From Friday, April 8 to Sunday, April 10, the Chess Team competed at the National High School Chess Championship in Memphis, Tennessee, placing third. To earn their title, each member of the team had to play seven rounds, each with a runtime of about four hours. Individually, Rohit Gundam ‘22 placed 14th, Nirupam Kushalnagar ‘22 placed 23rd, and Ganesh Kumarappan ‘23 placed 24th. The team of Ambica Yellamraju ‘23, Aparna Yellamraju ‘23, Dhruv Pathak ‘23, Kumarappan, Loy Bhowmick ‘25, Kushalnagar, Nitin Akella ‘23, Gundam, Rithik Polavaram ‘24, and Raghav Aggarwal ‘24 competed against players from over 38 states. 

“I’m really proud of how well we did. I didn’t expect us to do as well as we did at a national tournament,” Loy Bhomwick ‘25 said. “We had a lot of fun together, and [placing] felt like the results of our hard work.”

The competition was the team’s last of the school year, ending the year on a high note.