Four wins for a young Charger team at USM chess meet

KML players took care of business at Thursday’s chess meet at University School Milwaukee with four of six players winning their matches. KML scored wins from senior Josh Weber, junior Madelyn Lechmaier, and freshmen Ryan Wirkkula and Noah Kreis. 

To climb in the standings at a multi-school meet, KML players will need to continue winning and improving their US Chess ratings. Experienced players who have built higher ratings have greater point-scoring ability for their school. KML’s young team (with four freshmen) did what they needed to do – and they all took notation so we can go over games and improve.

RESULTS OF MEGAMEET 2 - November 29, 2018 at USM

1st: Brookfield East  7776

2nd: Wisconsin Lutheran HS  6580

3rd:  Tosa East 6558

4th:  Brookfield Academy  6390

5th:  Reagan  5673

6th:  Milwaukee School of Languages  3663

7th:  Rufus King   3619

8th:  Kettle Moraine Luth. HS   3179

9th:  USM   2441

10th:  Washington  1570

11th:   Milwaukee HS of the Arts    0

KML Players Perform Well at Wisconsin Junior Open

Five KML players gained valuable experience and finished strong at the Wisconsin Junior Open last weekend. There were 231 chess players and five rounds at this event held at UW-Oshkosh.

Here are the results for KML:

• Ryan Wirkkula: 4 wins in 5 rounds, placed 9th of 84 in the Reserve section and 2^nd for all unrated players in that section.
• Ben Polheber: 3 wins in 5 rounds, placed 33^rd of 84 in the Reserve Section.
• Josh Weber: 3 wins in 5 rounds, placed 34^th of 84 in the Reserve Section and 2^nd for all players in the 300 rating class.
• Eric Rodell: 2.5 wins in 5 rounds – that .5 came when he took a bye in Round 3 to perform with KML Echoes, using his many talents this weekend!
• Kimberly Schill: 3 wins in 5 rounds, placed 9th of 21 in the Beginners Section.

Most importantly, all of our players took notation, so they were able to go over their games and improve. Huge shout-out to KML alumnus Dylan Schulz who hung out with our team this weekend and provided valuable encouragement.

Ryan and Josh bring home some hardware.

A "woulda-coulda-shoulda" discussion as teammates go over games at the end of the day.