The Stevenson Chess Team, for the fifth time, brought home a bounty of team and individual trophies from this year’s National Elementary School Chess Championship, held May 7-9 in Atlanta.
The annual event, organized by the United States Chess Federation, brings together the best scholastic chess players from around the country – over 2,000 K-6 students representing 585 Teams from 40 states competed.
Stevenson Elementary entered 22 of its best chess players and fielded a total of four teams. It won 1st place team in the K-3 unrated, K-3 U800 and K-5 U900 sections and won 2nd place team in the K-5 open Championship section, missing 1st place by one point.
The K-3 unrated team edged past their New York rivals to secure first place with Gabriel Shen scoring a perfect 7 out of 7 points to win individual 1st place, Timmy Wang won individual 2nd place and Richard Yang, individual 9th Place. Rahul Sehgal was the other team winner.
The K-3 U800 team was the clear winner in this section, more than 3 points ahead of their closest rivals with Derek Zhang scoring a perfect 7.0 to win individual 1st place, Terrance Li won individual 6th place, Colin Tang individual 7th place, Jacob Zhang individual 14th place and Ryder Henry individual 30th place.
The K-3 U800 Team scored the most number of points (24.5 out of a maximum of 28) for any team in any section of this year’s championship and was only half a point less than the all-time National record team total of 25 points.
The K-5 U900 team topped the 371-player section to win first place with Nathan Shao winning individual 5th place, Benjamin Cheung individual 7th place, Tudor Muntianu individual 6th place, Matthew Solomon individual 12th place and Jason Yang winning individual 40th place.
The K-5 Championship team won 2nd place in the 272-player section. Mayhul Arora bested some of the top players winning individual 2nd place, Patrick Wang individual 10th place, Daniel Hua, Amith Vanmane and Nathaniel Yee each winning individual trophies. All are 5th graders except Nathaniel Yee (4th grade). The other team winners were Kevin Ma, Nikolai Warner and Faris Gulamali.
In the K-6 unrated section, Brian Zhu was the individual 1st place winner with 6.5 points.
Nationals team members
K-5 Championship Team 2nd Place winners: Mayhul Arora, 5th grade; Patrick Wang, 5th grade; Daniel Hua, 5th grade; Amith Vanmane, 5th grade; Nathaniel Yee, 4th grade; Kevin Ma, 4th grade; Faris Gulimali, 5th grade; Nicolai Warner, 5th grade
K-5 U900 Team 1st Place winners: Nathan Shao, 5th grade; Benjamin Cheung, 5th grade; Matthew Solomon, 5th grade; Tudor Muntianu, 4th grade; Jason Yang 4th grade;
K-3 U800 Team 1st Place winners: Derek Zhang, 2nd grade; Terrance Li, 3rd grade; Colin Tang 3rd grade; Jacob Zhang, 3rd grade.
K-3 unrated Team 1st Place winners
Gabriel Shen, 3rd grade; Timmy Wang, 3rd grade; Richard Yang, 1st grade; Rahul Sehgal, 2nd grade.
Last year, Stevenson clinched the National Team title in the K-3 and K-5 Championship sections. In 2008, the Stevenson team won National Team title in K-3 Championship and 1st place team in K-5 U900 sections. In 2007, Stevenson won 1st place team in K-3 U800 section. In 2005, Stevenson won the National Team title in the K-5 Championship section.
This year’s team was led by coaches Elliott Neff, David Hendricks and John Graves and Michael Hosford.
Neff, a self-taught chess master, has been the head coach at Stevenson for the past seven years. He is the founder of Chess4Life Center and Clarus Academy in Bellevue.
Hendricks has been a coach at Stevenson for eight years. He is currently the scholastic director of the Washington Chess Federation.
Jon Graves is an energetic and enthusiastic chess coach who has been a coach at Stevenson for two years.
Michael Hosford has been a teaching chess to kids full-time since 2001 and a coach at Stevenson since 2008
The Stevenson Chess Club is in its eighth full year as an after-school club activity. The club has 76 members from K through 5th grades. The club is run by parent volunteers.
