The Los Gatos school finished first among 34 schools in the K­3 championship section at the 29th annual CalChess State Scholastic Championships for Northern California. The tournament, held March 20­21 at the Santa Clara Convention Center, drew a record 1,450 students, in grades ranging from kindergarten through high school.

The K­3 championship team consisted of third-graders Sudarshan Seshadri, Peter Goodlin and Christina Gilbert, along with first-grader Jonathan Gilbert and second-grader David Frankle. The team's score of 14 points beat out those of four perennial rivals from Fremont who scored from 10 to 12.5. Sudarshan and Peter also won trophies for their individual performances, tying for fifth place out of 106 players, with four wins in five games.

"I'm just delighted that we finally have a state championship," said parent and part-time chess instructor Jon Frankle, who coached the team and took the students to the event from 2000 through 2003. "It's an honor."

In the K­6 championship, Blossom Hill's team—including fifth-graders Steven Zierk, Rik Basu and Lana Frankle—took third place among K­5 schools. Steven and alumnus Charles Sun, who is now a sixth-grader at Raymond J. Fisher Middle School, tied for fifth place in individual competition out of 216 players in this section. They each won five out of six games.

Chess competition is serious business, but weekly practices are full of fun and giggles. The students practice for competition by timing themselves. Steve Goodlin said his son, Peter, had up to an hour to complete each game during the competition.

"Peter could beat me by the time he was 7 years old," Jim said. "Now he won't play me because it's no fun."

Parents were not allowed to watch the championship event, and the convention center was extremely quiet as the players formulated strategies for every move.

The Blossom Hill team includes children as young as 5-year-old Shanaya Mullan. Frankle said players often start as early as kindergarten, like Shanaya.

"It's not entirely unusual," he said. "It's a wonderful game in that way. The students find that they can go out and compete against adults and find themselves winning."

The Blossom Hill team is also known as a program called Success Chess, run by the Los Gatos­Saratoga Community Education and Recreation Department. The group practices after school on Tuesdays with regular instructors Bela Evans and Kiran Desai, as well as part-time instructor Jon Frankle and parent volunteers such as John Gilbert.

Members of the team attend tournaments and are more advanced, while members of the club use the program as a learning experience and are generally beginners. Success Chess grew out of a program at Weibel Elementary School in Fremont under the direction of Dr. Alan Kirshner, a professor at Ohlone College. The program is in its first year of operation at Los Gatos schools.

Other victors at the championship included Blossom Hill first-grader Kimberly Zai, who won four out of five games and tied for 12th place out of 167 players competing in the K­3 premier (junior varsity) section.

She competed along with her teammates, third-graders Tiffany Zai, Roshni Desai and Priyanka Mullan.

Fifth-grader Young Lee and Shanaya Mullan competed in the K­6 non-rated and kindergarten sections, respectively. Alumni Ali and Amir Hashemian, who are now in eighth and sixth grades, were among Fisher's top four finishers.

They led their school to third place out of 24 schools that participated in the junior high championship.

In addition to forming camaraderies, Desai said Success Chess helps students learn to think logically while demonstrating good sportsmanship. Desai said the best way students progress is by playing the game over and over again, against themselves, their instructors, parents and peers.

The students said they read books about chess in their spare time, monitor their moves by recording them and then review the moves with their coaches.

Chess is growing in popularity for both girls and boys because it benefits children intellectually and teaches them to learn from their mistakes.

It also increases their attention spans and forces them to use logical thinking and visualization skills.

"They just do their best and have fun," Desai said. "They don't get too worked up on wins and losses."

Complete results and photographs from the championship event can be viewed at www.calnorthyouthchess.org/photographs.html. For more information about Blossom Hill's Success Chess group, call Frankle at 408.356.7556 or email jonfrankle@megapathdsl.net.