Minnesota has a new State Chess Champion! Fueled by a key 2nd round victory against 11-time State Champion Sean Nagle, Samrug Narayanan went on to score 4.5 out of the possible 5.0 points to take home the Stenberg Cup as one of Minnesota's youngest-ever State Champions. With this stellar performance, Samrug becomes only the 3rd chess player in Minnesota history to simultaneously hold both the K-12 high school and overall state championships. A bit of chess trivia...can you name the other two Minnesota chess players who have accomplished this feat?
The playoffs were held in Plymouth and were directed by Dane Zagar. In the U2200 it was Ionatan Giurgiu winning with 3.5/5.0 points in a tightly matched field. In the U2000 Eddie Wasserman won by a full 1.5 points over his colleagues. In the U1700 it was Michael Haynes wrapping up 1st place with a 4-0 start before he finally suffered a defeat in Round 5 against rising 5th grade star Kavish Kishore. Congratulations to everyone on the excellent fighting chess played over the weekend!