Chess team places fourth at county tournament

At this year’s county tournament held on Feb. 2 at Monta Vista High, Saratoga was represented by an unusually small group of three players, but senior Matt Yee, junior Morteza Rohaninejad and sophomore Faisal Albannai delivered a strong performance, placing fourth overall with a  total of 7.5 points after five rounds of play.

“We were planning on taking more people, but some people had to back out in the last minute. For three people, we did surprisingly well,” Yee said.

Despite the size of the team being a definite disadvantage, particularly against Monta Vista with a dozen players, Saratoga maintained a consistent level of play.

“We had a nice record going, by the third round we felt we had a good shot at third [because] we were only half a point behind,” Yee said.

After the success at the county level, the team will continue with the regular meetings and may decide to register to play in the state tournament in early April.