Students battle for chess title
By Stacey Wang, Correspondent
Posted: 04/08/2009 04:20:26 PM PDT
San Gabriel Valley Tribune – West Covina, CA, USA
Winning a chess tournament is more than being familiar with en passant or promotion strategies. It is about teamwork – at least for these students.
In a battle of tactics and endurance, four Temple City High School students battled for the chance to become the nation’s best chess team.
The team competed alongside more than 1,500 other teams nationwide at United States Chess Federation’s Supernationals IV Chess Tournament from April 3 to 5 in Nashville.
Established from the school’s chess club, the team includes players Sandy Tianyi He, Robert Xue, Terrence Sun and Jim Lee.
“I’m really excited to play in this event with my teammates and to represent the school,” member He said, before flying to Tennessee.
He, who played at the Supernationals in 2007, ranked second against other junior high schoolers.
“When you win you feel like you did something right, and when you lose you just feel like someone beat you,” Xue said, prior to the competition. Each member has played chess for more than six years, he said.
Leading up to the tournament, each of its members saw success in the game individually. As a national master, member He ranked ninth in the United States among 15-year-olds. Xue ranked 24th and Sun ranked 72nd among 14-year-olds nationally.
Here is the full article.
How did they finish?