Lincoln Students Sweep Chess Tournament

FARMINGTON -- When it comes to chess tournaments in Northwest Arkansas, Lincoln students have developed a reputation for winning and Lincoln Chess Club is the team to beat.

Members of Lincoln's Chess Club swept the fifth- and sixth-grade division at the Spring Chess Tournament of Champions on April 30 and took second and third place for the younger division, second-fourth grades.

Lincoln did not have any participants in the seventh-eighth grade division this year but will next year.

For the winter tournament held in February, Lincoln elementary and middle school students won 1st, 2nd and 3rd place for both divisions.

Coach Ryan Billingsley attributes the success of his team to hard work.

The Chess Club has 50 members and meets weekly on Mondays. However, he said those competing have been coming in before school every day to practice and have been eating lunch with him and playing chess.

"They are super dedicated," Billingsley said.

What Billingsley likes best is that he never knows who will step up and win for his fifth- and sixth-graders.

"Any of the guys and girls in the top eight could have been number one," Billingsley said. "When they play each other, it's cool but it's also a bummer because they have to beat up on each other. Many times their only loss is to a teammate."

For the Tournament of Champions, fifth-sixth grade division, Chilong Vang won first place; Kaleb Roy won second place; Ty Burks came in third.

Nine Lincoln students were in the top 10 for the tournament in the fifth-sixth grade division and included Paulo Ortiz, Justus Thao, Luis Calvillo, Jace Birkes, Jacob Jackson and Amber Bryant.

In the younger second-fourth grade division, Chiking Vang of Lincoln came in second place and Makayla Quinn finished third. Other Lincoln students in the top 10 were Sawyer Copeland and Kale Jones.

This is the fifth year that Northwest Arkansas Education Service Cooperative in Farmington has sponsored regional chess tournaments.

Students compete in a fall and winter tournament and the top players from those tournaments are invited to compete in the spring championship.

In all, 64 students qualified for the championship tournament and of those students, 16 were from Lincoln elementary and middle schools.

This was Makayla's first year to compete and she learned how to play chess by taking it as an elective during the school day.

Makayla said she found that she liked chess and wanted to join the Chess Club. The hardest part of chess, she said, is that if "you make mistakes, it messes up the whole game."

For the second consecutive year, Billingsley will take a group of students to compete in a national chess tournament in Nashville, Tenn. The "SuperNationals VI" tournament starts May 12 and is held every four years. More than 5,000 students in all grades competed in the 2013 national tournament, according to the tournament website.