Exonians Compete at Greater Boston Chess Tournament
By CARLY CANSECO, WILLIAM INOUE, LYDIA KUHNERT, and SERENA YUE
Twelve Exeter Chess Club members recently attended the Greater Boston Open Chess Tournament in Westford, Massachusetts, on October 13th. The Open was organized by the Massachusetts Chess Association and had $3,000 in prize money to be won. They played a variety of people, from five-year-olds to eighty-year-olds. This tournament marks the inauguration of several new members, and for some, it was the first tournament they’ve ever competed in.
Exeter had a strong showing at the tournament and came together as a team to play well. Prep Oliver Bowdell reflected on the experience, stating, “Some people won, some people lost, but that’s not what matters - what matters is the bonding experience that we had.” Chess is an individual game, however, the team at Exeter is that—a team. Bowdell said, “We’re always cohesive as a unit.”
There were multiple memorable moments from the open. Prep Eric Jin reviewed one of his later games: ‘In the last round, my position was pretty awful. I was getting cooked, but then I decided just to huddle up and defend resiliently, and it paid off, because my opponent didn’t find a way through, and I managed to turn the game around and score a victory.”
His teammate, Bowdell, joked that “the most notable moment from the tournament was when afterwards, one of our players wasn’t going to make it on the bus, but luckily we saved him. We will never forget a teammate!”
For prep Nolan Fletcher, this marked his first ever tournament, an experience echoed by many others.
“I learned that I need to learn more about technique; I haven’t played in a long time so I’ve been rusty,” lower Ryan Wang reflected. “This is one of the shortest time controls I’ve played in a while, so I overestimated the time I had and was overconfident, which caused me to lose. I wanted to win too much.”
Wang noted his appreciation for Dr. Barkaovitch and coheads. “Dr. Barkovich is great. He takes us around everywhere and gives us all the food, so that’s awesome. The co-heads give speeches and things like that. It’s pretty funny to hear and we just play as a team.”
For many people, this was the first chess tournament they had finished. It was also their first time having actual experience playing chess at a scale not only in the chess club. Boydell mentioned, “It’s a great experience and it doesn’t matter how much skill you have. It’s always awesome.”
Jin added, “I’m looking forward to playing more chess, and the Chess Club and I are going to Washington, D.C., for the Nationals.” The entire club hopes that they can expand the Chess Club even further and hopefully gather students from all grade levels to enjoy and participate in chess.