Chess Prodigies Prep for State Championships
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
MANHATTAN — In just three short weeks, chess prodigies from across the city will head upstate to Saratoga Springs for the 45th annual New York State Scholastic Championships.
The competition, which will be held March 3 and 4, typically attracts roughly 2,000 players ranging from kindergartners to high school seniors.
“It’s a lot of fun for the kids,” said Shernaz Kennedy, a children’s chess coach and women’s international chess master who once played chess for the U.S. Olympic team. “They should be in top form.”
More than half of the entrants typically hail from New York City’s public and private schools to compete on individual and team levels for the title of state champion.
Many of the children who will participate in the state championships took part in the New York City children’s chess championship on Jan. 28 and 29. That competition was a little less intense, players and coaches agreed, with kids playing matches lasting only 30 minutes each.
The state championship games will go on for an hour at a time, meaning children as young as 4 will have to sit still and concentrate for twice as long.
“It’s your brain against someone else’s brain,” Kennedy said. “You have to be in control of your emotions. You have to be completely in control of everything that’s happening.”
At the city championships, which were held at The New Yorker Hotel, three boys tied for the top honor: Maury Ahram, a fourth-grader from the NEST+m school; Spencer Ha, an 11-year-old who attends the NYC Lab School; and Maxwell Beem, a 10-year-old from the Browning School.
At the team level, the NYC Lab School came in first in the competition.
Now, all the winners — both individual and group — will be heading to the state championships in the hopes of adding a few more notches to their expanding belts.
“I’m probably going to study for my game,” said Ha, who plays chess both at the NYC Lab School and with NY Chess Kids. “Just be prepared. Don’t be nervous and just be on your feet.”
“If you’re not calm, then you’ll just really fail,” he added.
For Ha, the allure of chess lies in the “tactical and strategical thinking of the game,” he said.
“My dream in the chess world is probably just to be a good chess player, just to use chess as a stepping stone for my future.”
Online registration for the New York State Scholastic Championships is open until Feb. 27.
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Good luck to them.