Check them out!

The JCHS chess team kicked off the season with a bang! The team has already played in five tournaments this year: four at the Mechanics Institute and one in Santa Clara. There have been many strong performances so far, including one by Ben Michelson — he won three games and had one draw in the first tournament! And another by Jacob Derin; who won two games and drew one in the second tournament. In the third tournament, both Daniel Perlov and Cash Ashkinos had stellar performances where they each won four out of five games.

The team has also had many incredible upsets. What is an upset, you might ask? An upset in the broad world of sports is when a player wins a game when, at first, they are the underdog. However, in chess, an upset is when a player with a lower rating bests a player with a higher rating. Dave Hoffman had three upsets of 517, 557 and 911 rating points respectively while Misha Lubich also had an upset of 473 rating points. Daniel Karp added on to these incredible feats by notching two upsets over 500 ratings points.

When asked to comment on the team's progress this year, Mr. Fitch (the coach), said that he is “excited because we have several returning seniors, and the team is making big rating gains in tournaments recently.” The senior captain of the team, Ben Michelson, also spoke to the team’s success in other ways: “We have grown quite popular, and people inside and out of JCHS are taking us seriously. It is incredible to see our hard work and effort pay off in that way.” The team is currently preparing to rock the state championship, which will be held in Santa Clara on April 6 — and overall, they’re killing it!