National Chess Champions: Maggie Luo, Neha Pattanaik, Varsha Venkatesh, and Amy Luo.
This past weekend, Bull Run Elementary School students won the All-Girls, 10 Years and Younger(10U), National Championship.
Maggie Luo, Neha Pattanaik, Varsha Venkatesh, and Amy Luo traveled to Chicago and represented Bull Run in this three-day championship. Bull Run was in first place most of the way. However by the last round, it looked like Weibel Elementary of Fremont, Calif. would catch and pass Bull Run for first place. It took an upset victory by Maggie Luo to keep Bull Run ahead of Weibel and claim first place for the school.
The three-day tournament included six rounds of play with each round lasting 3 hours.
There were 246 girls at the tournament in Chicago; 59 players competed in the 10U section. Team scores are based on the scores of the top three players for each school.
Maggie Luo defeated the second strongest player in 10U to secure first place for Bull Run. Varsha Venkatesh also scored an upset victory over a much stronger player from Weibel to help hold the California school at bay.
Maggie Luo won the 5th place individual trophy. Neha Pattanaik was right behind Maggie and claimed the 6th place trophy. Varsha Venkatesh played her best tournament ever and increased her chess rating to a personal high.
Virginia has a history of strong chess-playing girls. This year Virginia girls claimed four of the top 11 spots; no other state did better.
Weibel was last year’s 10U winner; all the girls from that team returned this year.