2nd Place for McMillan

Congratulations to the Chess Team for getting 2nd Place in the South Central Regional Center Title 1 Chess Tournament celebrated last Saturday November 15th and at the same time for classifying to the Title 1 Chess District Championship which will be on May 2nd, 2009.
Here are some pictures of the event:

Warming up before the first round

Warming up before the first round

Nathan and Jorge in the playing room

Nelson and Jorge in the playing room

Oscar, Robert and Daniel in the playing room

Sergio and Mike in the playing room (last round)

After the last round, from left to right: Nathan, Oscar, Sergio, Daniel, Nelson, Jorge, Robert and Mike.

After the last round.

Beginning of the Ceremony

Mr. Diez getting the 2nd place trophy

Everyone feeling the trophy

More Puzzles

White to play, mate in two moves:

White to play, mate in one move:

WELCOME McMillan Chess Team

Welcome to an excited school year 2008-2009. There are a lot of tournaments this year so you better get ready. Your first assignment online is to answer the following questions along with the solution of a puzzle. And remember, they are due on Wednesday, October 15th.

1. List all the pieces of a chess game along with their value.
2. List three strategies to follow when your opponent is attacking one of your pieces.
3. Solve the following puzzle. White to move and mate in one

Title 1 Chess Tournament Results !!!

The McMillan Chess Team made it for the Title 1 Chess Tournament Finals after ending in 4th place at the Title 1 Chess Tournament for Regions 5 and 6, celebrated last Saturday, April 26.
Special congratulation to Mike Lee who ended up in 2nd place in the K-8 section. You can see him getting his trophy in some of the pictures.
Q: Was this the best result of the team?
A: Not really. Only one of the schools in the top 5 offers Chess as an elective class, so the McMillan Chess Team was supposed to do better than that, however we made it to the finals, and that was our objective, so for now on until May 17th we will work harder to get better results in the finals.

Q: How many players compete, and how did they do?

A: There were four players who played all 5 rounds, and one more player who played the last two rounds only. Mike Lee 4.5, Jonathan Ochoa 3.5, Nathan Larrea 2.0, Nicholas Sanches 2.0, and Aaron Guanch 2.0 (he only played 2 rounds)
Q: Any predictions on May 17th.
A: We will be in the top 5 again.

Top 5 students in the K-8 section. Second from left to right is Mike Lee.

Top 5 teams in the K-8 category. Second from left to right is Mr. Diez (McMillan Chess Coach)

From left to right Nicholas Sanchez, Mike Lee, Mr. Diez and Jonathan Ochoa

Nathan and Mike were the best at the South Regional !!!

The McMillan Chess Team participated in the South Regional Chess Tournament having great results as a Team, however the best two players received an incentive (Glass Chess Set), courtesy of the Administration of McMillan Middle School.

Nathan Larrea and Mike Lee were the students who ended up with the best result so they received this nice present which they will use and enjoy forever.

Here are the players receiving their "Glass Chess Set".

From left to right Mike Lee and Nathan Larrea

Puzzles of the Week 3/10/08 to 3/14/08 !!!

Hi everyone, this is one of the most important weeks of the School Year because of the FCAT. So the puzzles for this week are simple in case you have to study for your EXAMS. Think about them, find the solutions, write the solutions in a piece of paper and bring them to Class before Friday, March 14th.

For both puzzles, white play first and checkmate black in two moves.

Good Luck !!!

McMillan 2nd Tournament Results Unexpected !!!

McMillan Chess Team celebrated their 2nd Tournament of the School Year with some mayor changes and unexpected results.

Q: Which mayor changes occurred in the Tournament?
A: The first change was the inclusion of two computers opponents in the Tournament, Seth (707) and Miranda (1154), the second change was reducing the amount of rounds going from 13 to 7 rounds only, and the last change was the rating of the Tournament, it means everyone was rated.

Q: Why the Results were unexpected?

A: For two reasons, 1st Nobody expected that Miranda 1154 (one of the computer opponents) was going to win this Tournament, and even worse the way she won it (7-0); in fact we were expecting her to get 6th or 7th place; and 2nd Nobody also expected that Aaron Guanch (our absolute winner of the First Tournament was going to have a bad Tournament)

Q: What was the Final Standing and what is the new ELO of everyone?
A: The Final standing and ELO of everyone is the following: 1st Miranda 1005, 2nd Mike Lee 1000, 3rd Nathan Larrea 952, 4th – 6th Roy Anania 925, Seth (computer opponent) 915, Donovan Garcia 925, 7th – 9th Jorge Hernandez 912, Anthony Tabbitas 912, Anthony Ros 912, 10th – 13th Aaron Guanch 885, Oscar Anchia 899, Jonas Navarro 885, Nicholas Sanchez 885, 14th Antonio Marti 877, 15th Adam Ashby 825 and 16th Rene Torres 817.

Q: What’s next for the Chess Team?
A: Study more and Get ready for the next Tournament.