Chess Team Hits the Boards at National Tournament
Chess team vice captain Elian Garcia ‘22 (left) began the third round of USATE with an aggressive attack down the center of the chess board. Photo courtesy of Elian Garcia.
By ALVIN YAN
The chess team brought their moves to the U.S. Amateurs Team East (USATE) chess tournament in Parsippany, New Jersey, February 19 to 21. USATE is a national-level competition spread over three days, with six rounds of five hours each.
A total of 1,071 players participated in the event, ranging from children to the elderly. Each participant enters the tournament with a rating. The highest-rated player was around 2600, and the Midwood chess team’s ratings averaged around 1300.
In the fourth round, Qiran Hu ‘22 won the Biggest Upset award for winning against an opponent with a much higher rating. “I was very nervous going into the round,” said Hu. “After my game, I was told that I missed so many tactics, but I somehow won. I think it's definitely just pure luck, but even so, it's a big personal accomplishment to win an award in a competition like this.”
Hu started playing chess this school year, after the team’s founder and captain Ifaz Howlader ‘22 convinced him to start competing in local tournaments. “He’s a really smart guy,” Howlader said. “He picked up all the rules and learned a lot of important concepts quickly. He’s got a lot of potential.”
Given his status as a beginner, Hu’s rating was only 314, and for all six rounds, he had to play against competitors with ratings much higher than his. To obtain a rating, players must register through the United States Chess Federation (USCF). After that, for every opponent they defeat, they gain rating points; with every loss, they lose points.
In the fourth round, Hu’s opponent had a rating that was quadruple his, at 1253. Despite the odds being stacked against him, Hu came out on top.
“I think it is best to not get discouraged when you have to play a stronger opponent, because at the end of the day they are still human, and humans always make mistakes,” said Hu.
Team-wise, results were also relatively good. The top scorers of the team, Jason Liu ‘22 and Alvin Yan ‘23 (your correspondent), both scored three and a half points out of six. The rest of the team all scored around two to three points. A win equals one point, a draw equals half of a point, and a loss equals zero points.
The opportunity to compete in the tournament was provided by Chess in the Schools (CIS), a non-profit organization aimed at teaching children chess, and their College Bound program, which prepares high school students for college and beyond.
Roughly 40 high school students from all around New York City were selected to participate in the tournament under the sponsorship of CIS, with all expenses paid for, including hotel and meals.
CIS hosts chess nights every Thursday at its office in Manhattan, in which students of the program can receive quality chess lessons from chess masters and play against each other to hone their skills. They have also been regularly hosting tournaments on Saturdays inside schools since 1997, in which hundreds of students K-12 compete against each other.
Midwood’s chess team went live in the spring semester of the 2020-2021 school year.
“I noticed how no one was really taking the initiative to develop a chess culture in Midwood,” Howlader said. “I am probably among the few in this school with a lot of experience about chess, so I felt obligated to form a team. I call it a team, but it's really just a club where members can go play in tournaments for fun.”
When the club started, Howlader expected it to stay relatively small. However, a lot of people showed up the first week, and even more the next. Some ended up leaving, but the club has retained a sizable number of regulars.
“Most people joined just for fun, saying that they aren’t good at chess,” said Elian Garcia ‘22, co-founder and vice-captain. “I just want to preface that no one is born a prodigy. Me and Ifaz were both trash at it when we first started playing.”
During club meetings, the captain or vice-captain give a brief chess lesson that is followed by skirmishes among the members to apply what they learned.
“Usually we learn about different tactics, different game plans, and how to analyze different positions,” said Howlader. “I just love it when I can shout ‘a bazillion brownie points to you’ at different people when I’m teaching to raise the energy in the room.”
If you’re interested in sampling that energy, drop by a club meeting Friday, Period 9, in Room 313. It’s a gambit bound to pay off.