Master chess players from Jericho brought home first-place trophies after dominating the national championship earlier this month.
Wesley Wang, a sixth grader from Jericho Middle School, won the sixth-grade section—comprised of 199 players—and was awarded his first national championship title at the 2015 National K-12 Chess Championship held at Disney Coronado Springs Resort in Florida Dec. 4 and 6. Meanwhile, Evelyn Zhu, also a sixth grader at Jericho, was the runner up in the same secion. As a team, Wang, Zhu and Joshua Dong won the sixth-grade team competition, bringing the championship trophies home to Jericho.
In the same event, Warren Wang of Jericho High School tied for sixth place in 10th-grade section but was placed 11th due to close tiebreakers. Close to 1,800 players from 40 states traveled to Florida to compete for the much-coveted national champion titles.
Earlier, Wesley Wang was selected to become a member of 2016 All-America Chess Team. The All-America Chess Team was created in 1987 to honor the very best players ages 18 and under. The team, one of the highest national honors attainable by a young chess player, is selected on the basis of age, rating and activities during that year, similar to the selection process of “all conference” sports teams. At this national tournament, Wesley received his team jacket and the plaque.
For the second time in a row, Wesley and Evelyn represented U.S. at a competitive world level chess event. Late October, they went to Greece and competed in the 2015 World Youth & Cadet Championship. Last year, they went to South Africa.
Wesley Wang, Evelyn Zhu and Warren Wang have all been coached by International Grandmaster (GM) Gennady Sagalchik of Long Island Chess Mates.
