K-12 State Champion Jordan Timm & K-8 State Champion Alan Xu continued their streaks of great spring chess to win the K-12 Denker & K-8 Barber Playoffs on April 13-14 at the Chess Castle Club.
For Jordan Timm it was yet another victory as he added to his growing prize haul to become Minnesota's leading money winner thus far in 2024. Jordan went a perfect 5-0 against a tough field of high school competition to keep his newly gained 2200+ Master rating intact. Arvind Thiagarajan had a strong showing scoring 4.0/5.0 points with his only defeat coming against Jordan in round 3.
For Alan Xu it will be his second trip to the National Invitational Events as he also represented Minnesota in 2022 in the K-5 Rockefeller. Alan scored 4.5/5.0 points and had a key first round victory against runner-up Ahmed Ilyasov who finished with 3.5/5.0 points.
Congratulations to all of the Denker/Barber Playoff participants as it is a great accomplishment to make this elite field of six. Thanks as well to Dane Zagar for his TD work and his use of the DGT Boards to broadcast the Denker/Barber games live.