The SCCF Super States held at the Orange County Great Park drew 621 players, the largest Southern California scholastics event in the last four decades, according to tournament advisor, Dewainn Barber from American Chess Equipment. This year, the new city and venue proved to be an attractive location bringing in players as far north as San Jose, as far south as San Diego, and as far east as Arizona. The rated section saw 357 players in the nine sections with almost 40% coming from the two Elementary sections. The three unrated sections attracted 255 players many of whom playing their first tournament. Although wind swept through most of Saturday tournament and Great Park staff made sure that it created as little distraction as possible. Unfortunately for the reserve section players (who was scheduled only on Saturday), the free balloon ride was disabled due to the hazards of the wind. Sunday was a different story for the unrated players (scheduled only for Sunday), the wind was calm and the sun was up. The balloon took up riders throughout the day and into the evening. Christian Tanaka and Michael brown from ACA prevailed in the strong High School Championship section with five points with the top 10 players averaging a whopping 2120 rating. Tanaka downed a master and two experts before drawing his final round to clinch first place on tie-breaks. Michael Brown’s last round victory against master Kyron Griffith keyed in the tie for first place. Tanaka’s two draws gave him the edge over Brown, who lost against Tanaka in round 2. Following Brown were seven players with four points including masters Tianyi He and Griffith, three experts, and two Class A players. Temple City High took home the best team prize with 12 points beating out University High who finished with 9.5 points. ACA finished with 15 points to win the best club prize. The High School reserve section saw Orion Burl finish with a perfect score, a full point ahead second place finisher Theodore Pringle and two points ahead of third place Matthew Carvajal. University High edged Southwest on tiebreaks for the best team prize
and IVCCA took home the best team beating out California Youth Chess League by only half a point. Salman Azhar directed the High School Championship and Reserve section with 26 and 14 players, respectively.