The Eureka Springs High School chess team won their 1A-3A regional tournament in Cotter on Feb. 16, scoring 12.5 points out of 20 total matches on the day.
The tournament ran on the standard Swiss system: for five rounds, each player faced an opponent with an equivalent number of wins. Every game counted and no games were guaranteed, from the first board to the 13th.
In between rounds, players worked with their coaches to analyze their games and find ways to improve before the next round.
Junior Ethan Weems went undefeated, going five out of five and bringing home the MVP award. Senior Colton Jecker followed up with a strong 5th place for Eureka after winning three games and picking up a draw from what looked a hopeless position.
Just behind, Junior Trent Hiner finished on three of five for the day, securing a positive score for our top three boards. Dominic Baracosa, a late joiner to the team, brought home a crucial half point in his first tournament outing.
The team finished with 12 points to their total score, beating out the next 1A-3A team by half a point. Nathaniel Smith, a promising 7th grade talent, competed as the lone player for the JH team finishing on two wins out of his five games.
The senior high team will compete for the state title at Bald Knob on April 6.
Wait, there’s more
Ethan Weems is also an attorney on the ESHS Mock Trial team that competed in the Fayetteville regional last Saturday, held in the “courtroom” at the U of A law school. Big schools that Eureka Springs was up against had regular daily Mock Trial classes and were coached by actual attorneys while the ESHS team was coached via speakerphone from an attorney in Conway, but the Arkansas Bar Association posted on Facebook last night that Eureka placed well enough to advance to the state competition in Little Rock.