The Hawaii Chess Federation hosted its November 2024 Scholastic Open tournament on Saturday, November 9th, at Washington Middle School. The tournament, which consisted of six rounds of chess played at a time control of G30 (30 minutes per player) with a 5-second increment, boasted over 90 student participants and a handful of adult players as well. The “open” tournament format included two scholastic sections – K-8 Novice and K-12 Open. The Novice section is meant for newer players (rated below 800 USCF) to test their skills against other less experienced players, while the Open section is for players of all ages who are looking to try their strength against more experienced competition. One rule unique to this format is that the player who wins the Novice section is automatically “graduated” to the Open section for future events!

After a long and exciting day of chess, the stand-out performance was delivered by Ty Dutoit from Punahou School, who won the Open (K-12) section with a perfect score of 6.0 and a clear first-place result. The Novice (K-8) section saw a 4-way tie for first place, where Jaymen Li from Aliamanu Elementary School won on tie breaks with a score of 5.0. In the team competition, Punahou School claimed first place in both the K-8 Novice and K-12 Open sections.

Congratulations to our winners and to all participants for their hard work and dedication to chess!

• USCF Tournament Results

Team Results: