Chess Team takes 1st place in 10th grade Nationals!

Chess Team takes 1st place in 10th grade Nationals!

Congratulations to coach, Mr. Bill Boericke and Stuyvesant’s Chess Team, who just returned from the grade level national championships in Orlando, Florida with Stuyvesant taking 1st place in the 10th grade National Championship! Congratulations to freshmen, Alison Chan, Adam Avnet, Ryan Chan, Daniel Fridlyand and Rayat Roy, who placed 6th in country in the 9th Grade division.
Sophomores, Justin Chen, Ann Zhang, Cheng Chen and Jun Li were the national champions in the 10th Grade division. In the individual standings, Team Captain Justin Chen tied for 1st with an International Master in the 10th Grade divisCion. Bravo!
The juniors battled heroically from a serious disadvantage. The grade level championships count the top three boards in any grade level, but Arjun Rai and Thomas Ghita, without benefit of a third teammate, accumulated enough points between them to place 9th in country!  Congratulations!
Congrats to all! In the full team photo are: (left to right standing) Cheng Chen,  Thomas Ghita, Arjun Rai, Justin Chen, Adam Avnet and Jun Li; (kneeling) Ryan Chan, Ann Zhang, Alison Chan, Rayat Roy and Daniel Fridlyand. (photos courtesy of Mr. Boericke)
The 10th grade national champions at the award ceremony are: Ann Zhang, Justin Chen, Jun Li and Cheng Chen.
The picture on the left above is of an impromptu speed chess match at the Orlando Airport between Stuyvesant and Jericho High School. In the foreground are Stuy's Justin Chen (L) the 10th grade national champion, and Jericho's Wesley Wang (R), the 9th grade national champion. Justin and Wesley split a game apiece. Another similar photo of the match was taken and tweeted by national chess organizer (and Stuy alum) Danny Rhode, who happened by, and was retweeted by the United States Chess Federation!