FC Chess shines at Mississippi team championships

The Meadville-based Franklin County Chess Center had a strong showing in the Mississippi Chess Association’s Team Championships held Saturday, Jan. 22 and Sunday, Jan. 23 at Roosevelt State Park in Scott County, according to Center Director Dr. Jeff Bulington.

The event featured teams of four players — around 70 in all — representing schools from across the Magnolia State as well as homeschool programs in sectional competitions that consisted of four rounds each.

“There were 16 teams total participating with six of those competing at the high school level,” Bulington said. “There is one team championship per year, and it was good to be back to competition after this event was cancelled last year due to coronavirus and the 2021 team champions went vacant.”

He noted FC’s high school chess team, which included Benson Schexnaydre, Parker Wilkinson, Gabriel Griffin and James Ham, won all their rounds with a 4-0 team score and a 15-1 record in head-to-head matches.
Other members of the high school squad included Ethan Coleman, A’Niyah Bee and Drew Berryhill.

“It was a very good performance for them,” Bulington said. “Two or three of those on our high school team were among the originial fourth and fifth graders that won a championship back in the day.”
Wilkinson said he went into the first round and lost his team’s lone contest — making him angry and prompting him to buckle down the remainder of the way.

“With all of that said, I had to take a moment to clear my mind because you have to take that kind of thing in stride and forget about it,” Wilkinson said. “What was important to remember at the time was that my team had won the round and I didn’t want anything to distract me and hold us back.”

“I really enjoyed the opportunity,” Schexnaydre said of his chance to be part of the state title team for 2022. “My goal coming into this was to play consistently, not too quickly and to hopefully let my opponents make mistakes.”

“I’m not surprised that we won because we looked at it not as a state team championship, but just as another tournament,” Ham said.

Wilkinson agreed with Ham’s assessment, saying the high school team takes every event seriously.

“For us, it’s about going in and taking care of business and winning games,” Wilkinson added.

Schexnaydre said his team’s goal is to constantly improve their overall game and each player had a desire to do his or her best at an individual level.

“It’s about learning and building along the way,” he said. “We look forward to seeing strong competition, which has the ability to bring out the best in us. Tournaments are an important part of the growth of chess players.”

Bulington characterized the recent state competition as a good way to start the year for his programs with three out of four of them taking first-place honors and a fourth taking second.

In K-8 section competition, two programs — Franklin County Middle School and sixth graders from Franklin County Upper Elementary — battled against one another and the field of participating teams.

“We have sixth graders in our Upper Elementary and they were not eligible to play in the K-5 section, so those participants took part along with the middle schools,” Bulington said.

“Our middle school and sixth graders wound up playing each other in the first round and they split before both losing to a team from Madison and went on to beat the other two programs they played.”

Bulington said placement ultimately came down to tie-break points as the two local programs were knotted for second place overall, and came down to a comparison of how one team’s opponents fared overall versus how the other squad’s opponents finished.

The K-8 sixth-grade team participants were Will Hutchins, Parker Meyers, Genesis Richardson, Jaylen Marshall and Case Cupit.

The middle school squad included Austen Johnson, Kaleigh King, Shane Oglesby and Jamie Woodard.

“In the end, the sixth graders claimed second place and the middle schoolers got third,” Bulington continued.

In the K-5 section, FC’s team — which was made up of Jecoree Walker, Wyatt Kent, Braylen Marshall and Ivynn Weathersby — finished in first place overall ahead of second place CHECmate, which is a homeschool association team.

Braylen Marshall finished with an award as best fourth board player.

The FC K-3 section finished with a 2-2 team score (one of those losses to their older peers in K-5) and in an eventual first-place tie for top honors with Saint Augestine of Ridgeland.

Bulington said a final speed playoff was held to crown a sectional champion with Franklin County winning that competition.

“Those types of playoffs are fun and we practice ‘blitz’ fairly often,” Bulington said.

“It was because of that experience, I think, that they won ... especially with what some of our older guys do with them in this regard.”

Members of the K-3 team included Rodney Hawley, Timothy Gray, Eli Arnold and Levi Raffeo along with Ellis Smithhart, Landon Raffeo, Jackson Perry and Journey Marshall.

Bulington also took the opportunity to praise Josh Griffin for his coaching involvement and assistance with both the K-3 and K-5 teams, and to note that the Franklin County Chess Center continues to move upward.

“To me, it is nice to see the program doing well despite obstacles like COVID-19 and so forth, and we have kept ourselves focused to do well when it comes to being competitive with chess at the state level,” he added.

“I think parts of the competition — as far as the state level goes — was some of the toughest it has ever been and that is good for chess in Mississippi as a whole. Teams like Madison and Saint Augustine can push you to want to get better ... they were very, very good.”

With the team competition in its rearview mirror, FC chess participants are now focusing on the state individual championship in February which will take place a CSpire headquarters in Ridgeland.

“In this one, instead of being teammates, it everyone for himself or herself,” Bulington said. “One of the things we focus on is not to be bothered by who you are playing, but to do your best. This has the potential to be one of the toughest state championships overall that I have seen in Mississippi.”

He went on to say the February event is a qualifier for national invitational tournaments with Mississippi sending its winners to events around the country.

Other upcoming chess competition includes a girls state championship in March and. during the period April 8-10, the state high school champions will be playing for the national team championship in Memphis.

The middle schoolers and sixth graders will also have a chance to compete in nationals which will be held in Dallas at the end of April.