Alex Liu won all seven of his matches to capture the 2^nd grade National Chess Championship at the USCF Nationals held this past weekend. Showing great determination and skill, Alex defeated all comers including the top two seeds in the tournament. When the final match came, Alex had played nearly 18 hours of Chess over the course of two days. Showing no lack of energy, he spent the next 2 ½  hours bobbing up and down in his chair while hammering out his final victory.

 In addition to winning the individual championship, Alex led the 2^nd grade team to its second National Championship in a row.  John Coudsi played fantastic chess, beating players ranked far higher than himself to gain five wins and the 11^th place individual trophy. Paschalis Economou and Nicholas Wille each earned four wins to seal the team championship.

The Kindergarten team played one player short but still managed a fine 3^rd place team trophy. Elliot Glatman won five games in route to a 9th place individual trophy finish. Charisma Gajula backed up Elliot's effort with four fine victories of her own. With just one more player this team would have contested for the top prize. The 1^st grade team led by Aaron Chang, Rorye Jones and Amit Kavadi won the 5^th place team trophy, while the 4^th grade team led by Devan Shan, Parin Thakkar and Andrew Wang brought home the 7^th place team trophy.

This was the most hotly contested tournament that this writer has ever been too. The talent in every grade was extraordinary. My hat is off to the efforts of all 56 Village Vikings that attended. There were many 3 hour games but the group kept their heads high, supported each other and played hard in every round.