Photo courtesy of Northwood High School
Northwood’s chess club placed ninth out of 17 in the North Carolina Association for Scholastic Activities (NCASA) Scholastic Cup Chess Competition after two days of chess matches. The competitors had to compete from Mar. 18-19 in a series of matches. According to chess club advisor Darian Cork, the competition started out with 35 chess teams from various schools and counties. After finishing the qualifying rounds, only 17 teams were left; these teams would then face each other to find out how they placed overall.
“We placed ninth, and so that was with the [North Carolina School of Science and Math and schools like it], so there were really powerful teams [we went up against],” Cork said. “The fact that we went with mostly freshmen and sophomores—of the five people that went, four of them were freshmen and sophomores—we did really well.”
The chess team members were content with how they did at the competition.
“I felt like we came in and we did what we were expecting to do,” sophomore Christopher Medina said. “We knew we weren’t going to be the best team there at all, because we kind of just threw everything together. We did how we projected to do.”
The competition was conducted in the Raleigh Convention Center in a large room full of chessboards and other competitors. Each member was matched with someone of similar skill level until a winner emerged, or there was no way for either competitor to checkmate.
When asked what kind of support they got during and before the tournament, the members mentioned their families and Cork.
“Well, Mr. Cork, who leads the chess club, did a good job at supporting our team, and my teammates supported me also, and my family,” freshman Natalie Hammond said.
Cork mentioned Dr. Bartholomew as one of their best supporters, as he was integral to getting to the competition.
“The main thing was to get them there and get them going; Dr. Bartholomew paid our entrance fee, so that was great,” Cork said, “We wouldn’t of been able to afford it—it was expensive to go—so Dr. Bartholomew just had that money for us to go.”
The members were happy to go to this competition; they had fun and are proud of how they did.
“It went pretty well considering we did not prepare a ton; we all won at least one game,” Hammond said. “It was two days long, so it took up the whole day, all weekend, but it was fun, and we played a lot of chess.”
– By Declan Dolan
