Lerman, Xu State Champions! Cardenas Takes Second Place! 
Bergen Academies NJ HS champions!

At the recent New Jersey State Scholastic championships, as well as the New Jersey High School Championships the International Chess Academy was successfully represented by many of its current students.  At the end of the five round competition two students finished atop the leader board in their respective sections earning the right to claim they were state champions, while the Bergen Academies high school team (composed entirely of ICA students) won the New Jersey High School championships.

 “Primary Section”

Of the seventy-three students in this section the ICA was represented by four students in Mathew Lerman, Dennis Li, Suran Gao, and Kenneth Telebrico.  Kenneth finished in thirty-sixth place with two-and-a-half points, while both Suran and Dennis scored four points each, lost only once, and finished in ninth, and third places respectively.  Mathew Lerman of course finished in co-first place winning all five of his games and becoming a three time state champion.

“Elementary Section”

The elementary section had one-hundred and five participants of which eight represented the ICA.  Daniel Klevak finished in thirty-eighth place with three out of five points, while Daniel Khaitov finished in twenty-sixth with the same score.  Alan Sourek finished in twentieth with three-and-a-half points and received a trophy, while Duy Nguyen ended up in eighteenth with the same score and prize.  Gabriel Lifshitz only lost one game and finished in fourteenth place with four points.  Joshua Lerman finished in the top ten in ninth place with his only loss coming to fellow ICA’er Nikita Popov who finished in fifth place with the same four points and one loss as well.

Ryan Xu became state champion winning all five games and ending up tied for first place.

“Junior High School Section”

Of the fifty-five participants five represented the ICA and all five finished with a trophy.  Nastasia Klevak finished in sixteenth place with three points, while Michael Aksen finished with the same score only two place higher in fourteenth place.  Ilan Katz, and Vedant Rautela finished in the top ten, ninth, and seventh respectively and only had one loss each. 

Nicholas Cardenas finished in second place with four-and-a-half points having only one draw in his last round game.

“New Jersey High School  Championships”

The Bergen Academies team won the New Jersey High School championships with key performance from Gregory Gabovich who won first place for board two scoring five out of five points.  Haik Der-Manuelian won important games against Christopher Wu(rated 2300+) and drew David Hu (also rated 2300+).  The team included Haik Der-Manuelian, Gregory Gabovich, Ari Shusterman, Eric Kong, and Ashwin Anbu. 

Congratulations to all our students and of course state champions.