By Valerie Evans

When freshman Rey Espinal was a child, his grandfather, a war veteran, taught him how to play chess. When he arrived in high school, he was excited to join the Murrow chess team.

Within his first year of joining, Espinal had the opportunity to play at the 2023 National High School (K-12) Championships.

Held in Washington D.C on December 8-11, the Murrow chess team placed #13 in the country.

Image: Students hard at play during the championship national games.

“I felt more motivated to get better and I feel as if I have enough time since I’m only a freshman,”  Espinal said.

Chess-team advisor Mr. Elliot Weiss said that he was relatively pleased with the success of the team.

“They could’ve won more, they could’ve lost more, you know, of course,” said Mr. Weiss. “It’s a learning experience and they’ll do better next time, next year.”  

The chess team has a long history at the school as it started out as a club which quickly gained traction.

They went to competitions in the mid to late 80’s and then to tournaments in the early 90’s. 

In 2007, The Murrow chess team inspired Michael Weinreb, a Long Island Newsday reporter, to write The Kings Of New York after the school won international championships 4 times in a row and 8 times overall. Weinreb had been following the Murrow chess team for three years.

Mr. Weiss attributes the success of the team to patience, memorization and a willingness to listen to instruction.

“It doesn’t happen overnight, I mean I’m still studying,” said Mr. Weiss.

Image: Team member Nini Dzotsenidze shakes hands with her opponent after a game.

Zhang said that he was more confident going into this year’s Washington D.C. tournament than he was as a freshman.

He took first place as an individual competitor at their competition. Zhang said that he was pleased with the team’s placement. 

“It’s the hardest travel tournament and unfortunately we didn’t do as well, but I’m sure next year in Washington we’ll do better.” said Zhang.

Zhang, the captain of the Murrow chess team, said that he stayed away from something called “hope chess”, which he calls a weak strategy in which a player depends on their opponents’ weaknesses to win instead of strengthening their own.

“If you finish a chess match in five minutes, you’re not playing chess, you’re playing hope chess and for me that’s so boring and not what chess is about,” Zhang said.

 Freshman Taisiya Yatsyshyn joined the chess club after her father taught her how to play from a young age, sparking her interest to join the chess team.

“When I was a kid, my dad had his chess pieces out and I was really interested in learning what the game was, what the pieces meant, what the concept of chess is,” Yatsyshyn said. 

Mr. Weiss said that great players study just like in any other field, and if you want to be the best, you have to know the material. 

“It’s a lot of studying like any other kind of studies,” he said. “Like studying medicine, studying law, you have to study chess and it’s a lifelong study.” 

Image: In their free time between competitions, the chess team explored Washington D.C.