It is a great accomplishment for a school team to finish in the top tier of their state let alone No. 2 in the whole country. This is the case for the Chess team as they finished No. 2 in the United State’s Chess Federation’s 2015 National K-12 championship in January.

At the competition, the team competed against more than 1,500 chess players from around the nation in a weekend-long event held in Orlando.

Throughout the weeks leading up to the event, the students were encouraged to develop their thinking and analytical skills. The most important skill to have during a chess match is concentration, as the participants must learn to block everything that

is happening on the outside and focus on what is happening in that specific moment.

Because the game of chess emphasizes concentration and focus, research from America’s Foundation for Chess has found that players tend to score higher on English and Math standardized tests.

The high school team is made up of four sophomores, Zachary Ashbel, Megan Garcia, Phillip Gubbins, and Brandon Stoyanovich, and is coached by Randall W. Smith. Although the members were extremely happy with finishing second place in the nation, they missed out on first place by just half of a point. In chess, this is technically considered a draw or in other words, a tie. Their want to succeed has led the team
to work even harder especially with their on- going preparation for the National High School Championship.

“We constantly work on openings, middle game patterns, and standard endgames to improve,” said Smith.

Being a member of the chess team requires many hours of mentally challenging work. The team meets as a group weekly during the school year in order to prepare for tournaments. In addition to the weekly practices, each player is required to use several online resources to practice at home.

“The mental aspect of tournament chess is very grueling, Matches at the national level last up to 4 hours. Each player typically plays 7 matches over a period,” said Smith.

Although chess is an individual game, the members do share a sense of camaraderie, especially since they are all in the same grade.

“We, as a team, like to take tips from
each other, and try to improve. We look to each other for constructive criticism and strategies to further improve our game,” said sophomore Phillip Gubbins.

Members sometimes carry these strategies into their everyday lives.

“I like to look at my life as a chess match, analyzing every move with precision,” said sophomore Brandon Stoyanovich.

The team now shifts their focus to the national tournament which takes place in Atlanta in early April.