Eureka Springs Chess Team Competes at SuperNationals VIII
On May 9th-11th, Eureka Springs High School and Middle School competed in the USChess SuperNationals VIII tournament in Orlando, FL. We at the Northwest Arkansas Chess Center could not be prouder of the way they represented Northwest Arkansas this last month on the national stage - and we couldn’t be more pleased to be their sponsor.
Coach Jerry Wells took a total of 13 students to Orlando and they competed in several different categories - split apart into teams based on which school they attend, their age, and their chess rating. All in all, Eureka Springs brought home 3 national trophies - 2 team trophies and 1 very impressive individual trophy from senior JD Eckman.
K-12 U1600 (Won 16th place team trophy)
William Vaverka (9th grade)
Sonny Thao (9th grade)
Draven Cummings (9th grade)
Bonus Shock (10th grade)
K-12 U1200 (Won 12th place team trophy)
JD Eckman (senior; won 11th place individual medal, going an undefeated 6/7)
Finn Walsh Van Sickle (senior)
Roman Schuber (senior)
Riley Chapman (senior)
K-12 U800
Amber Kirk (senior)
Mia Renko (junior)
K-8 U1100
Christian Thao (7th grade)
K-8 U700
Chase Abendroth (7th grade)
K-12 Unrated
Cael Dempsie (8th grade)
Coach Jerry Wells started working with the district's chess team when he took an elementary teaching job in Eureka Springs in 2018; that group won state in the spring of 2019, led by Ethan Weems, who remains active in Arkansas chess. Then they had a lull in activity due to Covid, followed by a return to form in 2022 with 2nd place at state. Coach Wells still has a picture on his wall from that event, standing next to Justus Thao and JD Eckman, along with their captain Jacob Eastburn.
This year they finished in second place at the state championship again, drawing with the team from Haas Hall in the final round, but losing out on tiebreaks - a tragic but common occurrence in the chess world.
If you’re curious how hard these students work on their chess, their training looks like this: On Mondays they have Youth Chess, emphasizing the younger grades (the youngest currently is in 2nd grade). This consists of a short lesson, light puzzles, and sparring.
Tuesday and Thursday morning they have a small high school group meeting to train. Thursday afternoon is what Coach Wells calls their main solving day - working on a theme they’ve identified from analysis of their games. Sometimes this is tactical motifs from the Steps Method (a structured teaching method in chess using manuals and workbooks), sometimes it is fundamental endgames. Last month leading up to Supernationals, Coach Wells says they emphasized blindfold puzzles to stretch their visualization of the board.
Fridays are reserved for ladder games with notation, clocks, and a post-mortem analysis. And for extra motivation, if the group gives 100% during training, they’ll go to the gym for indoor soccer or basketball toward the end of our evening practice sessions. Even the best chess players in the world will attest to the benefits of exercise too! And for each event they play in, they keep notation, input it into a Lichess study, and analyze it - finding missed opportunities, gaps in opening preparation, and patterns of mistakes.
Throughout the last school year, Eureka Springs has traveled for several tournaments. They competed in four Grand Prix events in the fall from CAAS (the official AAA organizer of high school chess in Arkansas) which they swept in the final results with students William, Bonus, and Christian. They entered a handful of USChess-rated events, regionals (1st place, with Bonus Shock as regional champion), team state (2nd place), the prestigious individual scholastic state tournament (Chase Abendroth 3rd in the Haring, William Vaverka 4th in the Denker), and now SuperNationals.
Coach Wells says that SuperNationals VIII in Orlando was a wonderful event, and a perfect send-off for their seniors.
“JD has been dreaming of Nationals since he found out about it in middle school & now he has a SuperNationals medal to hang on his wall. I have a poster Chase and Christian made as they left elementary school trying to fundraise to get us here. Standing there at the opening ceremony, seeing all of them finally there, I did perhaps check off the ‘crying in public’ part of the school year.”
