Chess Club Enjoys Successful Year
This past week, Exeter’s Chess Club returned from the Nationals Competition with a fifth place finish. The club has come a long way over the past few years, and its members are very pleased with the progress that has been made and hope to continue to improve as time goes on.
In the past few years, chess club has improved not only its attendance, but also its performance at competitions. In the past, only several students attended regularly, and fewer still made the trip to the competitions, which were few and far between. The students who participated were talented but lacked the proper outlets to channel their skill at the game.
“When I was a prep, chess club was maybe four or five people on a good day in the back of the music building,” upper and club member Joe Bartkovich said of the club’s progress. “Now we need three long tables to fit everyone.”
Bartkovich went on to describe how inspiring it is to see the club’s transformation.
“I never would have dreamt that we be as active as we are now. My prep year, we went to exactly two tournaments. This year we went to at least three in the fall term and won trophies at each of them. We also hosted an in-house tournament in which chess players on campus came and battled it out in three rounds of 30 minute games. Finally, that term ended in our traditional Exeter/Andover matches, which we won by a landslide.”
“I think, as a club, we all understand that experience means just as much as practice, so this year especially, we’ve been pushing for more tournament exposure.”
Lower and club member Evan Xiang was encouraged by the progress that the club has made and hopes to continue its improvement.
“I think, as a club, we all understand that experience means just as much as practice, so this year especially, we’ve been pushing for more tournament exposure. There’s still a lot to improve about the club, but this is a great start.”
Bartkovich added that the team continued to attend matches throughout the winter term, showing the same degree of success as they displayed in earlier competitions.
“Winter term was a little slower, and we went to fewer tournaments, but still placing or even taking first at all of them,” Bartkovich said. “We also played Andover a second time, this time with our varsity team barely taking the win thanks to an excellent performance by Mandy Lu.”
This spring, the club played another round against Andover, securing the win by a narrower margin and also hosted the New Hampshire Individual Championships, where Chess Club members Mandy Lu and Evan Xiang took the top two spots.
Bartkovich and other members have worked hard to overhaul the club and are now reaping the benefits of their hard work. The club recently made waves when it attended the United States Chess Federation National Tournament and performed spectacularly.
“We sent two teams to nationals, one for the open section, and one for the under 1600 section,” Bartkovich said. Despite some unforeseen circumstances within the team, Exeter’s Chess squad performed admirably.
“We had planned to send five people to each section, but at the last moment one person dropped out, so only 4 people were sent on the JV team,” Bartkovich said.
“We still did very well, tying for 25th.”
Bartkovich stressed the importance of such a placing and explained that the team was quite proud of how they played.
“This might not sound like much, but I must remind you that this is the biggest scholastic chess competition in the country,” Bartkovich said. “By tying for 25th, it means our JV team is the 25th best chess team under 1600 in the entire USA.”
While the club’s junior varsity squad defied all expectations, their varsity team went above and beyond all hopes and put down a performance that all involved will remeber.
“The varsity team, of course, did even better. They tied for 5th place in the open section. That means that we have, basically, the 5th best chess team in the country,” Bartkovich said.
The team had stellar performances all around, but some stood out amongst the crowd. Xiang cited prep Michael Chen’s efforts as particularly admirable.
“In our championship team, I think Michael Chen outperformed himself by upsetting a win and a draw from higher rated players,” Xiang said. “He even went on to play the top seed (and later champion) in our section of 500 players.”
The club hopes to continue their string of strong performances and hopes to return to the national competition next year with even better results.
“We’re definitely looking at going again next year since this Nationals trip was such a great experience for both the novice and championship team,” Xiang said.
Bartkovich agreed with Xiang.
“I hope the club will continue to go to tournaments throughout the year, keep hosting in house tournaments [and] continue to play against Andover at E/a Weekend,” Bartkovich said. “But most importantly, I hope we’ll go back to nationals next year. Our performance this year was incredible, especially for this being our first year going.”
The club also seeks to increase its membership and involve more of the Exeter community.
“We’re also looking at maybe holding campus-wide events that could interest the general public as well as chess club. Also, one of our best players is graduating so it would be great to get some new talent next year.”
Bartkovich is hopeful for the club’s future and hopes that it continues to expand and improve.
“I’m confident that we can do even better if we go [to Nationals] again. Of course, I also want the club to continue to grow. As seniors graduate, more spots open up, both in the club and on the JV and varsity teams, so hopefully we’ll get some interested members within this coming year.”