Even with school closed for Presidents’ Day there was no relaxing for Harker’s grade 6 chess team, who spent the recent long weekend in Pleasanton bringing home the 30th National Annual U.S. Amateur Team Championship West title.

Nishant Ravi, Shafieen Ibrahim, Rini Vasan and Shaunak Maruvada, all grade 6, took home top player trophies by going undefeated (in the kids’ division event), with many perfect scores, on the chess boards.

In addition to the Harker group win in the kids’ category, Ibrahim and Maruvada also participated in the U.S. National Amateur Team Championship West’s adult division during the tournament weekend, winning the U1400 championship title. Playing with two other non-Harker players in order qualify as the required team of four, they were up against much higher rated players yet more than managed to hold their own over the course of several intense hours.

“We are very proud of what the kids did and how well they played. Some of the games were really tough and long but they persisted and prevailed,” noted Satish Maruvada, father of Shaunak. “It was a fantastic performance!”