Junior Denny Mannakulathil and sophomore Charlie White practice their skills the week before the Georgia High School Chess Championship. The students have been attending all the previous practices, every Tuesday after school, in order to improve themselves. “For the team, I think we’ll do pretty well because I think we have good players this year,” sophomore Zach Meyers said. Photo by Christina Kurian.
By CHRISTINA KURIAN – Staff Writer
Clarke Central High School’s chess club will competed in the Georgia High School Chess Championship at Emory University in Atlanta, an all day event this Saturday, March 28.
The Georgia High School Chess Championship at Emory University is held once a year with high school students from all around Georgia. It will be the determining factor on who will be eligible for nationals.
Clarke Central High School’s chess club has one goal of making it to the top 12 teams that will go to nationals, where teams from each state will compete.
“We want to qualify for nationals. That’s really what we want to do,” social studies department teacher and Chess Club Advisor David Cleveland said.
This will be the second time the chess club will be competing in the Georgia High School Chess Championship at Emory Tournament. The team holds higher expectations than last year as they await the weekend. This year, 11 students from CCHS will compete against students from 23 different schools.
“We’re going to do well. Last year we came in 16th (place). That was our first time going to the tournament. This year, we have two teams going, not just one and they’re a better team,” Cleveland said.
In preparation for upcoming meets, the chess club holds regulatory practices each week and this has also been the first year the team has had a chess club GLAD time.
“We’ve grown because we’re using glad time to build our membership and practice,” Cleveland said. “We’ve been meeting and practicing our skill once a week, every Tuesday.”
Sophomore Zach Meyers is excited yet nervous for the competition. He holds the title of being the one number player which means he is the highest scoring on the CCHS chess team.
“I think I’ll do pretty well, but maybe not because I’ll be facing the number one players against all the other schools,” Meyers said.
Cleveland has high hopes knowing the capabilities of each team member.
“I’m super excited. This is the best team we’ve had… in three years, the strongest group of chess players we’ve ever had,” Cleaveland said. “(The students) are super excited.”
