Thirty-one Southwest Oregon chess players took the long drive to Seaside to participate in the Oregon Scholastic Chess Federation State Championships.
They made up ten percent of the attendance at this annual event and despite beautiful weather at the beach, they were inside battling on chess boards.
Coquille has been attending this event since it started and thirteen made the qualification of competing in fifteen nationally rated games, a requirement change in the last year. Coach Nancy Keller became a USCF Tournament Director this year and has been offering nationally rated tournaments in Southwest Oregon so scholastic players in Coos and surrounding counties so southwest players could qualify for the OSCF state championships without having to travel to Eugene and Portland. The Southwest was represented by 13 Coquille, 3 Bandon, 3 Port Orford, 3 Coos Bay, 1 North Bend, 1 Myrtle Point, 6 Myrtle Creek, 1 Sutherlin chess players.
Friday night before the main event, scholastic players had the fun of friendly Blitz (speed chess) and Bughouse (a fun variant of chess with two player teams) chess competitions. Crazy hats were encouraged with Noah Ish-Shalom winning with his multidimensional hat. Friday night was not quiet by any means and was a fun thrill before the serious main event. Misha von Dassow (Coos Bay) won his Blitz section with a perfect score and Malichai Florez (Coquille) won his Blitz section with a near perfect score.
In Bughouse, the team of James Hanburg and Ayden Gardner under the team name of Tactical Titans won first place and the team of Ari and Noah Ish-Shalom under the team name of Slimey Beetle Juice won first place in their divisions.
Saturday became very serious and quiet. Parents were not allowed to stay in the playing rooms when games started so there was no interference in games that happened frequently in the past (southwest Oregon parents have been taught to not interfere). Everyone had clocks on their boards and all players had to notate to record their game, even the kindergarten players.
Losses were tough emotionally as everyone was competing for state champion status of their divisions. Although no state champions this year for Coquille, Jordan Florez (Coquille 9th grade) won fourth place in the high school copper division, and Noah Ish-Shalom (Coquille 5th grade) won fourth place in the Elementary Cobalt division.
Other winners from southwest Oregon were Ruckus Hughes (5th grade North Bend) won third place in the Elementary Cobalt divisions and Kayla Sullivan (11th grade Port Orford) won fourth place in the Middle School Zinc division.
The highlight was Malichai Florez (5th grade Coquille) who won the Order of the Knight Sportsmanship award. He was nominated because he kept congratulating his opponents who he had beaten and saying better luck next time. He also encouraged people around him to not stack pieces or play with the clocks so they would not get broken.
Skyler White-Ross (8th grade Port Orford) also won the Order of the Knight Sportsmanship award. He was nominated because he was never mad when he was losing, reminded his opponent to “hit” his clock after moves despite being in a losing position, and he was encouraging when his opponent was losing. There were only eight nominations and Southwest Oregon received two which reinforces Coach Keller’s belief that southwest Oregon has the nicest players!
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