Checkmate!

On December 13, Burrell students competed at the Westmoreland County Gifted Chess Tournament at Yough High School.  Over 50 students from across the county participated.  It was a double elimination tournament with both winners and losers brackets, so many games were going on at one time, and a sense of excitement filled the air.  The rules were pretty standard as far as chess goes:

• A coin flip determined who plays which color.  The winner of the flip chose either color.  The lighter color always goes first, so this can affect the game play strategy.

• Matches were timed.  The first four rounds were played for 11 minutes, Rounds 5-8 were 14 minutes long, and Rounds 9-12 were played for 17 minutes each.  

• Official time was kept on a projector, and play continued until a checkmate occurred or time was called.  If no checkmate occurred, the winner was determined by the following scoring of pieces taken:  Queen - 10 points, Rook - 5 points, Bishop & Knight - 3 points, Pawn - 1 point.  

• If any players tie, play continued until the next piece was taken.  There was a 20 second time limit for each move.  Once a player's hand left the piece, and hit the timer, the next player had 20 seconds to make a move.   Any move that took over 20 seconds incurred a 1 point deduction during scoring at the end of the match.  Any move that took more than 24 seconds resulted in a forfeit of the move.

Senior Caroline Kelley had an interesting technique for playing, stating "I made pretty patterns on the board, and tried to put my pieces in a solid line to confuse my opponent."  This worked for awhile, but ultimately Caroline was eliminated in the third round.  Senior Morgan Swahn reported, "It was so fun.  I had the time of my life."  Both players enjoyed their day out of school, especially the lunch at Panera and tasty dessert at Crumbl on the way home.