The chess team ended its league play with a tie against Leigh High on Nov. 13 and placed fourth overall, after narrowly missing third to Menlo Park High.

“It was unfortunate because we never got to play [Menlo Park High during leagues] because of the delayed Club Day this year, but I think we could have beaten them,”  senior president Matt Yee said.

With league play over and no upcoming competitions between schools aside from the county tournament in the spring, Yee has turned his attention to setting up intramural chess tournaments.

Yee has assigned sophomore Morteza Rohaninejad and  seniors Tyler Bakke and Feargus MacFhionnlaoich as officers to implement the tournaments beginning early second semester.

Rohaninejad said he is still in the planning stages but envisions a round-robin format for the tournaments, which will be open to anyone who interested.

“In chess club we do not [exclude] anyone. I am setting up two tiers, intermediate and novice, so that people who are new to chess have the incentive to join and everyone will play others at their level,” Rohaninejad said.

Rohaninejad said it is important  for people to sign up so he can schedule the matchups. Once the tournaments are in full swing next semester, he anticipates there will be tournaments once every six weeks or once every two months on Saturdays or Sundays.

“Chess tournaments are one of the things that make you improve significantly because you try your hardest,” Rohaninejad said. “I am going to make it as fun as possible and there will be free food and incentives to win.”

Rohaninejad said that having a tournament would be “awesome” and would create a “win-win situation because we as a team would get better, and more people would get interested in chess.”