ROCKFORD AT
THE NATIONAL JUNIOR HIGH CHAMPIONSHIPS
Over 1400 players competed in the
2002 National Junior High Chess Championships, held May 10-12 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Among this record-setting total were 14
Rockford-area players, and Rockford’s presence was felt at a national scholastic
event for the second consecutive year.
Rockford has a long history of
successful competitors at the state and national levels.
The area has produced several state high school team champions (North Boone High,
Auburn High and Jefferson High have all won IHSA state titles), a national championship
team (Guilford High won the national high school JV title in 1974), and a US Junior Open
champion (Donald Reents in 1975).
It is very difficult to win a
national scholastic (National Elementary, National Junior High, National High School)
tournament, as any section draws hundreds of the nation’s brightest kids, all well
prepared and highly competitive. And, for
all of Rockford’s success in scholastic chess, a Rockford-area player had never won a
national scholastic title.
Never, that is, until a cool May
evening in Milwaukee.
Steven Jaconette, a seventh-grader at
Spectrum School in Rockford, had rolled through the first six rounds of the K-8 Under 1000
section at the 2002 National Junior High Championships.
With one round left to play, he was in a tie for the tournament lead with three
other players who also sported perfect 6-0 records. Although
he was by far the lowest-rated player among the perfect scores (with a wallchart rating of
741, he could have played the K-8 Under 750 section!), his tiebreaks were sufficient for
first place through six rounds.
In the last round, Steven faced a
formidable challenge from Matt Higgins of Metcalf Junior High in Burnsville, MN. Playing the White side of the Queen’s Gambit
Declined, Steven dropped a pawn in the opening, but was able to obtain strong Queenside
pressure as compensation. In standard
swashbuckling Jaconette fashion, Steven went headlong into complications, even risking a
strong counterattack from his opponent.
Pressure, however, can make water run
up a hill. Steven’s relentless attacking
finally wore down his opponent, who played a move that he thought won a Bishop but instead
dropped a Queen for a Rook. Faced with a lost
endgame, Higgins finally resigned, leaving Steven as one of two players with a perfect 7-0
record. It was left to the computer to spit
out tiebreak calculations, and when all was said and done, the first place trophy –
and a little bit of history – ended up in the hands of Steven Jaconette.
The K-9 Championship division is
traditionally the smallest, and the most challenging, of the four divisions of the
National Junior High Championship. This year
was no exception. A two-man team from Auburn
High (Zack Beach and Jonathan Rozman) made up the whole of Rockford’s delegation in
this division.
Zack rallied from a difficult
beginning to finish with 4.5 points out of 7, collecting an honorable-mention trophy for
his efforts. Denying his rating, Jon Rozman
played excellent chess from start to finish, scoring 4 out of 7 despite being paired up
every round. Jon earned the first-place Under
1000 trophy – not to mention a healthy rating increase.
At 508 players, this was the largest
division of the National Junior High. Rockford
put eight players in this division, including seven playing under the banner of West
Middle School. The members of the West
team were David Black, John Brown, Brandon Jones, Ross Makulec, Troy Makulec, Andrew
Pipathsouk, and John-Paul Roman.
Lochlan Graham of Keith School also played in this division, finishing with 3 points.
West had a difficult tournament
marked by consistently tough pairings regardless of result.
An example of the pairings the West team faced can be gleaned from looking at John
Brown’s first three rounds. After losing
his first two rounds to higher-rated opposition, John could normally have been expected a
relatively easy pairing in round 3. Instead,
he was paired against an opponent who outrated him by over 400 points!
West did come back from a disastrous
round 3 (in which the team scored only 0.5 points) to finish with 14 points. This tied them for 35th out of 80
teams.
For those who may wonder about
West’s play overall, consider that Benjamin Middle School, the reigning Illinois
state junior high champions, only scored 15 points! That’s
just how hard this tournament was. Two
players (Andrew and Troy) played higher-rated opposition every single round.
West’s four team scores were
produced by (in tiebreak order) Brandon Jones, David Black, JP Roman and John Brown. All four players scored 3.5 out of 7.
This section is always the most
entertaining – and impossible to predict. The
relatively low ratings promise excitement in every round, and literally every player comes
in with a chance to win.
Joshua Weiss of Washington School in Belvidere was originally entered in the tournament, but did not play.
West sent a three-player delegation
into this tournament – Paul Dammann, Gloria Miner and Eric Mosher. Since the top four scores on any team are added to
produce the team score, and with 69 teams in attendance, West could hardly be expected to
contend for a place in the top 25.
Apparently, the demise of West’s
chances in this section had been greatly exaggerated.
Despite the handicap of only being able to score 3 points a round, West had 12
points after 5 rounds. Going into Sunday,
Eric Mosher had a 3-2 record, losing a hard game in round 5. Gloria Miner had recovered from a first-round loss
to win her next four games, standing at 4-1. Finally,
Paul Dammann had parlayed a little luck (in round 4, he set a cute mating trap in a lost
position that his opponent did not see) and some excellent chess (his round 5 game may
have been the best game played by any West player in the tournament) into a perfect 5-0
record. These three players stood in 17th
place – as a team – after five rounds.
Round 6 saw Paul, paired on board
one, finally take a loss. Gloria and Eric,
however, picked up the slack for Paul and won their games.
Entering the seventh and final round, Paul and Gloria, with their 5-1 records, were
paired on the top ten boards. Gloria
collected a piece early in her game and never let go, eventually grinding her opponent
down and finishing with a sterling 6-1 record. Paul
won a full Queen early in his game, but overlooked a mating combination. It was an unfortunate finish, but an excellent
tournament for Paul, whose only losses were to two players who finished in the top 10
(including a co-champion). Eric also lost his
last game, but his 4-3 record was very good, especially when considering his lack of
practice prior to the event.
The team eventually finished with 15
points and the 20th place trophy – with just three players. A top-five finish would have been possible with a
fourth player scoring five points. Individually,
Gloria Miner finished in a massive tie for fifth place, and she collected the 15th
place trophy. Paul Dammann just missed the
trophy-winning top 25 places, finishing 30th individually and sporting
tremendous tiebreaks (as can be expected for a player who won his first five games). Eric Mosher finished in the top 100 as well.
Click here to see complete results from the National Junior High Championships.
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last edited 5/14/02