Sherman Co. students compete at State Chess Tournament in Seaside

SEASIDE, OR – On April 19-20, eight students from Sherman County School traveled to the Seaside Convention Center to participate in the 18th Annual Oregon Scholastic Chess Federation State Tournament.

This tournament was open to all Oregon players in grades K-12, and Sherman County sent six high school students and two middle school students this year to compete against the 300+ students who came to participate in it.

To qualify, Gage Simpson, Caiden Walker, Cohen Burgett, Eli Pickard, Erin Burbank, Daria Duong, Stephen Orendorff, and Isaiah Burbank had to be US Chess Federation members and participate in eight USCF-rated games this year as well each have a total of at least 15 of these rated games in their lifetime.

This tournament was a USCF-rated Swiss-style, five-round chess tournament wherein the top finisher in the top divisions in the elementary, middle, and high school sections earned a chance to represent Oregon by participating in the USCF national tournament.

This tournament was divided into categories based on ability and whether each student was in elementary, middle, or high school. In the high school section, the categories were Platinum (for players rated 1400-2400), Silver (for players rated 1200-1399), Copper (for players rated 700-1199), and Zinc (for players rated 100-699). As a point of reference, Chess Grandmasters are usually rated at least 2400 and up.

Sherman County's Gage Simpson and Caiden Walker participated in the Copper division and Cohen Burgett, Eli Pickard, Erin Burbank, and Daria Duong participated in the Zinc division. Gage earned 2 wins out of five, Caiden .5, Cohen 4.5, Eli 2, Erin 1, and Daria earned 2. While these wins may not seem impressive on the surface, it's worth noting that nearly every player the Sherman County players faced was higher rated than them so the Sherman County players finished much better than expected. Coach Kevin Stuart was very proud of them!

In the middle school section, the ratings were broken up slightly differently. In the middle school categories, Platinum was for players rated 1300-2200, Silver was for players rated 900-1299, Copper was for players rated 700-899, Zinc was for players rated 500-699, and Iron was for players rated 100-499. Sherman County's Stephen Orendorff and Isaiah Burbank were both in the Iron division and each earned a win.

This was the second year in a row that Sherman County participated in this tournament, though last year they only took three students and earned only a single win during the competition leaving them with a 7% win rate. This year the eight students who participated won 14 games for a 35% win rate and Cohen Burgett managed to earn 1st place in state in his category by winning 4.5 out of five games!

This state-level chess tournament concludes Sherman County's involvement in chess tournaments for the 2023-2024 school year. However, Sherman now has 29 students with active USCF memberships in elementary through high school of which all but six have participated in at least one state-qualifying chess tournament so they fully expect to take a much larger group of students to the OSCF team and individual chess tournaments next year. Yet, none of this growth in Sherman's chess program would have been possible without the continued generous support of the James Weir Foundation, the Sherman County Education Foundation, the SKORE grant from the State of Oregon, the school, and the parents of the kids interested in chess. Coach Kevin Stuart and Sherman's chess program would like to thank each of them for their incredible support!