Jim West On Chess: Tourney at Washington Avenue School

Tuesday, November 18, 2014

Tourney at Washington Avenue School

[mural by art teacher Kenji Hasegawa]

On Monday afternoon, the fall 2014 session ended at Washington Avenue School, in the after school enrichment class on chess, coached by me on behalf of Enrich and Grow Academy.

The tournament finished in a tie for first and second places between Alexander Coutras and Liam Kirby. When their playoff match was drawn, the two were declared co-winners of the tournament. Third place went to Lily Hekmat, who won her playoff game against Noah Gicas.

The top three players received trophies, in addition to the chess medals that were awarded to all ten students.

"My study of chess was accompanied by a strong attraction to music, and it was probably thanks to this that from childhood I became accustomed to thinking of chess as an art, and have never regarded it as anything else, for all the science and sport involved in it. And, moreover, an art which in some ways is closer to music than it is customary to think. Perhaps chess and music are drawn together by laws of harmony and beauty which are difficult to formulate and difficult to grasp, or perhaps by something else." - Vasily Smyslov