🎪 Rochester Chess Festival is Big Success!
- Tim R
- Jul 23
- 2 min read
165 chess players converged on Rochester over the weekend of July 18-20 for a mid-summer chess festival. The weekend included a simultaneous chess game exhibition put on by two of Minnesota's legendary International Masters, an open chess tournament, and the 1st ever Midwest Women & Girls Regional Chess Championship.
The Festival was launched on Friday evening when IM's John Bartholomew & Sean Nagle took on 57 chess players simultaneously. The energy and intensity was high for 5 hours! At around midnight John & Sean emerged with a record of 49 wins, 4 losses, and 4 draws. Congratulations to all of the participants who were able to score some points against these legendary Minnesota IMs! A big thank you to Matt Jensen and the ChessGoals organization for sponsoring this simul exhibition.
🏆️ In the open tournament it was IM Sammy Narayanan dominating the field with a perfect 5-0 score. With this victory Sammy took a commanding 205 point lead in the MSCA's Grand Prix Series. Sammy recently earned his first GM norm in New York and is playing outstanding chess this summer.
🏆️ Other section winners included Cade Sigl with 4.5 points in the U1900. Cade gained 218 rating points and is all the way up to 1744! In the U1500 Yusuf Khan continued his winning ways and took 1st prize with 4.5 points. Yusuf also gained 90 rating points to land at 1516. Teddy Clisbee topped the field in the U1100 with 4.5 points and a 115 point rating gain all the way up to 1171P12. Finally, in the U700 it was unrated newcomer Mauro Carmona scoring a perfect 5-0 to attain an exciting first-time provisional rating of 1396P5.
🏆️ In the Midwest Women & Girls Championship it was Joshini Sudhakar dominating with an undefeated 5-0 score. Overall it was great to see the launch of this event complete with the attendance and support of two members of the US Chess Women's Committee.
👏 Congratulations to Dennis Mays and the entire Rochester Chess Community on their excellent planning and hosting of the Rochester Chess Festival. Thanks also go to Chief TD Sarah Wahl and Assistant TD Jenny Bourne for their efficient work over the weekend. 🙏