The chess team at Livingston High School recently finished in first place for the second consecutive year in the New Jersey High School Chess Championship. Representatives from the team travelled to Baltimore, Maryland for the national High School Chess Championship.National ChampionshipThe High School Chess Championship saw chess players from across the nation competing against each other for top honors. LHS was able to nab a second place title, falling behind only to New York City’s Dalton School.Individual medals were awarded to Livingston’s Roger Zhang,Ashton Roberts, Haari Muthukumar, Sam Israel, and Matt Ge.State ChampionshipLHS’s chess team was named as varsity champions of the New Jersey High School Chess Championship. The high school also had a second team enter the varsity section, and they placed fourth.The first place team consisted of Zhang, Muthukumar, Lev Koganov, Quan Tran, and Roberts. Zhang was named second player overall, while Muthukumar was awarded third overall player. Koganov and Tran were also named fourth and sixth overall players, respectively.Making up the fourth place team were students Claire Cheng, Matt Ge, Tom Valyaev, Lucas Xiong, and Eric Guo. Cheng was named eighth overall player.Livingston High School also entered two teams into the junior varsity section. The first of the two junior varsity teams was able to secure a second place win for LHS.The junior varsity team that scored second place consisted of Israel, Benjamin Murkis, Aayush Saxena, and George Cui.The second junior varsity team was made up of Jerry Ji, Xander Luo, Abhimaan Chandan, and Elias Chen.Livingston High School’s chess club is advised by Will Peklo.
