The Revere High School Chess club combines youthful members with experienced players in hopes of building a stronger team for future matches against its rivals.

Revere’s Chess club has integrated many younger members into the program to increase their skills and to better the club’s chances of winning against Revere’s rivals in the future. Chess club adviser Eugene Sawan mentioned the age range of the players on the team this year.

“Revere happens to have three teams: one varsity team and two teams that play in the reserve division which is the equivalent of junior varsity. Our membership includes students from the high school, the middle school, and in special situations, students from Bath Elementary,” Sawan said.

Sawan also expounded upon how students achieve a higher rank on the team.

“They play matches against each other to move up the rank. The club has close to forty members, [but] not all the members join Chess club to compete. We have many students who come in and play, but are not part of the team due to their busy schedules,” Sawan said.

Five players constitute a chess team. Each of the players has a board, or position on the team, based on skill level. The highest rank is board one, the lowest is board five. Sawan, the co-director of the Greater Akron Chess League, explained that even the Varsity team has many underclassmen and middle school students.

“The captain of the Varsity team and the best player is Chaitanya Annamreddi. Board two is Abbhay Adury, an eighth grader. Third board is Samantha Ma, a freshman. Lucy Zhang is our fourth board, and our fifth board is Rohit Dasanoor who is in seventh grade,” Sawan said.

Senior and seven-year member of the Chess club Jack Jester elaborated on how the ages of the top players adds to the team’s chances for success.

“Competitively, we are larger and more skilled than most. Right now our team is young, so we have a good chance of winning in the future because many other teams have more upperclassmen than we do,” Jester said.

Freshman and third board on the Varsity team Samantha Ma speculated the reason behind the younger players competing at high levels and what attracts so many people to Chess club.

“Chess is a game where many complicated calculations and a good memory are required in order to win, and I believe younger players are more capable of this . . . . Chess club is fun and competitive at the same time, and there are many people on different levels that you can challenge or just play for fun. I personally joined Chess club because chess is one of my hobbies, and I enjoy playing the game,” Ma said.

Seniors in the program include Jon Dye, Jack Jester, Tom Ulinski and Lucy Zhang.