LDMS - other results

I just received the results from other divisions - below are some more notes:

• Congratulations to all the kids who jumped into their FIRST tournament!  The non-rated divisions are a great way to do it.  Congrats to: Talan Noel, Evan Stachowiak, Joshua and Ben Kierzek, Anoushka Prasad, Isaac Terrence, Noah Gover, Dylan Cleveland, Steven Wauer and Kyle Jain (sorry if I got anything incorrect here or missed anybody!).
• In K-3 non-rated, Congrats to Tess Corners 2nd grader Talan Noel for winning 3 games in his first tournament!  Congrats also to Mill Valley 3rd grader Evan Stachowiak for starting out very strong and taking 2.5 games also in his first tournament.
• In K-3 rated, congratulations to Mill Valley 3rd Grader Gavin Joers who won 3.0 and raised his rating almost 100 points!  Dependable 2nd grader Nelson Klein also took 3 wins for Mill Valley.
• In K-6 non-rated, congrats to BLMS 5th grader Anoushka Prasad who took home the 3rd place trophy in her first tournament!  Tess Corners 4th grader Isaac Terrence also did very well, winning 3 games in his first tournament.
• In the K-6 rated, congrats to Kyle Jain, who in his first tournament, won 3.5 and earned his Red Division bracelet.  That has happened only a few times in the existence of Muskego chess.  Kyle's opening rating of 1100+ is the 2nd-highest opening rating of any Muskego scholastic player (at least that I'm aware of).  Keep it up Kyle!  Keep studying and becoming stronger.  Congratulations also to his LDMS teammate, Will Schantz, who won 3.  Alyssa Przedwiecki also did well taking 2.5.
• Congratulations to Evan Seghers who won the K-12 rated division with a perfect 5.0.  Our group of kids Evan, Reid, Jorin, Jason, Rachel, Kolt, and a few others have been playing together now for many years.  They are always tough.  Great tournament for Jorin McGuire who won 3.5 including against Jason and Reid, and lost only to Evan, raising his rating almost 250 points!  Good job Jason Markowski (overcoming a tough start) to win 3, and good job Kolt Otterbacher also winning 3.
• The FIRST TOURNAMENT WIN is sometimes hard to come by. Many kids back out of chess before ever getting it.  Congratulations to 4th grader Jack Mallon who stuck with it and won a great game at LDMS.  He has a great attitude and will win more and more as he gets more experience.  4th and 7th grades are the hardest because you're playing against mostly older/more experienced players. 8th grade is also hard, and this is the year most kids drop out of chess.
• Some players will have a great tournament, then a tough tournament.  It happens.  When I think "chess is getting easy!"... that is the time I start to lose a few games.  It's all about practice, and playing people who are better than we are.  Keeping an open mind, and keeping our EGO out of it.  Don't get too upset when you lose and don't get too happy when you win.  The goal is LEARNING and IMPROVING.  Not winning.  I have been prouder of kids who lose a few games but keep fighting (as did Jack Mallon and Cole Zettel yesterday), than kids who win easily without trying, and are lazy about studying.  The journey of learning never ends!  The great masters all knew this. 
• If you're not winning yet, there's a reason. The answer is almost always studying your losses and seeing where you went wrong - take notation!  Then you can replay your games later.  Even if you notate just the first 20 moves.. that is usually enough to see where things went wrong.
• For TEAMS, congrats to: MHS for winning k-12, Mill Valley for taking 2nd in K-3 NR, MV for taking 4th in K-3, Bay Lane for taking 2nd in K-6NR, MV for taking 3rd in K-6NR, Lake Denoon MS for taking 2nd in K6 by a HALF POINT against Brookfield Academy, BLMS for taking 5th in K-6.  We need one parent volunteer to pull together a team for each school!  We came very close in several divisions but lacked the number of players - this will be important in larger tournaments especially.  

WHEW!   That's a lot to read, sorry.   Thanks again to all who attended and supported Muskego Chess!