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The Roanoke Valley Chess Club (RVCC) held its club championship on June 23 and 24, 2018 at Westhampton Christian Church. Last year’s champion Chase Bailey was not able to participate this year, to the dismay of this year’s participants. But the tournament was a satisfying success, as the club crowned a new champion.
At the end of round three on day one, Prabhuraj Prabhakaran was in first place with 3 points and no losses. Expectations were high going into the 4th round. A win by Prabhu would practically guarantee his being the overall champion a foregone conclusion. But a motivated Drew Gripp was determined not to allow this to happen in his fourth round match against the leader. It looked as if Prabhu was going to win, having 2 rooks versus a rook and bishop endgame. But a blunder resulted in his losing a rook and eventually the game. This resulted in a 3-way tie between Prabhu, Gripp, and Ben Dubuque, all having earned 3 points. In the fifth round, all three leaders won, ending the tournament with 4 points. The tie break resulted in 3rd place going to Gripp, 2nd place to Dubuque, and 1st place and 2018 Champion Prabhuraj Prabhakaran. Aiden Taylor was Junior Champion this year. Congratulations to all of our winners.
The RVCC would like to express their appreciation to Westhampton Christian for their cordial support in allowing the use of their facility. The RVCC would also like to recognize club President Mike Huff for steadfast efforts behind the scenes in organizing this event.