MADISON – If the first chess tournament for the year was indicative of upcoming months, the Madison City Chess League or MCCL will have an outstanding, record-breaking schedule.

MCCL members and supporters gathered on Aug. 26 at Rainbow Elementary School for 2023’s first scholastic chess tournament, the Summer Knights Scholastic Chess Tournament.

“A record high of attendees with almost 200 students in grades k-12 attended to compete against one another,” Nicole Wall said. Wall recently accepted the position of MCCL Marketing and Communications Manager.

“MCCL thanks Rainbow Elementary and Madison City Schools administrators for adjusting quickly to help us conduct such a large event,” Wall said.

The following list shows top players in each section, starting with first place and continuing to all place-winners:

* Non-rated K-12 — Ethan McCardle, Mason Harrison, Brett Perry, Noah Cazier, Alex Kontoulakos, Faith Nguyen, Cole Pieratt, Lex Sansom, Cameron Gatzke, Levi Cybuck and Top Female Kynkaid O Dabney.

* Non-rated K-6 — Riley Swearingen, Bradley Bencivenga, Eric Dabney, Lucas He, Ethan Ramirez-Andino, Liam Wilson, Charlie Colo, Kade Boyer, Nigel B, Aaron Kim and Top Female Dohee Bak.

* Non-rated K-3 — Rais Nichols, William Bostick, Cole Haley, Theodore Malak, Liam Ford Nicholson, Eli Walker, Gina Marie Fong, Noah Parcus, William Welch, Elam Phillips and Top Female Abigail Oglesby.

* Rated K-12 Under 500 — Daniel Tkach, Emory Howell, Wyatt Dunlap, Jonathan Lam, Rhyan Kweku Quansah, Justin Cha, Anish Vadrevu, Shiloh Stringer, Arvin Yang, Pujita Verma, Austin Pullum and Top Female Janvi Prajapati.

* K-12 Rated Under 1000 — Kate Meyer, Andrew Tkach, Christina Yang, Alice Zou, Avyaktha Subramania, Tim Lee, Daksh Sunil, Isabella Park, Cooper Meyer, Anna Ai, Rushi Patel and Top Female Emerson Phillips.

* Rated K-12 Open — Aaron Chen, Jacob New, Landon Drummond, Nirvana Rajbhandari, Caden Jordan, Holland Lang, Sophia Jerez, Esteban Jerez, Kylie Zou, Cohen Tate and Top Female Caroline Wang.

MCCL thanked the tournament sponsor, CB&S Bank, which “is continuing to support us over the years,” MCCL Executive Director Todd Guthrie said. “MCCL thanks everyone for their patience and being ‘hands on deck’ for a great tournament that successfully ended on time.”

As the league continues to grow, MCCL leaders need to train more tournament directors to help run tournaments. “On Oct. 1 at 2 p.m., MCCL will host tournament director training, which is free. However, you need to register to attend this event at Madison Public Library,” Guthrie said.

The training’s focus will be to instruct tournament directors for the floor, “but we also need to train back-room tournament directors to help us with the Swiss Sys pairing program,” Guthrie said.

“We will train you during a tournament and let you work with our experienced back-room TDs. You can let me know if you are interested in training at the next Fall Scholars tournament,” Guthrie said.

To register, visit madisonchess.com, and click the “Events” menu. Next, click “Upcoming Events,” scroll to “Tournament Director Training” and click “Read More.”