One of Cherry Hill East’s 2015 championship teams doesn’t play on a court or a field. It doesn’t swing a bat or a racquet and doesn’t compete in front of a crowd of loud, screaming fans.
This championship team plays a classic board game, where strategic knowledge, commitment and perseverance have guided it to success the past two years.
The Cherry Hill East chess team has just wrapped a successful season, winning its second consecutive South Jersey High School Chess League championship and advancing to the state championships, where it finished in fifth place.
While not as widely spoken about as other teams such as basketball or football, the chess team has a history at Cherry Hill East. The team has won championships dating as far back as the 1970s.
“We’ve seen trophies with historic dates on them,” said Greg Rouen, Cherry Hill East teacher and chess team coach.
Chess matches have a similar format to a tennis match. There are five games played during every match, with players ranked one to five on each team. The school to win the best-of-five games match is the winner.
At the end of the year, all 16 schools in the league converge on Cherokee High School for the season-ending playoffs. The teams are seeded and battle in a single-elimination tournament until one team stands as champion.
All five players on varsity share a love of chess dating back to before high school. Many of them knew each other from youth tournaments and activities prior to coming to Cherry Hill East.
“When I went to camps, they were there,” junior Yoni Weiss said. “When I went to activities for chess, they were there. These are the people who I learned to play chess with.”
When they arrived at Cherry Hill East, the group shared a bond through their love of the game.
“Our team unity is that we all collectively want the team to do well,” senior Ed Shu said. “So the ones that have a more favorable matchup, we’re pushed to do even better.”
The team unity helps push the team through some of the game’s pressure-filled situations. Sophomore Mariya Oreshko said she feels the most pressure when she’s playing an opponent ranked lower than her.
“If they’re ranked lower, I know I’m supposed to win,” she said.
Senior Max DuBoff said his teammates can sometimes take the pressure off him if they are playing well.
“If I see the rest of my team is doing well, I can relax a bit. That’s definitely something that’s unique to this kind of team chess,” he said.
Losing to lower-ranked opponents was something Cherry Hill East didn’t do this season. After winning the South Jersey League, the team went 3–2 at the state championships, with both losses to North Jersey teams with a higher rating.
“What we were happy about this year as we did not lose to a lower-ranked team,” Rouen said. “We didn’t get upset by anyone.”
As exciting as it was to win the championship, the team is even more excited with how the championship has helped spur interest in chess among the school community. Shu said interest in chess was low when he entered Cherry Hill East as a freshman. The school’s chess club consisted of just the members of the team at the time. Today, he estimates there are 15 to 20 people in the club, many of whom do not compete on the varsity team.
“Over these past four years, our recognition has greatly improved,” Shu said. “When I first joined, it was just the five varsity players.”
DuBoff said winning the South Jersey League in back-to-back years has given the team recognition and spurred interest. Earlier this spring, both Cherry Hill Township and the Cherry Hill Board of Education recognized the team at meetings.
“The success of the team has helped grow the club apart from the team,” DuBoff said. “There’s a lot of people who play chess with us on Tuesdays and Thursdays that don’t come to matches.”
The chess club has also been able to increase its membership thanks to a chess-specific homeroom held during the first lunch period.
“In the past two years, a homeroom was established just for chess,” Shu said. “It’s in the first lunch break. If we’re all just there, we’ll start a game.”
The best part about the homeroom and club as a whole is players from novices to experts are welcome. Weiss said interest in the homeroom spiked as word spread about it.
“The first day, we had five people,” Weiss said. “But as more people knew about it, it grew to 15 to 20 people.”
The renewed interest in chess excites the members of the team. DuBoff is sad to leave the team upon graduation next month, but he is happy to know the student body has a greater interest in chess moving forward.
“Our club is great for those who are serious about chess and those who aren’t so serious about chess,” he said.
