Oregon High School Chess Team Association

2011 Championship

• 1st Board - Austin Nguyen, School of Science & Tech  
• 2nd Board - Aaron Pikus, School of Science & Tech 
• 3rd Board - Andrey Morozov, School of Science & Tech 
• 4th Board - Michael Clarizio, Delphian School 
• 5th Board - Pruthui Nanapenneni, School of Science & Tech 

      1A

• No Entries 

JUNIOR VARSITY OVERALL STATE TITLES

• 1st Place - Coquille High School, Coquille 
• 2nd Place - Clackamas High School, Clackamas

JUNIOR VARSITY CLASSIFICATION TITLES   

• 6A - 1st Place - Clackamas High School, Clackamas
• 5A - 1st Place - Willamette High School, Eugene 
• 4A - 1st Place - La Salle College Prep, Milwaukie 
• 3A - 1st Place - Coquille High School, Coquille 
• 2A - No Entries
• 1A - No Entries

OPEN TEAM COMPETITION

• 1st Place - Catlin Gabel/Whitford/West Sylvan/Mt. Tabor 
• 2nd Place - Sherwood 
• 3rd Place - Delphian  

• 1st Place - Mathew Stevens 
• 2nd Place - Steven Witt 
• 3rd Place - Michael Kawasumi 

NOTES  

From James Horton, Executive Director, OHSCTA

Kris Field-Eaton and her staff did a remarkable job preparing beautiful Sherwood High School for the tournament. Thanks to them, the check-in process was among the best ever, allowing compeition to start before 6:00pm. Directed by veteran TD Norm May and his son, it went smoothly forward, staying on schedule and free from delays and disputes. The tournament ended on time, and the awards ceremony was over by about 6:30pm on Saturday. Our new tournament format and tiebreak system saw their shakedown cruises. There is more analysis to be done, but both performed fairly well; both might need a little tweaking based on our experience.

The tournament format was expected to run like normal Swiss the first two rounds and then give priority to pairing teams from schools of the same classification to ensure those teams had the opportunity to play their key, head-to-head matches. As it turned out, by the time the first two rounds of normal Swiss were played, the computer was unable to make several key, expected classification pairings because of problems this would have caused with other pairings. It was not simply a computer problem; even when the TD personally evaluated whether he could use manual pairings to make those classification pairings, he found he could do no better without causing worse pairing problems for other teams. The impression at this writing is that we need to analyze the Swiss files and see what minor changes we should suggest to effectively accomplish our objective of conventional Swiss early and key classification pairings thereafter.

With respect to the new tiebreak system, it performed smoothly and worked remarkably well, but there are questions about it and whether the subject needs to be revisited before next year. Moving into the final round, for instance, there was a distinct possibility that we'd see and have to break a four-way tie for 1st place. In theory, the system's logic would have worked, but we didn't know whether it actually would have been compelling enough to satisfy the four tied teams with its results. It looked like a possible train wreck. Happily, this was avoided when the four-way tie did not materialize and there were clear winners in 1st and 2nd. But the question remains to be explored--would the system effectively and fairly (and without disputes) break four-way ties? Further, new questions have arisen. For example, the US Am Team portion of the tiebreak system placed Clackamas above Pleasant Hill. Pleasant Hill played stonger opponents as measured in Solkoff points (19 vs. 15.5), but Clackamas won more boards (17 vs. 13) against its opponents. Looking at this information in the absence of any formula to apply, one could rightly ask at what point does strength of opponents trump board dominance and vice versa? Applying the US Am Team tiebreak system formula to this question, Clackamas had a tiny edge in US Am Team points (49.25 vs. 48). Without question, reasonable people could disagree on whether that was the most fair and accurate call and whether or not there is a different system and formula available that could have done better. 

Thanks again to Kris Field-Eaton and her crew at Sherwood High and Norm May and his son. And a special thinks from me to all the coaches. It is because of you and your dedication that high school team chess exists in Oregon and that this valuable and educational sport is available to and played by so many of our students. Because of you and the lessons they learn from you about logic, thinking ahead and good, old fashioned sportsmanship and manners, whether they win, lose or draw, those lessons remain and will have a lasting and beneficial influence on their lives. 

In closing, to give a sense of the color and drama of the events, I will include this newspaper article that ran in the Cottage Grove Sentinal. Enjoy!