Woodinville is now home to two state chess champions. On Saturday, April 8, Kennewick hosted the 2006 Washington State Elementary Chess Championships, which drew more than 1,000 kids from across the state.

When the last move of the last game was completed, Dawson Bowhay and Bryan Yue of Wilder Elementary School had turned in perfect 5.0 scores for the day.

Bowhay was crowned co-champion in the 1st grade division and Yue was named co-champion in the 4th grade division.

These young chess maestros, along with their teammates, attend Coach Alston’s chess class before school once a week at Wilder, and they participate in local tournaments during the year.

To qualify for the state championship, a student must win three of five games at any qualifying tournament during the year.

The rest of the Wilder chess team is made up of Alexandra Clough, Drew Glass, Dillon Hansen, Darryln McDonough, Juliana Mercer, Connor Miller, Ethan Miller, Derek Nazareth, Kyle Nazareth, Tyler Roberts, Avi Soval, Wesley Warriner, Patrick Wulf and Brandon Yue.

In addition, Brandon Yue placed 16th in the Grade K-3 division and 24th in the Grade 4-6 division out of 192 schools represented.