La Conner students tackle chess

Fifty student chess players from nine Skagit and Whatcom County schools, including two elementary schools and seven high schools, competed in the first rated tournament event of the 2018-2019 school year.

The players were organized into six divisions based on estimated NW Scholastic ratings and played a three round mini tournament. Time controls were set at Game 25 plus a five second delay. Ten players were playing in their first rated tournament, including three La Conner students.

The five La Conner players did quite well, scoring 9.5 points out of a possible 15, for a 63 percent winning percentage, an outstanding result. Four of the 50 players had perfect scores of 3.0 and won a medal for their performance, including Max Drews.

The La Conner Chess Team is just beginning its third year. This is its first year of competition. Jack Christy, a retired Boeing engineer, is the coach. He fled Seattle to live in Anacortes. He answered the call and volunteered to coach La Conner High School and middle school students for 75 minutes twice a week during the school year.

Christy is a lifelong chess player who commenced tournament play in his late 30s. He is a C Class player with a Category 3 title in the USCF title system and a 1400 USCF rating. To improve his game, he took chess lessons from International Master Georgi Orlov, who emigrated to Seattle after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Orlov holds a four year Degree in Chess from Moscow, earned in 1985. He is the highest rated active player in Washington.

During the 2017-2018 chess season, five players represented La Conner in four team events. The team did very well scoring 17 points in 28 games, a 61 percent win-loss ratio; they had 15 wins, 4 draws, and 9 losses. This is an outstanding performance for players competing in their very first tournament games.

The NW Chess League is made up of schools in Skagit and Whatcom county. Schools are not divided by size, as they are in other athletics.