On Saturday May 10, the Vestal High School Chess Club participated in the Broome-Tioga Scholastic Regional Tournament, hosted by Chenango Valley High School. Chess club advisors from Chenango Valley, Binghamton, Harpursville, Owego and Vestal High School’s Ben Greene started organizing a regional, Broome-Tioga, scholastic tournament where all schools could compete against each other in a fun and casual competition. This was not a "rated" tournament, so students did not need to have an ELO chess rating to participate. Unfortunately, Binghamton was not able to attend the tournament this year but they are hoping to have more students join their club next year so they can participate. Trophies were awarded to students who won first, second and third place. All participants received ribbons acknowledging their great sportsmanship and love for the game of Chess.  The first and second rounds were timed 5 minutes (Blitz) for each player, with no bonus time. Quarterfinals and onward were timed 10 minutes (Rapid) for each student, with no bonus time. If students run out of time, it counts as a loss.

Our Vestal team of 7 players -- Jayden Kim, Thanh Tong-Viet, Ephraim Sun, Milo Pezzuto, Malcolm Moore, Henry Zhou and Faysal Ornob -- crushed it in the first and second rounds against Harpursville and Chenango Valley. It was a hard-fought battle in the quarter and semifinal rounds with Ephraim defeating Harpursville's best player in the quarter-final round and Thanh taking on the best players from CV. Although Ephraim did not make it to the final round, Thanh advanced to play against CV. In the first brief match, a 10-minute rapid round, Thanh secured a draw by repetition (if the same moves are played 3 times in a row, it counts as a draw), forcing the final match to a 5-minute blitz round. In the second title match, Thanh, with 1 minute and 34 seconds left on the clock, emerged victorious by checkmate as the Broome-Tioga Scholastic Regional Champion! 

The tournament was a double elimination setup and the winner of the "Redemption Bracket" would claim 3rd place. Once again, our students battled till the end with Milo Pezzuto narrowly losing to CV for the 3rd place position. 2 Chenango Valley High School students, Kaigan and Simon, won 2^nd and 3^rd place, respectively. Everyone had a wonderful time, and we are thankful to Chenango Valley School District for hosting the event, providing pizza and snacks in between matches, providing the trophies and participation ribbons, and for Harpursville and Owego to attend and enjoy the competition.  

A huge Golden Bear congratulations to all who participated and especially to Broome-Tioga Scholastic Regional Champion Thanh and our Vestal team, and club advisor Ben Greene!