The 2011 edition of the K-12 High School Nationals is in full swing as we enter the 6th round on Sunday.

This year’s event, held at Gaylord Opryland in Nashville, Tennessee has brought over 1200 competitors to the renowned convention center. Due to inclement weather in Nashville and regional hub airports, many teams and coaches embarked on unconventional travel arrangements to reach their final destination.

Three teams are tied for first in the championship section---Hunter College Campus School, Lakeside School, and Bronx High School of Science have all amassed 15.5 points with two rounds to go. Heavy hitters lead all three squads. Hunter’s Alec Getz is tied for the individual lead with a perfect score. Bronx HS of Sciences’ Richard Tuhrim is just a half-point back, and Lakeside HS has three players with 4/5points. Hunter and Bronx HS of Science are also aided by their depth with five USCF masters between the two NYC Schools. The top middle school program in the country, Brooklyn’s IS 318k, leads the chasing pack with 14.5 points. Fresh of their recent triumphs in Columbus, IS 318k will be looking for big performances for NM Justus Williams and James Black to propel them up the leader board. 

Here is one of Justus's wins: 

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Round six sees multiple head to head matchups between big names. The top five board pairings are as follows:

Board 1 – FM Alec Getz – IM Marc Arnold
Board 2- FM Aleks Ostroivsky – NM Eric Rosen
Board 3 – NM Justus Williams – NM Michael Villenchuk
Board 4- Evan Sandberg – NM Richard Tuhrim
Board 5- SM Raven Sturt-Joshua Mu

Will NYC schools continue their domination of 2011 scholastic chess in the final day, or will Lakeside HS from Washington spoil the party with their resilient experts?

The final day will see high drama in Nashville, as players strive to capitalize on their hard work throughout the year. Stay posted for the final wrap-up and keep up to date on the official website, uschess.org/tournaments/2011/hs/.

In the tournament’s side events, Michael Auger of Whitney Young won the K-12 Blitz Championship with11/12 points. Ryan Christianson and Jeremy Paul took top honors in the bughouse tournament .