It was a good ‘knight? for the Goodrich High School chess team’but it was a better day as the Martians took third place in a statewide competition at Oakland University on Feb. 26.
The Michigan Chess Association’s state tournament included 25 teams ranging from small schools, like Goodrich, to much larger schools. Two schools that Goodrich competed against were Kearsley High School and Detroit Country Day.
The team defeated three schools and lost to one out of 10 teams in the reserve section.
Team captain and senior Loren Burr said the team was challenged in the competition.
‘We beat much larger schools like Detroit Country Day and Detroit Cody High School,? said Burr. ‘Going into the last match, we were pretty confident having won the last two out of three, but we did not expect to do as well as we did.?
The competition was divided into four rounds, called matches, and each match called for four members from each school to play simultaneously with four members from another school. ‘We were randomly paired for the first match and as the meet went on, we played with teams that were doing as well as we were,? said Burr.
The Goodrich members who participated were Loren Burr, Morgan Rouvelin, Benjamin Caryl and Andrea Trubiano.
‘We haven’t done this well since around 2006 so it was a great win,? said Burr. ‘It was a lot of work and dedication though. We met four days a week, every week, since December.?