Issue of the Lake Superior Chess Association WoodPusher May /June, 1999 Back

1999 UP High School Team Championship

The UP High School and Junior High School chess championship was held on the weekend of March 20th at Forest Park High School.

The Iron Mountain Chess Club High School team won first place with a team score of 4-0. The team dominated a strong field of 8 other teams from Republic-Missigammee A & B teams, Forest Park A & B teams, Sau St. Marie, and Negeauee. Second place was won by Forest Parks B team, third place trophy was awarded to Republic-Michigamme A team and fourth place trophy was awarded to Crystal Falls A team.

The Iron Mountain High School team consisted of Ken Ceterski, 10th grade, Nathan Kidd, 8th grade, Chi Chin, 9th grade and Sean Nickels, 11th grade. The four compiled a combined individual total of 15 wins and 1 loss.

The Iron Mountain Junior High team took top honors for a junior team. The Jr. High team consisted of Chien Chin, 8th grade, Kevin Freeman, 6th grade, Jake Truitt, 4th grade and Johnaton Kidd, 5th grade. The only other Jr. Team was one from Sault St. Marie and it was agree that both team would compete with the high school teams and the top finishing Jr. Team would be awarded the top Jr. trophy. The final standings found both the Iron Mountain and Sault St. Marie Jr. Team tied for third place over all at a team score of 2-2. The trophy was awarded to the Iron Mountain team based on the fact that they beat the Sault St. Negaunee Squares off against Iron Mountain High School. Left side of the table is Andy Just and Jeff Gould (dark T-shirt) of Negaunee. Right side of the table is Ken Ceterski and Nathan Kidd (light T-shirt) of Iron Mountain.Marie Jr. Team their head to head match.

Individual grade trophies were awarded to the following players: 12th grade Mike Spanton of Republic with a 3-1 score. The rest of the grade trophies were won by Iron Mountain players: 11th grade Sean Nickels with a 4-0 score, 10th grade Ken Ceterski with a 4-0 score, 9th grade Chi Chen with a 3-1 score, 8th grade Nathan Kidd with a 4-0 score, 6th grade Kevin Freeman with a 3-1 score, 5th grade Johnaton Kidd 2-2 score and 4th grade Jake Truitt with a 2-2 score.

All the games were hard fought battles and it was surprising how well both Jr. Team held up under tournament conditions. The toughest and longest match of the day was the third round match up of the Sau St. Marie and Iron Mountain's Jr. Teams. The teams were very well match and it came down to the last move of the last game to determine the match winner.

The tournament was directed by Tom Ceterski and Bill St. John and sponsored by the Lake Superior Chess Association. The LSCA would like to thank the Forest Park School for the use of their school to hold the event and the Iron Mountain Chess Club for donating the trophies.

Here is a game from the annual event.

A. J. Alexa (Forest Park) - Brian Pahn (Soo Jr High)[A00]
UP High School - Round 1

1.d3 d5 2.Nc3 e5 3.Nf3 Nc6 4.Bg5 Be7 5.Bxe7 Ngxe7 6.d4 Ng6 7.e3 e4 8.Nd2 0-0 9.Qh5 Nb4 10.0-0-0 Qf6 11.Nxd5 Qxf2 12.Nxb4 a5 13.Nxe4 Qxe3+ 14.Nd2 axb4 15.b3 Qc3 16.Kb1 Qxd4 17.Bc4 Bg4 18.Qd5 Qxd5 19.Bxd5 Bxd1 20.Rxd1 c6 21.Bf3 Ra7 22.Nc4 Ra6 23.Rd7 Rfa8 24.a4 bxa3 25.Ka1 b5 26.Nd6 Ne5 27.Re7 Nxf3 28.gxf3 Rf8 29.Nb7 Ra7 30.Rc7 Rb8 31.Rxc6 Raxb7 32.Ka2 b4 33.f4 Rd7 34.h4 Rd1 35.f5 Re8 36.h5 Ree1 37.Rc8+ Rd8 38.Rxd8+ Re8 39.Rxe8# 1-0

Andy Just (Negaunee) - Ken Ceterski (Iron Mountain) [A45]
UP High School - Round 1

1.d4 Nf6 2.Bf4 d6 3.Nc3 g6 4.e3 Bg7 5.h3 0-0 6.Nf3 Nbd7 7.Bd3 Qe8 8.Nb5 Qd8 9.c4 Re8 10.0-0 a6 11.Nc3 e5 12.Bg5 h6 13.Bxf6 Nxf6 14.dxe5 dxe5 15.Be4 Nxe4 16.Qxd8 Rxd8 17.Nxe4 b6 18.Rad1 Bb7 19.Ng3 e4 20.Nh4 Bf6 21.Nhf5 gxf5 22.Nxf5 Kh7 23.b3 Kg6 24.Ng3 Rxd1 25.Rxd1 Rd8 26.Rxd8 Bxd8 27.Ne2 Bg5 28.Nf4+ Bxf4 29.exf4 a5 30.g3 Ba6 31.a4 c6 32.Kf1 b5 33.c5 bxa4+ 34.Ke1 axb3 35.g4 b2 36.f5+ Kf6 37.Kd2 b1Q 38.Ke3 Qd3+ 39.Kf4 Qf3# 0-1

Pete Stevens (Soo Jr High) - Roger Halstead (Forest Park) [A04]
UP High School - Round 1

1.Nf3 e6 2.d3 Nf6 3.Bg5 Be7 4.Kd2 0-0 5.Kc1 b6 6.Nd4 Ba6 7.g3 Nc6 8.Nxc6 dxc6 9.Bg2 Bb7 10.Qd2 a5 11.Qe3 Nd7 12.Qf4 f6 13.Bh4 e5 14.Qc4+ Rf7 15.Bf3 b5 16.Qb3 Nc5 17.Qc3 b4 18.Qd2 Ne6 19.a3 g5 20.Bh5 Rf8 21.axb4 Bxb4 22.c3 Be7 23.Ra4 c5 24.b4 Bxh1 25.bxc5 Nxc5 26.Rc4 gxh4 27.d4 exd4 28.Rxd4 Qb8 29.Bg4 Nb3+ 30.Kd1 Nxd2 31.Kxd2 Qxb1 32.Be6+ Kg7 33.e3 Qb2+ 34.Kd3 Qb5+ 35.Kd2 Rae8 36.c4 Qb8 37.Bd7 Rd8 38.Kd3 Bc5 39.gxh4 Bxd4 40.exd4 Rfe8 41.Kd2 Rxd7 42.c5 Rxd4+ 43.Kc3 Qb4+ 44.Kc2 Re2+ 45.Kc1 Qb2# 0-1

Pete Stevens (Soo Jr High) - Kyle Martens (Negaunee) [A04]
UP High School - Round 4

1.Nf3 Nc6 2.e3 b6 3.Bb5 Nb4 4.0-0 Bb7 5.Nc3 e5 6.Nxe5 Bc5 7.Nxd7 Nh6 8.Nxc5+ Qd7 9.Nxd7 Ng4 10.Qxg4 Bc8 11.b3 h5 12.Qxg7 Nxc2 13.Qxh8+ Ke7 14.Bc4 Nxa1 15.Ba3+ Kxd7 16.Rxa1 a5 17.Bb5+ Ke6 18.Ne4 Bb7 19.Rc1 Rxh8 20.Rxc7 h4 21.Rxb7 h3 22.Rxb6+ Ke5 23.Nd6 Rg8 24.Bf1 Rc8 25.Nxf7+ Kf5 26.Bd3+ Kg4 27.f3+ Kh4 28.Be7+ Kh5 29.g4#
1-0

  Negaunee VFW Quads February, 1999

Created by LSCA Editor: Ken Ceterski