Claudia wins 1st place at the Dallas Chess Club Monthly Scholastic Tournament K-12

Claudia winning 1st place

It had been a long dry spell dating back to the Susan Polgar National Open 2008, but Claudia finally won a first place in a USCF rated tournament event at the Dallas Chess Club. The event was the DCC Monthly Scholastic Chess Tournament, hosted by TD Luis Salinas.

Claudia finished undefeated 5.0/5.

We, her family, are very happy with her dedication and hardwork to becoming the best chess player possible. However, back to our story.

The tournament started at 10:20 a.m. and it was even a miracle that Claudia participated being that the FRIDAY NIGHT RATED SWISS finished the night before after midnight. By the time Claudia went to sleep after 1:00 a.m., she was ready in the morning to participate. She was still riding an emotional high after finishing 6th place the night before (out of 49 players), only losing in the the 2nd round to MN Mihail Bantic.

After registering for the SATURDAY NIGHT SWISS at 6:00 p.m., Claudia dropped out of the event due to a head cold that was really bothering her, prior to the 3rd round. This was the first time that she had not finalized an event.

Nevertheless, this weekend´s roundtrip commute from Wichita Falls to Dallas netted Claudia a 66-point rating increase. She played 11 rounds, winning 9-games and only lossing two.

Her only two loses were to two National Masters.