He is the Champion, my friends!

Shades of QUEEN. Don'tcha love that song? Well, it was resonating throughout out house this weekend. On Saturday, Nicholas played in his first-ever chess tournament. And being a newcomer to the tournament gig, he came in as an unranked player. He plays in the K thru 2nd grade section so is at the upper end of the scale (probably best since he was a little worried about playing at the onset). Each player has 5 matches in the day, each successive round being determined by how you do against the earlier opponent(s) and how they are ranked in the day. We just wanted him to have a great time playing.

Unbeknownst to us, this wasn’t just a routine tournament. It was the Eastern Washington chess championships. Well, our guy played really well, winning 4 of his 5 matches. At day's end, can you guess who the Eastern Washington State 2nd Grade Chess Champion was? YES! He was thrilled (us, too)! He received a medal (as the 2nd Grade Champion), as well as a trophy for coming in 2nd place in his section. The section winner turned out to be the 1st grade champion who went undefeated. Guess who Nicholas’ only loss was to? Yes, this young man. This qualifies him to play in the state tournament (we'll see if we can make that happen).

Needless to say, we are very proud of him! WHOOHOOO!


UPDATED: Hard to see but the medal hanging around his neck is the one for being the Eastern WA 2nd Grade Chess Champ.