Evan Sandberg Represents CalChess At Denker

CalChess K-12 co-Champion Evan Sandberg flew to Indianapolis last weekend to compete in the prestigious Arnold Denker Tournament of High School Champions. For more than 20 years, this 48 player invitational has featured many of the best high school players from around the country, one from almost every state. Recent representatives from Northern California included masters Nicolas Yap, Daniel Schwarz and Steven Zierk. This year became Evan's turn after he tied for top honors at the CalChess Scholastics in San Jose. No playoff was necessary because co-champion NM Yian Liou was too young to play in the Denker.

Evan definitely played his heart out in one of the toughest tournaments around the country, but a round 2 defeat on board 1 ended his chances of winning. Having attended in the past two years, I can definitely say that the competition is fierce; there are simply no easy games, even against lower rated opponents. In the end, Evan tied for 5th through 13th place with three wins, two draws and one loss (4.0/6). He had a few ups and downs, but still ended up with a respectable finish as the third lowest rated out of those in the top 13.

Click here for the rating report or check out the story by champion Abby Marshall! (Photos of Evan and all of the Denker participants taken by Joel Sandberg.)