RVE, VES Take Team Titles at Region Chess

Story and photo by Ronnie Zamora/LFCISD

Rancho Verde Elementary and Villareal Elementary brought home team championships at the 2017 Texas Chess Association Region VIII Scholastic Chess Championships Sunday at Los Fresnos United

More than 1,400 chess players from Pre-Kindergarten to high school participated in the two-day tournament. The tournament was sponsored by the Rancho Verde Elementary Chess Booster Club.

RVE won the K-1 championship trophy while VES won the Primary JV U700 championship trophy.

Individual champions from Los Fresnos CISD included:

Sunny Zhang, Olmito Elementary, K-1 Championship division
Julian Lerma, Villareal Elementary, Primary JV U700 division
Noe G. Leon, Los Fresnos United, High School JV U1000 division

Trophies were awarded to the top 15 teams in each Championship division, and 10 in the JV division. Individual trophies were presented to the top 40 players in the championship division and 30 in the JV sections. Participation medals were given to all participants in the K–1 Championship division.

Every chess participant played against seven opponents. Students from Los Fresnos CISD students who placed in the top 10 of their division were:

K-1 Championship
1. Sunny Zhang, Olmito
3. Timothy Qin, Rancho Verde
6. Mackenzie Douglas, Rancho Verde
9. Samuel Qin, Rancho Verde

Primary JV U700
1. Julian Lerma, Villareal
2. Autuan Lopez, Rancho Verde
5. Juan Avila, Las Yescas
6. Adrian Betancourt, Las Yescas
8. Joseph Reyna, Villareal

Elementary JV U800
7. Benjamin Lu, Villareal

Elementary Championship
6. Kevin Zhou, Rancho Verde

Middle School JV U900
9. Aaron Molina, Resaca Middle School

High School JV U1000
1. Noe G. Leon, Los Fresnos United
5. Jolie Gonzalez, Los Fresnos United
6. Edward Maciel, Los Fresnos United

Team Awards
K-1 Championship
1. Rancho Verde: Timothy Qin, Mackenzie Douglas, Samuel Qin, Lucia Chavez
3. Olmito: Sunny Zhang, Sebastian Garcia, Marco Tovar, Sean Quintanilla

Primary JV U700
1. Villareal: Julian Lerma, Joseph Reyna, Jay Conde, Zachary O’Conner
2. Rancho Verde: Antuan Lopez, Jonas Apacible, Victor Moreno, Erika Martinez.
3. Las Yescas: Juan Avila, Adrian Betancourt, June Woods, Xavier Argullin.
4. Olmito: Mia Panciera, Braden Londrie, Hector Resendiz, Liam Jimenez

Elementary JV U800
3. Villareal: Benjamin Lu, Andres Ortiz, Emily Lerma, Alexander Vatchev.
7. Olmito: Austin Vela, Diego Cortez, Marcus Aguirre, Guillermo Dorantes
9. Rancho Verde: Josias Calderon, Marcus Ramirez, Carlos Zertuche, Saul Chavez.

Elementary Championship
6. Villareal: Adrian Ortiz, Casper Kaschele, Jose Ortiz, Ryan Torres

Middle School JV
5. Resaca: Aaron Molina, Angel Medina, Iaziah Garcia, Arturo Gonzalez
7. Liberty Memorial: Joseph Treviño, Mario Valdez, Diego Warrell, Daniel Villarreal

High School JV U1000
1. Los Fresnos United: Noe Leon, Edward Maciel, Julie Gonzalez, Jose Medina.

High School Championship
10. Los Fresnos High School: Kevin Benavides, Joe Medina, Janeth Gonzalez, Jacob Ahumada.