14 elementary & middle school students showed up for the Geek Pride Chess Tournament.  Deep thinkers attend this tournament from grades kindergarten up through 8th grade to compete against the strongest competition scholastic chess has to offer. This event is one of the strongest events to help your child prepare for the official level competition.  Several students in Class A were one of talented youngsters rated over the 1000 mark in the Japan Chess Federation and selected as a Japan representative for Eastern Asia Chess Championship 2024 in Malaysia.

The energy in the room was incredible!  Every player earned a certificate just for participating and, to keep our young masters striving, the 1st place winner in respective section received a free entry to the next tournament. Parents, chess players, and siblings all had a positive experience and went home with prizes and smiles!

Tournament Director, Alex A. and Teacher Joan S. made the pairings each round and settled any type of dispute that arose during the game.  Please give them a respect for the difficult job they do.  We could not hold chess tournaments without them!

Congratulations to our 2024 Geek Pride Chess Tournament winners:

Class A: Haruki Shimagaki with 4.0/4.0

Class A: Kairi Akiyama with 3.0/4.0

Class A: Tristan Chih with 2.0/4.0

Class A: Natsuki Takizawa with 2.0/4.0

Class A: Asami Inada with 2.0/4.0

Flexibility is an important part of chess skills.  Look at her amazing backbends!☺

Class B: Victor Lee with 4.0/5.0

Class B: Fumi Kitahara with 4.0/5.0

Class B: Nguyen Quang Minh with 3.0/5.0

Class B: Jino Hernandez Zhou with 3.0/5.0

Remember!  Even thought we love rewarding all our top players for their chess excellence, we reward everyone who comes and we acknowledge all our players and think they are just the bees-knees for coming out, challenging themselves, enjoying chess and having a great day of family and community chess fun! 

Also, thank you for being the best photographer, Hiroko A., Kairi's mom, in our chess community!  It was a huge help and much appreciated.  

The next big tournament will be August 2024.  If you are serious about providing your children with the best preparatory opportunities for the upcoming country events, consider attending this event. Getting good at something is never really easy but reward for mastering it is priceless.  Try and you will see!