04.13.07 The National High School Championship is getting underway at the Hyatt Regency Crown Center in Kansas City, Missouri. This seven-round tournament will take place on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, April 13-15, 2007. ChessMaine has travelled to the Show Me State with the John Bapst High School Team and will bring you daily coverage. Here's the first of a series of reports.

Official site of the 2007 National High School Championship

Main Event Rounds

Round 1 Friday 1:00 p.m.
Round 2 Friday 7:00 p.m.
Round 3 Saturday 9:00 a.m.
Round 4 Saturday 2:00 p.m.
Round 5 Saturday 7:00 p.m.
Round 6 Sunday 9:00 a.m.
Round 7 Sunday 2:00 p.m.

Time control is Game in 120 minutes.

The tournament will be contested in five sections and Bapst will be playing in four of them:
K-12 Championship
K-12 Under 1500 (Fritz Eyerer, Aaron Spencer, Murray Bridges and Frank Kessler)
K-12 Under 1200 (Zack LaPierre, Zack Smith, Kurt Eyerer (Kurt will be a first-year student at Bapst in the fall))
K-12 Under 900 (Gillian Anderson, Ken Ginn and Dan Honeycutt)
K-12 Unrated (Omar Khan)

Trophies will be awarded for at least the top 25 players and teams in each section. Also class prizes will be awarded to the top three in each of the following classes in the Championship section: 1799-1600, 1599-1400 and U1400.

Heavy rain in Boston caused delays on all filghts to Kansas City.

The positive spin on the delays was that it created some more time for chess! Fritz Eyerer (left) takes on Zack LaPierre while waiting at the gate.

Here's a look at the John Bapst team.

Fritz Eyerer

Aaron Spencer

Murray Bridges

Frank Kessler

Zack LaPierre

Zach Smith

Kurt Eyerer

Gillian Anderson

Dan Honeycutt

Ken Ginn

Omar Khan

Stay tuned!