MADISON – In a first for Madison City Chess League or MCCL history, three Madison students will represent the State of Alabama in national invitational tournaments.

The United States Chess Federation or USCF sponsors the contests.

“This year, the USCF introduced a new Rockefeller Elementary Tournament of Champions, and MCCL has the first candidate to ever compete for the State of Alabama — Xavier Bruni,” MCCL Executive Director Ranae Bartlett said.

“Plus, we have the Denker High School Tournament and Ruth Haring National Girls Tournament of Champions candidates — Om Badhe and Constance Wang,” Bartlett said.

“Although COVID-19 has canceled many face-to-face events, we are proud of all of our MCCL students who continue to work on their chess skills online,” Bartlett said.

The Alabama Chess Federation or ACF Board selected Xavier Bruni, a fifth-grade student from Rainbow Elementary School, “because he was by far the highest rated elementary student in the State of Alabama,” ACF President Jonathan Rasberry said.

Wang is a freshman at Bob Jones High School. She won first place in the K-12 section of the 2020 All Girls State Chess Championship to be selected as Alabama’s representative to the Haring girls tournament.

Om Badhe is a sophomore at James Clemens High School. He won an online playoff with the five the highest rated high school students in Alabama and qualified for the Denker tournament.

Currently, the details about these upcoming tournaments have not been finalized as the USCF works hard to decide how to proceed.

“After utilizing our current website for the better part of the current millennia, the Alabama Chess Federation voted recently to approve spending to develop a new, modernized website,” Rasberry said.

“Some of the features we hope to incorporate into the new site are ‘Find a Club’ features, improved ‘Antics Feature Page’ and a Perpetual Membership System for improved membership updating and accuracy,” Rasberry said. The website’s estimated completion is mid-July.

For more information, visit madisonchess.com.