The Utah Class Championships

On the 30th of May I went to the Chess Class Championships.

In chess there are 11 classes: X, A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, and J, with X being the highest. My regular rating is class E, placing me right smack dab in the middle of the ratings. In the class championships, players from each class compete for their class title. Since my class includes anyone from the ratings 1000 to 1199, I was basically competing for the under 1200 championship.

I was lucky to win. It was a four way tie between me, Alexsander Pachev, Stetson Black, and Joshua Haley. Alexsander, an unrated adult (I hate it when unrated adults play in tournaments, you can't ever tell what their true strength is) beat me in my first round, but then lost his second round to Josh. Josh won against Stetson, but then lost to me in the final round. And Stetson got a full point bye in the final round, after losing one and winning two. Which put everyone at 3 points out of 4.

So, officially, I share the title four ways. The first place prize was split between us (which meant we each got a whopping 10 dollars), and then we had a blitz playoff for the trophy. Alexsander did not qualify to play in the playoff because he was unrated. I went on to win: Boren 1.5, Black 1.0, Haley 0.5.