PS 139 Chess Ninjas Deliver A Swift Kick At National Championships

Last weekend, 17 representatives of the Chess Ninjas, PS 139‘s Chess Club, traveled to Dallas, TX to participate in the Elementary National Chess Championship. This year’s National Championships were the Ninjas’ 10th in a row. Neighbor Ian West, who has now been coaching the team for 11 years, helped us with our chess jargon so we could coherently bring you the results.

In the advanced K-5 Open section, the team (including Yates Wong, Ethan Inniss, Leesean Joseph, Chhoten Sherpa, Declan Rush, Phoenix Polemarhakis, Kunchok Khando, Robbie Galpern-Levin, and Tashi Sherpa) finished 14th in the country out of over 50 teams.

With only three representatives (Abraham Brown, Laura Chan, and Brian Thevenot) in the K-6 u1000 section — an intermediate section in which the best four scores make up the team score — the Chess Ninjas placed 23rd.

And PS 139’s K-3 u800 team was able to climb into the top 20 in the country, finishing 19th! Players Emmet Duprey, Alexander Reddish, Ellis Wong, Aowyn Schneider, and Ryan Reddish were all playing in their first National event.

Ian says the team is very happy with their results. “To be competing against the very best clubs in the country, many of which are privately funded and feature teams of titled coaches, we were able to satisfy ourselves that simple, focused, well-aimed hard work can yield amazing results,” he says.

If you want to know more about the Chess Program at PS 139, you can contact Ian at west.chessacademy@gmail.com.

Thanks to Ian for the assistance and info, and congratulations to all the Ninjas who worked so hard this year!

All photos courtesy of Ian West and the PS 139 Chess Ninjas