Lincoln Students Excel In Chess

The chess tournament at Sonora Middle School was a big success for Lincoln Middle School.

The NWA Winter 2016 Open Chess Tournament was held Feb. 27 and more than 200 players from all over Northwest Arkansas competed in three divisions: 2nd-4th grade, 5th/6th grade, and 7th/8th grade.

Lincoln Middle School took 18 students to compete in the 2nd-4th grade and the 5th/6th grade divisions. In the 2nd-4th grade division, Lincoln students finished first, second and third place. Paulo Ortiz was the first place winner, Kaleb Roy second and Diego Trillo came in third. Paulo and Kaleb both won all five of their games. Lincoln players were doing so well that during the final round, all four players on the top two boards were Lincoln Middle School students.

In the 5th/6th grade division, Chilong Vang of Lincoln won all five of his games, but the computer gave the strength of schedule tiebreaker to another student with a perfect score. Chilong finished in second place.

Lincoln Middle School qualified 10 players for the Tournament of Champions that will be held at the Northwest Arkansas Educational Service Cooperative in Farmington on April 30.

Ryan Billingsley, EAST facilitator at Lincoln Middle School, coaches the chess team.

SUBMITTED PHOTO Chilong Vang, right and wearing a black hoodie, concentrates during one of his chess matches at a recent tournament. Chilong,a fifth-grader at Lincoln Middle School, won all five of his games and was named second place winner for the fifth/sixth-grade...

SUBMITTED PHOTO These three fourth-graders at Lincoln Middle School finished third, second and first in a recent chess tournament in Springdale: Diego Trillo, left, Kaleb Roy and Paulo Ortiz. Lincoln students had a successful tournament.