Chess Club
The Grand Island Chess Club received a letter of congratulation from State Sen. Sean Ryan, as well as individually signed certificates recognizing their victory at the WNY Scholastic Blizzard Bowl Chess Tournament in January, and their continued success as a formidable chess club.
Grand Island has maintained its first-place victory status throughout the school year by being able to successfully divide and conquer as a team. Players compete individually in their respective sections, while their overall performances are tabulated towards their final team score and standing.
The GI Chess Club is composed of players from both Veronica Connor Middle School and Grand Island High School. They meet every Tuesday after school in the middle school library. While the chess club has over 40 participants, only 10-15 compete at the tournament level. WNY Scholastic Tournaments are held every month throughout the school year and hosted by various schools throughout WNY. The GI Chess Club is quite fortunate to have talented players compete in all three sections: unrated, USCF rated U1300, USCF rated Open.
The students were absolutely thrilled to be recognized by Ryan, and they hope to continue their success in future WNY Scholastic Chess Tournaments.
Pictured from top to bottom and L-R: John Paul Szczublewski, Mehar Arora, Harry Singh, Hayden Garey, Mithil Kara, Beau Bergeron, Jierui Jiao, Colin Morgan, Alex Godlove, Abraham Tudor, Ryan Byrnes, Lucas Mondoux.