Winners crowned at 2022 US Middle School Championship
The 501(c)3 US Chess Federation’s 2022 National Middle School (K-8) Championship took place from April 28-May 1, 2022 at the Gaylord Texan Hotel and Resort in Grapevine, Texas. A total of 931 players from 35 states competed. This tournament was formerly known as the National Junior High School (K-9) Championship. The individual K-8 Co-Champions are (listed in tiebreak order): Brewington Hardaway, 7th Grade, Speyer Legacy School: New York, New York Jonathan Chen, 8th Grade, Chaparral Middle School: Diamond Bar, California Troy Cavanah, 8th Grade, Olson Middle School: Minneapolis, Minnesota Vaseegaran Nandhakumar, 7th Grade, Anthony Elementary School: Anthony, Kansas Ilya Levkov, 6th Grade, Millburn Middle School: Millburn, New Jersey In the K-8 Team Championship the Hunter College Campus School of New York, New York took the title. Many other winners in multiple sections below the championship section were also determined. These winners are properly identified as, “Winner of the <X> section at the National Middle School Championship.” For a full list of winners, please see here: http://www.uschess.org/results/2022/ms/. As US Chess fulfils its mission to “empower people, enrich lives, and enhance communities through chess,” we use our scholastic nationals to fulfill our goals to expand the educational, social, recreational and rehabilitative applications of chess; increase the visibility of chess on mainstream communications channels; develop the depth and breadth of our partnerships; use chess to increase opportunities for underrepresented segments of society, and to continuously improve internal operations and member services. US Chess Executive Director Carol Meyer notes, “Our vision is that chess is recognized as an essential tool that promotes inclusiveness and benefits education, rehabilitation, recreation, and friendly competition. This all comes together at our national scholastic championships.” For more information on our events, please visit www.uschess.org. Photo credit: Randy Anderson
Susan Namangale: “I want to be a part of the change”
The fourth episode of the FIDE Podcast, the initiative born under the umbrella of the Year of the Woman in Chess, as cooperation between FIDE’s Commission for Women’s Chess, Michael Busse of Schachgeflüster podcast, and Lilli Hahn of Chess Sports Association, has been released. The monthly episodes of the podcast feature a series of interviews with remarkable women in the chess world. The guest of the new episode is Susan Namangale, the President of the Malawi Chess Association, CHESSAM and the first female chess federation president in Africa. Among the key milestones achieved under her leadership: Increasing the number of female chess players from less than 10% to over 30% Launching chess in a school development program Reaching out to rural schools and setting up chess clubs there “Every child needs to have the privilege of learning chess at school. With the support of FIDE and other partners, we have been able to take chess to as many schools as possible, even to rural areas of the country. We are training patrons, making them able to teach the basics of chess. Most of the schools do not have the equipment, but we also try to distribute chessboards to schools. In 2018 we had less than 50 kids playing in school chess events, but now we can put together over 500 kids, and we have over 100 schools and clubs where chess is played,” Susan explains. Susan Namangale is not only a chess official, but a chess player and 2019 national women champion. “When I became a president, I made it clear from the very beginning that my intention was to improve the way we do things, to put up systems in place, and I wanted to be a part of the change. I was not happy with the number of women and girls playing chess. For that reason, I decided that I wanted to start playing again so that girls and women would get motivated as they see me as their president also being a part of the games. And from that moment, I saw the numbers going up. This time I did not qualify for the Olympiad, but I am happy that I’ve got new ladies who made it to the team and will participate in the World Chess Olympiad for the first time. That’s what I call growth. It means we are progressing as a federation,” says Susan in her interview. You can listen to the fourth episode of the FIDE podcast on the following platforms: Podbean Spotify Google Podcasts