Blair team wins Maryland High School Chess Championship

Four Blair students won the Maryland High School Chess Championship last weekend, Jan. 30 and 31. Blair narrowly beat Northwest High School, winning the championship for the fourth consecutive year.

Seniors Daniel Aisen, Randy Li and Eric Ma and freshman Zhi-ya Hu played five games each. Hu came in first in the tournament, winning all five of his games and five points for the team. Aisen, who came in second place, won four rounds and tied one, for a total score of four-and-a-half points. Ma and Li scored three-and-a-half points and two points, respectively.

The tournament uses the Swiss pairing system for play, which helps individual games remain more balanced by ensuring that players of different skill levels are kept apart. "Every round, they pair people with the same score together. The team is the top four scorers from a school," Li explained.

Aisen, Li and Ma have represented Blair in the competition for the past four years, but even with all of their experience, victory has never been assured. "We've won every year by a very small margin," Aisen said. "There was one team from Northwest High School. They brought 20-something kids, and we brought four. They were [only] half a point behind us because they had so many."

Because three of the four players are seniors, Blair's future success in the championship is uncertain. "Zhi-ya will definitely come and win the next three years, but I don't know if we'll have a team," Li said.

For his part, Hu hopes to recruit players next year from the upcoming freshman class. "I'll have to make a new team, but the seniors know some people who are coming," he said.