Fast-rising Scott Matthew Escalera Made Waves Again In Chess

By: Reign C, Xavier D

 

A chess Wizkid from Oak Park, Illinois, Scott Matthew Escalera, won the first ever online Elementary Championship in K1 division. This kid has been sharpened his chess skills progressively for the part two years and half of playing in both Over-the-board (OTB) games and online games.

This event is organized by United State Chess Federation (USCF) and co-sponsored by ChessKids.com, held on August 8, 2020 online. And since this event is considered to be the first ever major scholastic held nationally, with a large number of participants, it was decided to conduct 3 warm-ups event to prior to the scheduled date, and Scott was very fortunate to win all games with only 1 draw out of 15 games combined.

Later on, the organizers divided the section into two groups, in which, there is equal rating strength distribution per section. With so much consistency, Scott scored 7 wins with no defeats and earned top spot in B section with a tiebreak of 33.5 points followed by Wenqiao Chen of Texas with a tiebreak of 29.5 points who is also undefeated.

Scott Games in Round 7, playing black against Ethan Guo of California.

1.d4 d5 2.Bf4 Nf6 3.e3 e6 4.Nf3 Be7 5.Bd3 c5 6.c3 Nc6 7.Nbd2 O-O 8.Ne5 Bd7 9.Qf3 Rc8 10.Qh3 g6 11.Ndf3 Nh5 12.Bg3 Nxe5 13.Nxe5 cxd4 14.exd4 Bc6 15.O-O Nxg3 16.hxg3 Qb6 17.Rab1 Bf6 18.Nf3 Bb5 19.Bxb5 Qxb5 20.g4 a5 21.g3 Bg7 22.Kg2 a4 23.a3 Rc6 24.Rh1 h6 25.g5 h5 26.g4 Re8 27.gxh5 gxh5 28.Qxh5 Rb6 29.Qh7+ Kf8 30.Ne5 Bxe5 31.dxe5 Ke7 32.g6 Qe2 33.Qxf7+ Kd8 34.Rh7 Qg4+ 35.Kh2 Qf4+ 36.Qxf4 1-0

Scott will receive a distinctive plaque from the organizer, a replica from US Team jersey, and he will be given an opportunity to have lessons with top level GMs.