10 Years...25 Championships!

By Dave McGrath

On Saturday, May 5th at the New Hampshire Scholastic Chess Team Championship tournament held at Pelham Elementary School, the Amherst King Bishops primary ( K-3rd grade) chess team of Paul Trombi, Aidan Ahearn, Ethan Lim and Miles Lim won all 4 of their matches in a double round robin format against teams from Nashua and Franconia.

The team chess state championship they won was the 25th team or individual title won by their club and marked 10 consecutive years of at least one New Hampshire Scholastic Chess Championship.

The Amherst King Bishops elementary (4-6th grade) team nearly won also, finishing second in their division with a 3-1 match score in a 9 team battle, just half of a point behind a team from Nashua's Bicentennial School.

The elementary team was comprised of 6th graders Liam Earley,Tommy Darnall and Sofia Husainy together with 4th grader Will Darnall. The remarkable championship run includes at least one individual and one team championship in each of the 4 divisions of competition at the state level ( Primary, Elementary, Jr. High, and High School ). Few, if any, scholastic chess clubs in the country have achieved this level of success across all age groups.

The club also has a New Hampshire Girls High School Championship to its' credit thanks to Jolyn Ma of Mont Vernon who accomplished that feat in May of 2010. The secret to the success of such a small town all volunteer chess club ?... keeping it fun and accomplishing goals as a team .

The scores of student chess players from Amherst and Mont Vernon who are or have been members of the club which was established in 2002 view chess as an opportunity to get together with friends and maybe learn a few things about how to improve their game.

Their parents and mentors know that chess can sharpen concentration and analytical skills that lead to improvements in academic performance but the kids are just in it for the fun and they know that their chess club considers all of them champions whether they play chess at the tournament level or not.

Thank you to The Congregational Church of Amherst, the Amherst Recreation Dept. and to the many parents and teachers who do so much to support our young chess enthusiasts.

Of special note is Mary Ireland of Amherst's Wilkins Elementary School who mentored 3 of the 4 members of the primary team that won the state title and who has promoted systematic chess study as part of her math practice curriculum.