Checkmate! Fremont students win national chess title
By Linh Tat
The Argus
Posted: 04/10/2009 12:00:00 AM PDT
FREMONT — It’s been a hard-fought battle for Mission San Jose Elementary School’s chess players.
The team started in 1990 with just 20 or so students. Along the way, the team has experienced varying degrees of successes and disappointments, including several consecutive seasons of not winning major championships.
But over time, through perseverance, and always under the steady guidance of Coach Joe Lonsdale, the team has made steady progress — and now it calls itself national elementary school champion.
This week, 15 students returned from the 2009 National Scholastic Chess Championships in Tennessee, where a group of four from Fremont placed first in the K-6 team division. Also, of the more than 500 schools that sent players, Mission San Jose was the only elementary school whose teams finished in the top 10 in three divisions.
The K-6 team — composed of sixth-graders Hemang Jangle, James Kwok and Jerome Sun and fourth-grader Armaan Kalyanpur — edged a team from Virginia for the national title by one point.
No other California team has claimed the overall elementary school national title — at least not since 1987, when organizers began keeping team records, according to the U.S. Chess Federation.
This year’s tournament had 5,247 players. The K-6 team competition featured 211 players representing 22 teams, organizers said.
Here is the full article.
Well done guys!