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2013

1st Annual Chess & Science Festival and All-Girls Chess Tournament was a huge success!

It was held at FLANDRAU SCIENCE CENTER –  http://www.flandrau.org/ on April 13th, 2013.

26 girls competed in the All-Girls Tournament and 10 chess players, including CFCA students and parents and Tucson Mayor Jonathan Rothschild participated in the simultaneous exhibition.

mayors-speech simul-01 all-girls-01

There were total 3 Prizes in the Open Section of ALL-GIRLS Tournament, 5 in the Reserve Section, with additional 2 Prizes U400 and 2 Prizes U200, and 2 Prizes in the Open Blitz section.

Here is the list of winners:
OPEN SECTION:
1. ROMY NICOLE BENITO (prefect score 3 out of 3!) – won FREE ENTRY to the International Youth Championship in Las Vegas.
2. RUDRAKSHI DASIKA (on tie-breaks)
3. ANGELA NICOLE KINSEY (on tie-breaks)

RESERVE SECTION:
1. KATE NELSON (prefect score 4 out of 4!) – won FREE ENTRY to the International Youth Championship in Las Vegas.
2. ANNELISE ROSE ALLEN (on tie-breaks)
3. MIEKE RAZA (on tie-breaks)
4. ANNACHTEIRA SKEG CAZARES-KELLY (on tie-breaks)
5. JANNE RAZA (on tie-breaks)
6. SAHASRAKSHI DASIKA (on tie-breaks)

U400:
1. AUDREY JU
2. SI:BAN MAIDIN CAZARES-KELLY (on tie-breaks)

U200:
1. ANISHA JAGGI
2. KATRINA PURVANCE (on tie-breaks)

OPEN BLITZ TOURNAMENT:
1. ANGELA NICOLE KINSEY
2. KENNEDY WARRILOW (on tie-breaks)

CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL! You can see the detailed results and new ratings at: http://www.uschess.org/msa/AffDtlTnmtHst.php?A6038416

Click on links to see pictures published by Arizona Daily Star  and those, taken by me and posted on Facebook .

Girls playing chess – video:

There was a TV – KGUN9, that interviewed kids and parents. The video should be out in a few days.

Mayor of Tucson – Jonathan Rothschild, has attended the event, played in the simultaneous exhibition against Brian Belakovsky and addressed participants of the All-Girls Tournament.

Brian scored fantastic 8.5 out of 10 (8 wins, 1 draw, 1 loss), considering that his rating is 1,339 and many of his opponents were in 800 – 1000 range. His only defeat came from Chong Ju (USCF 999) and CFCA student Trey Allen (USCF 838) held him to a draw!

All kids and parents were fed, due to the generous sponsorship of Math Department, UA (special THANKS to Professor Sergey Cherkis from Math Department!).

Every child received a trophy, certificate and a prize!

Many parents, kids and visitors watched Brooklyn Castle and participated in various science activities.

Bruce Bayly’s Physics Factory Bus, The Arizona Mathematics Road Show, Math Cats, Astronomy Club and Women in Physics presented physics, math, astronomy and other science activities to the tournament participants and other visitors, encouraging their future involvement in those areas. Their participation was an important part of Chess & Science Festival and was greatly appreciated (special THANKS to Dr. Brenda Frye from the
Department of Astronomy, who was instrumental in getting all the parties together and in setting up Flandrau Planetarium as the venue).

We are planning to host this event annually and increase its significance in Tucson life in the years to come, promoting girls’ involvement in Math, Science and Chess activities.

Again, we’d like to THANKS YOU to our wonderful sponsors, who made this event possible and hope we will have even more support in the future!