Texas Tech Knight Raider big winner at SPGI

Knight Raider big winner at annual Susan Polgar Girls Invitational
Posted: August 7, 2010 - 11:31pm
Lubbock Avalanche Journal

The seventh annual Susan Polgar Girl’s Invitational, the most prestigious all-girls chess championship in the United States, took place over six days at three separate venues (College of Education Building, English Building, and Rawls Business School Rotunda) on the Texas Tech campus, ended on Friday afternoon, July 30.

Each state can nominate one talented young female chess player, the top 18-year-old or younger from the state. Thousands of girls compete annually in local, state, regional, national and world events to earn the esteemed invitations. This year nearly 45 participants, as young as 6 years old, from all across the United States came to town to do battle on the 64 squares. In addition to the championship, these fierce competitors competed for chess prizes and scholarships.

There were a total of three individual championships. Trophies / plaques were awarded to the winners of the Susan Polgar Girls Invitational Puzzle Solving Championship, Blitz Championship, and Rapid Championship. The player with the highest combined score in the Puzzle Solving, Blitz and Rapid was crowned the Susan Polgar Girls Invitational Grand Champion.

Here is the summary of the competition:

Top 3 finishers in each championship

SP Girls Invitational Puzzle Solving Championship

There were four perfect 10 scores in this championship. Solving time was then used to determine the finishing order.

1. Anu Bayar (IL / Mongolia) 10 / 10 in 12 minutes

2. Taylor McCreary (CA) 10 /10 in 16 minutes

3. Brianna Conley (OH) 10 /10 in 29 minutes

4. Rebecca Deland (NM) 10 /10 in 30 minutes

SP Girls Invitational Blitz Championship

1. Anu Bayar (IL / Mongolia) 6.0 points in 6 games

2-3. Taylor McCreary (CA) 5.0

2-3. Victoria Bian (IL) 5.0

SP Girls Invitational Rapid Championship Full Standings

Texas Tech Knight Raider and honor student Rebecca Lelko pulled off a last round upset against tournament top ranked player Anu Bayar to win the main event, the 2010 SP Girl’s Invitational Rapid Championship, the most prestigious all-girls national championship.

1. Rebecca Lelko 5.5 points in 6 games (Texas Tech Freshman, Math Major)

2-3. Sayaka Foley 5.0

2-3. Anu Bayar 5.0

4. Annastasia Wyzywany 4.5

5. Julia Jones 4.5

6. Maggie Feng 4.0

7. Agata Bykovtsev 4.0

8. Brianna Conley 4.0

9. Mandy Lu 4.0

10. Katie Abderhalden 4.0

11. Rebekah Liu 4.0

12. Charity Carson 4.0

13. Clarisa Abella 4.0

14. Shayna Provine 3.5

15. Bethany Carson 3.5

16. Taylor McCreary 3.5

17. Emily Nguyen 3.0

18. Alexandra Timofte 3.0

19. Rachel Ulrich 3.0

20. Rebecca Deland 3.0

21. Devina Devagharan 3.0

22. Amelia Wyzywany 3.0

23. Helen Lou 3.0

24. Aiya Cancio 3.0

25. Minna Wang 3.0

26. Alexandra Wiener 2.5

27. Victoria Bian 2.5

28. Crystal Qian 2.5

29. Sydney Morris 2.5

30. Kristen Sarna 2.5

31. Emily Hasch 2.5

32. Isabel James 2.0

33. Tori Whatley 2.0

34. Sadia Qureshi 2.0

35. Bernadette Perez 2.0

36. Jacinda Lee 2.0

37. Susie Ulrich 2.0

38. Selena Wong 1.5

39. Estella Wong 1.5

40. Hannah Cheng 1.0

41. Anna Lee 1.0

Anu Bayar was crowned the 2010 Susan Polgar Girl’s Invitational Grand Champion by winning two of the three events while finishing in a tie for second in the third. She fell in love with Texas Tech, Lubbock, and the SPICE program and applied to come to Texas Tech in the Spring of 2011. She plans to major in math. Anu immediately headed for Poland on Saturday morning from Lubbock to represent Mongolia in the World Girl’s Championship.

List of Champions:

• 2010: Anu Bayar (Illinois / Mongolia)

• 2009: Yang Dai (Virginia)

• 2008: Courtney Jamison (Texas)

• 2007: Julia Kerr (New York) and Eunice Rodriguez (Florida)

• 2006: Abby Marshall (Virginia)

• 2005: Anya Corke (California / Hong Kong), Alisa Melekhina (Pennsylvania), Abby Marshall (Ohio)

• 2004: Roza Eynullayeva (Massachusetts)

All players and their families love Texas Tech, our campus, and the city of Lubbock. Many of these top students in the United States plan to apply to Texas Tech in the future. This is a win win event for Texas Tech, Lubbock, and Girl’s Chess in America.

IM Gergely Antal finishes second at College Tournament of Champions

The annual College Tournament of Champions is the most prestigious National Collegiate Individual Chess Championship in the United States. This event took place from July 31 to August 3, in Irvine, California this year.

IM Gergely Antal, an Economic major Senior, won this event last year. He was leading this year’s event after 4 rounds. Unfortunately, he came up just a little short at the end to finish 2nd this year, a mere ½ point behind the winner, Grandmaster Timur Gareev of UT Brownsville.

Congratulations to Rebecca and Gergely for representing Texas Tech very well at the nationals.

Source: LAJ