Young chess players take on older opponents

They're young, not yet in high school, but six students at Moody Middle School in Henrico County welcome the opportunity to compete against older, more experienced chess players.

The group of six -- Yash Tekriwal, Greg Akerman, Vignesh Rajasekaran, Vikas Rajasekaran, Tip Wolfe and Abhishek Penumala -- use those experiences against adult and, at times, master chess players to better themselves as players.

Tekriwal, an eighth-grader, said it was intimidating at first to play adults, but "as you gain more experience, you know how to play better against less experienced players."

That knowledge makes the players stronger when they compete against others their own age in national scholastic competitions. The first such tournament the Moody Middle School advanced chess team will play in is the National K-12 Scholastic Championship in Dallas on Dec. 11-13.

The team also is competing in the National Junior High (K-9) Championship in April and the National Elementary (K-6) Championship in May.

Confidence is high among the six players, especially the four sixth-graders, three of whom placed in the top 25 nationally in the K-5 division at the Supernationals IV Championship chess competition in the spring.

Wolfe finished seventh, while twin brothers Vikas and Vignesh Rajasekaran placed 22nd and 24th, respectively.

Add Penumala to the mix, with his U.S. Chess Federation rating of 1623, and the sixth-graders form a formidable foursome that feed off one another when they are playing tournaments or practicing.

"It gives me more confidence because if they are doing good, and I need myself to do better, it helps me to boost my performance and play as good as they are," Penumala said.

Vikas Rajasekaran and his brother go head-to-head on a regular basis.

"It helps me train, since I can practice on him, and we're good sparring partners," he said.

Akerman, a seventh-grader, pointed out that the competition between the others is kept friendly.

"We're all friends, so it's not like we hold grudges against each other," he said.

The diverse players have different approaches to the matches they play. Wolfe, for example, plays an attacking style -- "if you can overwhelm your opponent with your attacks, it's really easy to get a win."

Vignesh Rajasekaran, who wants to play chess professionally, takes a more calculated approach to his opponent, searching for a weakness and then exploiting it.

Regardless of the style of play, the ultimate goal is checkmating their opponents.

"Hopefully, we'll have a great deal of success while at those national tournaments," said team coach Britta Wolfe.

Contact Jeremy Slayton at (804) 649-6861 or .