Jenks Tournament Dodges a Snowball

By Rod Whitlatch

Winter is the middle name of the Jenks Winter Open and this February scholastic tournament certainly lived up to the billing.  Three days before the tournament, a winter storm dumped two to three inches of snow across northeast Oklahoma.  The snow was most unwelcome.  While the snow was falling, registrations came in at a snails pace.  But luckily, the weather cleared and registrations poured in the day before the tournament.  Despite the weather, turnout for the event was excellent.

Mother Nature has not been kind to Oklahoma chess this winter.  Carl Albert attempted to host a scholastic tournament on January 13, but was hit with one of the worst ice storms in 15 years.  The Carl Albert tournament has now been postponed to April 21.  And some of you may remember the ice storm that cut attendance for the Tulsa Fall Open on December 2.  A couple dozen brave souls showed up in December and had a great time, but the ice cut attendance for the Tulsa Fall Open in almost half.

Despite having some snow on the ground, the Jenks Winter Open managed to draw 180 players from 53 schools.   Ida Freeman from Edmond showed up in full force with 47 players.  Ida Freeman not only came in quantity, but brought quality and won two first place team trophies and a second place team trophy.  Ida Freeman was so strong in the K-6 U700, they swept all five individual trophies.  Carl Albert and Jenks East Intermediate also won team titles.  In the individual competitions, Joseph Rose, Marcus Ford, Tyler Nguyen, Luke Dalton and Devin Hughes walked away with first place trophies.

Special thanks to Mike Swatek for a great job as Chief Tournament Director.  Thanks to section TD's Julie Luscomb, Robert Epperly, David Nichols, Raymond Griffin, Robbie Yanik, Fred Bocanumenth, Bob Meyer, Gregory Chong, Robert McDonough, Kay Dalton and Dan Kontje.  Linda Chen, Cathy Whitlatch, Christy Barnes and Laurie Tantakis also volunteered and were instrumental in getting the tournament started on time.  Chuck Unruh, Ed Boyle and John Cope provided the chess expertise and helped kids analyze their games.  Give credit to this group of volunteers who made this tournament a success!