by
Dick Powell
On Saturday March 12, four of the state’s top female (K-12) players met at the University of Maine to dispute the title of Maine female chess champion. Seventh grader Bethany Humphrey of Deer Isle-Stonington took first place, finishing undefeated in her three matches.
The tournament—officially called the Girls Scholastic Chess Championship—was played with the “game/60” format, which gives each player 60 minutes to play all her moves or lose on time. Second place went to John Bapst High School’s Deanna Powers. Airline Community School of Aurora’s Haley DeLuca-Lowell and Anna Bryan captured the third and fourth place trophies.
DeLuca-Lowell and now Bethany Humphrey share the distinction of being the youngest to win the event in its six-year history.
In the 600-and-under division, Deer Isle-Stonington’s Rylee Eaton, a second grader, won her first three matches before losing to an eighth grader from Guilford in the championship match. Eaton tied for second in the division and also took home the trophy given to the top K-3 player.
In last week’s article on the Maine State Scholastic Team Championships, Cole Stewart was inadvertently left off the list of the players whose winning total(3 points) counted in the final team score. Also, the K-3 Novice team tied for second in their division although the computer tiebreaker gave the trophy to Belfast. Top finisher for Deer Isle-Stonington was Katie Hutchinson with 3 points followed by Annie Reynolds with 2 1/2 and Ian Cust, Tommy Hutchinson, Henry Penfold and McHenna Martin all with 2 points from 4 matches.
