The 2011 Barber Tournament of K-8 Champions was positioned beside the Denker Tournament of High School Champions in Orlando, FL. There was a tie between Justus Williams (NY) and Michael Brown (CA-S) with a scores of 5.5/6. Their draw occurred in Round 5 making it necessary to win the last game in order to win or tie for First Place. This Championship had 6 National Masters and 5 Experts in a field of 44 participants. Since this represented the Inaugural Year of this event, I am confident that the future is bright. It also shows that the strength of the younger players is better today than in the past.
A special thanks to US Chess, the US Chess Trust, American Chess Equipment, Inc. and Dwight Barber for their support of this event.
Clear 2nd Place went to Christopher Gu (RI) with a score of 4.5/6. Third to Fifth Place was a tie between the following players: Jeevan Karamsetty (VA), Kapil Chandran (CT), Arthur Shen (NJ), Neel Apte (CA-N), Grant Xu (MA), Matthew Fishbein (ME), Benjamin Moon (GA), Sean Vibbert (IN), Gabriel Katz (VT) and Andrew Tang (MN).
Finally, the Barber Tournament Committee would like to thank the USCF for making this a qualifier for the World Youth Event now and in the future.
Results can be found at the following: http://www.uschess.org/assets/msa_joomla/XtblMain.php?201108022841