle” in North Carolina last weekend to visit my son and to promote CCL. On Saturday Atanas went to the Durham Chess Club with my son, Jason, to give a lecture followed by a simul. Goran and I went to the Carrboro Chess Club for some informal chess instruction. The main event was on Sunday in Chapel Hill, which is where the pictures in the below slideshow are from. That event started with me bragging about CCL and all that you have accomplished. It may have been unbelievable to them but it was all the truth. Your accomplishment surpass any realistic expectations. After I was done bragging, Atanas gave a lecture on Attacking Chess and then there were two simuls. Goran gave a blindfold 10 board simul (I moved the pieces) while Atanas played everyone else in the regular simul. Goran drew 2 games and won the rest, while I believe that Atanas drew 3 games and won the rest.  I don’t know if the regular newspapers covered us but we received coverage in Macedonia (click here)!  This may be because Atanas is an  ex-captain of the national team, ex-coach of the national team and from to time he plays for the national team.

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