Nerdiness for the Masses

I think I may have made a very tiny first step at bringing nerdiness to the masses. This week is homecoming week, a week that, despite my position of power in planning it, I have grown to dislike. Each day during this week there are various themes to which one can dress (formal, school spirit, decade, pajama, and clash), and a semi-competitive activity during lunch. In the past, such lunch-time activities have been mostly uneventful, with the exception of last year's introduction of a wall-ball tournament and "Trojan Idol," a take-off of the popular (still?? I don't watch TV) television series "American Idol." Given the success of those two activities, they are occurring this year, along with a new and somewhat unusual event: a speed chess competition, organized by myself and Dom.

While there were some bumps in the road in finding clocks for the matchs, we finally managed to secure two at the last minute, thanks to Jonathan and Ted. While we only had two, running two games at a time was ideal because it kept more audience attention focused on each game. 16 competitors vied in an elimination bracket. Games were kept to 2 minutes per person. Amazingly, the timing fit very nicely for our alotted lunch period. Even more amazingly, the competition attracted a surprisingly large, vocal, and engaged audience. After 12 games of octafinal and quarterfinal play, the semifinal round was determined. While the octafinals were predictable, there were some very interesting upsets in the quarterfinals, as sophomore prodigy Kyle Steinbach lost to sophomore Brian Norton, and senior Adam Sherman lost to senior Paul Stanton. The semifinals and finals will be played at an assembly on Friday. While I won't bore you with the current bracket results, I will say that junior Ted Sanders will play sophomore Brian Norton, and junior Jonathan Kadish will play senior Paul Stanton. I hate to speculate, but it's likely that Ted will beat Brian and win the final match, whether he plays Jon or Paul. The other semifinal match is a toss up; if I had to pick, I'd say Kadish, but that's meaningless. Times may be upped to 3 minutes for the assembly. We're definately doing this again next year; speed chess is a truly intense sport.

Tomorrow is the wall-ball tournament, the winner of whom shall play defending champion, junior Chuck Seaman, at the assembly. Last year, the competition got a little rough, when Noah Gottlieb crashed through a window trying to return a serve.