How I Became a New York State Champion!

In this article, I am going to talk about my experience during the 49th NY State Scholastic Championships in March, 2016!

When I became a first-grader I practiced hard and experienced more tournaments before this one. The journey began with a four-hour bus ride to Saratoga Springs NY, which was the location of the tournament.

For this six-round-tournament, I needed to use the skills I learned from my chess coach Mr. Johnson. He taught me things like new openings (one of which was the Sicilian), how to avoid stalemate, and how to complete the queen and king checkmate, as I mentioned in my previous article.

On the bus ride to Saratoga, I practiced using various ChessKid puzzles and videos. Even though I tried to consume myself with many chess puzzles and tactics, I still found myself searching for ways to control my excitement.

Four hours later, we got off of the bus and made our way into the hotel, where we found our rooms and got ready for the next day. Finding company with my sister, Noni, we had fun playing chess and relaxing with each other.

After about an hour, the team and I headed to dinner, where we chatted about the bus ride and days to come. That night, I slept well and felt fully prepared for the tournament. Feeling nervous but optimistic about the rounds ahead, I remembered all the hard work I put in to be successful. Each round brought its own challenges but I was able to make it to round six with a perfect score of 5/5 and full energy.

Me and my coach, Mr. Johnson.

Round six was the determining factor for who would win first place. When I saw who my opponent was, I recalled the New York City Championships, in January, when I lost to the same player. Despite losing to him in the past, I came prepared this time thanks to Mr. Johnson. Before the match, he helped me with my nerves by giving me a pep talk that reminded me about our talk from that morning.

In order to defeat him I took my time and played aggressively. I started by forking his bishop on e3 and knight on c3 with my pawn on d4. The fork set me up for a great endgame where I could trade all my pieces and be up a knight.

Eventually, after an hour and a half, I was able to checkmate him. After previously losing to my opponent during the City Championships, and getting second place to him, I used the teachings from Mr. Johnson and the encouragement from my mom, sister, and teammates, to win first place with 6/6!

The trophy was so big that I began crying on stage because of how heavy it was, and how happy and proud I was to win.