Congratulations to chess players Rohan Meier, Arnav Harve, Derek Jin, John Henry Lotz-McMillen, Thomas Lu, Tomas Hernandez, Jeffrey Liu, Alexander Meng, Noah Brauner, Matt Loose, Graham Ellis, Jonas Zatlyn-Weiner, Calder Reynolds, Sam Li, Ben Owusu-Amo and Yisen Gu! Chess Club advisor C.P. Pasterczyk praised their performance in “a series of vicious chess matches” against 10 area schools. Although Roxbury Latin ultimately took the top spot, Pasterczyk joked that Nobles’ second-place win earned us “a moral (if not outright) victory.”
Special recognition went to 15-year-old Derek Jin ’25, who learned to play chess at age six, and has just earned the title of National Master from the United States Chess Federation (USCF)—which means he ranks among the top one percent of all players in the country of any age.
Pasterczyk said, “In March, when Derek wrote to share his news, he said that as a young player aiming for this achievement, he knew the path wouldn’t be easy—but he also believed (and learned from his journey) that hard work and determination might make dreams come true.” Addressing the assembly crowd, she closed with, “Derek, as a teacher and one of your foremost admirers, allow me to say congratulations. We stand in awe of you.”
Photo 1: Nobles Chess Club
Photo 2: Derek Jin ’25 and Alexander Meng ’27. Alexander is Nobles’ top middle school player, who is USCF “Expert,” the ranking just under Derek’s title of “National Master.”
Photos 3–8: Candids from this morning’s Chess Club gathering.
Photos: Ben Heider