A FOUR-WAY TIE LEADS THE FIELD
By
Dewain Barber
The 2013 Barber Tournament of K-8 Champions provided its own share of excitement this year. This event had the largest field of participants to ever compete for the title of Barber Champion of Champions.
Composed of fifty players from around the nation, this group had eight National Masters with all of them drawing or losing a game. Never in the history of this event has there been a four-way tie for First Place. Leading that group was NM Andrew Liu (MA) who had the best tie-breaks and will be one of the US representatives at the World Youth. The other players who tied for First Place were NM Andrew Tang (MN), NM Vignesh Panchanatham (CA-N) and NM Craig Hilby (CA-S).All four struggled to reach the magic score of 6/6, but no one could reach even 5.5/6. Three of the four winners lost a game with the other player giving up two draws.
Another rising star, NM Roland Feng (WA) scored a clear 4.5/6 for Fifth Place. Roland along with many others took on the challenge of playing in the US Open after the conclusion of this event.
I would like to recognize our new sponsor, Internet Chess Club (ICC) which provided a two year membership to each participant.
Results for all participants can be found at:
http://www.uschess.org/assets/msa_joomla/XtblMain.php?201307301612