The 17th edition of this annual scholastic match, held at the New Westminster campus of Sprott-Shaw College on April 19th, resulted in a decisive 32-20 victory for the home team. Previously held the first weekend in December, this year the match was moved to the spring to provide better driving conditions - naturally, this coincided with late snowfalls on both sides of the border, but transportation was unaffected. In previous years the match was contested by two players from grades 1-12 on each side, but this year kindergarten students were added, bringing the total on each side to twenty-six. Traditionally Washington has scored heavily in the lower grades in these matches, whereas B.C. tends to do better in the upper grades; the match is thus determined by which team can do better in their respective area of strength, or improve in their area of weakness. The visiting squad was hampered by a date conflict - a number of Washington's top juniors were playing in a national high-school competition in Texas and were thus unavailable for the match. Also unfortunate was a lack of communication, resulting in Washington not being aware that players could represent a higher grade until the last minute, by which point it was too late to make use of a substitute for one of their grade twelve players.
Despite these problems the Washington team held their own for much of the first round (5.5-5.5, then 8.5-8.5) but the superiority of the B.C. upper grades gradually made itself felt toward the end of the session, leaving B.C. with a comfortable 15-11 lead at the half. Despite playing black in the second session B.C. increased its lead, winning the second round 17-9 for an overall twelve-point victory. The traditional areas of strength for each team are still evident: Washington won the kindergarten to grade 2 duels by a 2-10 score, but apart from a 2-2 draw in grade 4 B.C. won every other grade.
Especially significant was the score for grades 6-12: 19.5-4.5 in B.C.'s favour. In terms of individual results, B.C. players who won both their games were Donovan Zhao (grade 5), Tanraj Sohal (6), Foster Tom (8), Richard Huang (9), Elliot Raymer (10), Noam Davies (11), and Bindi Cheng and Jingzhou Lai (both 12); others with a plus score were Janak Awatramani (3), Jacob Jensen (4), Frank Cheng (5), Yifei Han and Jack Cheng (both 7), Yiming Han (9), and Tedging Pan (11). On the Washington side, Benjamin Brusniak and Nicholas Lumiere swept their grade one opponents. Others on the Washington team with perfect scores were Allistair Yu (kindergarten) and Kevin Ma (2), while Ethan Bashkansky (4) also had a plus score.
Many thanks to organizers Elliot Neff (Washington) and Ken Jensen and Glen Lee (B.C.) (especially for the sumptuous lunch spread), and to all the players for participating. The TD was Stephen Wright. Washington now holds a slim 9-8 lead in the overall series.
Year - Location - Victor
1991 - White Rock - BC
1992 - Mountlake Terrace - WA
1993 - Burnaby - WA
1994 - Mountlake Terrace - BC
1995 - Burnaby - WA
1996 - Shorewood - WA
1997 - Burnaby - BC
1998 - Shorewood - BC
1999 - Burnaby - WA
2000 - Seattle - WA
2001 - Burnaby - BC
2002 - Seattle - WA
2003 - Burnaby - WA
2004 - Seattle - BC
2005 - Burnaby - BC
2006 - Bellevue - WA
2008 - New Westminster - BC
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