03.08.15 Two hundred sixty-eight scholastic chess players descended on the University of Maine in Orono to play in the 2015 Maine State Scholastic Team Chess Championships on Saturday, March 7th. Players competed in nine sections and state titles were decided in the K-3, K-6, Junior High School and High School sections. Here's the extravagantly illustrated tournament report with USCF crosstables coming soon.

Thanks to Phil Lowell, Tom Sandford, Mark Woida, Steve Wong, Andy Bryan, and Kathy Richards for contributing to this report.

K-3, K-6, and Junior High School Championship USCF crosstables

High School Championship and High School Reserve USCF crosstables

In a very exciting and hotly contested match, Portland's Cheverus High School emerged victorious in the High School Championship section with 3.5 points. They were trailed very closely by Orono High School who scored 3.0 match points.

Medomak and Cheverus tied in the High School Reserve section with 10.0 points. Medomak repeated last year's triumph and received the first place trophy based on tie breaks. In the High School Novice section, Cape Elizabeth took top honors and John Bapst High School finished second.

The High School Reserve and High School Novice team scores were based on the three highest scoring players on each team.

In the Junior High School Championship section, Blue Hill Consolidated School repeated their win from 2014 and took first place over Orono Middle School by a mere 0.5 points. That's just one draw over the course of twenty games! Congratulations to both of these young teams for their tremendous fighting spirit. Ellsworth won the first place trophy in the Junior High School Novice section over second place finishing East Corinth.

In the K-6 Championship section, Deer Isle-Stonington took first place with 16.0 points. Orono followed in second place with 13.5 points and Brewer and Piscataquis rounded out the top 4 scoring 9.0 and 7.0 points respectively. In the K-6 Novice section. Blue Hill Consolidated again made their presence known and tool first with Bucksport and Ellsworth sharing the second place spot. Ellsworth took the second place trophy based on tie breaks.

Brewer just edged out Deer Isle-Stonington in the K-3 Championship section by a score of 7.0 to 6.5. These close scores are indicative of exciting, closely matched games. In the K-3 Novice section, Deer Isle-Stonington walked away with the first place spot scoring a convincing 7.5 points. Second place went to the one-person team of Onyxia Williams from Piscataquis Community Elementary School.

All players who scored 3.5 points or better in the High School Reserve section and 3.0 points or better in all Championship sections are invited to participate free of charge in the State Scholastic Individual Championships on March 21st.

Thanks to all who participated in this the largest chess event in the state of Maine--players, parents, coaches, organizers, directors, volunteers, and to the University of Maine Orono for hosting.

We hope to see all players back again in two weeks on March 21st for the State Scholastic Individual Championships. More information and registration forms on this event can be found HERE

High School Team Standings

Cheverus High School 3.5
Orono High School 3.0
Maine School of Science and Mathematics 2.5

High School Reserve Team Final Standings

Medomak Valley 10
Cheverus 10
John Bapst 8
George Stevens Academy 7
Bucksport 5
Piscataquis 5
Monmouth Academy 5
Van Buren 4

Junior High School Team Standings

Blue Hill Consolidated School 14.5
Orono Middle School 14.0
Breakwater School13.5
Caravel Middle School 13.0
Memomak Middle School 12.0
Airline Community School 10.5
Brewer Middle School 7.0
Glenburn School 6.0
Bucksport Middle School 6.0
All Saints School 4.5
Deer Isle-Stonington Middle School 3.0

K-6 Team Standings

Deer Isle-Stonington 16.0
Orono Middle School 13.5
Brewer Community School 9.0
Piscataquis Community School 7.0
Lamoine 4.0
Deer Isle-Stonington B 4.0
Bangor 3.0
Airline 3.0
All Saints School 2.5
Cape Elizabeth 2.0

K-3 Team Standings

Brewer 7.0
Deer Isle-Stonington 6.5
Lamoine 3.0
Piscataquis 2.0

**An LL Bean Child's Jacket was left in the Multi-Purpose Room please contact Tom Sanford to claim it. sandford@umit.maine.edu**

Cheverus High School: 2015 Maine State High School Team Champions!

Runners Up: Orono High School

High School Reserve Champions: Medomak

High School Reserve Runners Up: Cheverus High School

High School Novice Champions: Cape Elizabeth High School

An army of one! Lucien Jellison single-handedly managed to bring the Runner Up High School Novice Trophy to John Bapst

2015 Maine State Junior High School Champions: Blue Hill Consolidated School!

Junior High School Runners Up: Orono Middle School

Ellsworth Middle School took first in the Junior High School Novice section.

Runners Up in the Junior High School Novice section: East Corinth

Maine State K-6 Champions: Deer Isle-Stonington!

Maine State K-6 Runners Up: Orono!

Blue Hill Consolidated School: K-6 Novice Champions

K-6 Novice Co-Runners Up: Ellsworth

K-6 Novice Co-Runners Up: Bucksport

2015 Maine State K-3 Champions: Brewer!

2015 Maine State K-3 Runners Up: Deer Isle-Stonington!

K-3 Novice Champions Deer Isle-Stonington with K-3 Novice Runner Up Oxyxia Williams (right) from Piscataquis Community Elementary Scool

The final frontier: Last round match up between Cheverus (left) and Orono. Cheverus prevailed and won the state title.

Cape Elizabeth (right) plays John Bapst

Cheverus Board 1: Ben Peterson

Cheverus Board 2: Ricardo Romero

Cheverus Board 3: Frank Jin

Cheverus Board 4: Taylor Jackson

Cheverus Board 5: Nathan Dunn

Orono Board 1: Joseph Astumian

Orono Board 2: Ben Amar

Orono Board 3: Aaron Wilson-McFarlane

Orono Board 4: Greg Dimoulas

Orono Board 5: Seam McEvoy

The John Bapst Team: Bach Nguyen

Zack Grindal

Haley DeLuca Lowell

Ho Thanh Nha

Minh Tran

Cape Elizabeth's Top Gun: MatthewFishbein

Wesley Parker

Carter Brock

Lily Jordan

Roman Medina

The Team from Caravel Middle School with coach Austin Walker. The team name is derived from combining the first three letters of the town of CARmel with the first four letters, inverted, of the town of LEVAnt.

The Caravel parents could rival CNN for media coverage.

The Junior High School Championship section.

After games in the high school section, Aaron Spencer (left) goes over a game with Zack Grindal.

As does Orono coach Ryan Tripp (right) with Greg Dimoulas.

A huge debt of gratitude goes to our tournaments directors: Phil Lowell (High School Championship and Reserve)

Mark Woida (Junior High School Championship)

Steve Wong (K-6 Championship)

Andy Bryan (K-3 Championship and Novice)

Tom Sandford (K-6, Junior High School and High School Novice)

The expansive High School Reserve section

Swaroop Handral takes a break between rounds in the K-6 Championship section with a little screen time.

One of the perfect scorers in the Junior High School Championship section: Ian Youth

This K-6 player was spotted with what might be the largest Sour Patch Kids candy bag ever produced.

One of the interesting aspects of this tournament is the wide variety of apparel that could be spotted.

Caravel Middle School

Medomak Middle School

Bucksport Middle School

Cape Elizabeth High School

Deer Isle-Stonington

Blu Hill Consolidated School

John Bapst High School (Math Team shirt)

Even chess has groupies. This adherent belongs to the Steve Wong Fan Club


Ellsworth

MSSM aka Maine School of Science and Mathematics

All Saints School

Natalie Sheehan

Clara Parker

William Xu

Ben Butterfield

What to do after rounds of grueling tournament chess--maybe play a few skittles games to relieve the tension!