National Chess Champion!

ISS Chess Team member Matyas Jakubu ’17 is a national chess champion after placing first in the unrated section of the National High School Chess Championship held April 1-3 in Atlanta! More than 1,400 players competed in the national tournament, one of the largest in history.

Jakubu, a native of the Czech Republic who is studying at Indian Springs this year through the school’s partnership with ASSIST (American Secondary Schools for International Students and Teachers), won six games and drew one, for a total 6.5 out of 7 points in K-12 Unrated.

“Matyas finished first in a field of 119 players, stunning the Unrated section and placing Alabama and Indian Springs School on the national chess map,” says ISS Chess Team Coach Charles A. Smith.

In other exceptional showings for Springs, freshman Logan Mercer ’19 tied for third place in a field of 298 and finished fourth overall (in tie breaks) in K-12 Under 1600. Mercer, whose playing was “outstanding,” says Smith, competed for the national championship, losing only to the national champion for that section in the second to final round of competition. (Mercer then rebounded to win the final round in the seventh and last round of play.)

Jack McGuire ’16 tied for twelfth place in a field of 357 and finished eighteenth overall in K-12 Under 1200. Springs’ team of Jakubu, Maddie Smith ’17 and Ashlynn Berry ’16 placed sixth in a field of 28 teams from all over the country, “also making a name for ISS,” says Smith.

Smith gave shout-outs to Berry for her score of 4 out of 7—“great for her first major competition”—and to Smith for her strong performance, which he says helped the team clinch sixth place. Teammates Matthew Lash ’17 and Spencer Robinson ’19, he says, plan to return in the fall to continue to represent Springs well.

“This is one of Springs’ strongest showings ever at nationals,” says ISS Director Gareth Vaughan. “I’d like to congratulate all our Chess Team members for their excellent playing. I also want to thank Coach Smith for his many years of dedicated coaching of Springs students and ISS alumnus and Board member Frank Samford ’62 for his longstanding support of chess at Indian Springs. Chess and Springs have a natural affinity, and to be successful in a national competition run by the highly regarded U.S. Chess Federation puts us in great company, among some of the best private and public schools in the country.”

Congratulations to all!