Jefferson Brings Home Chess Championship For First Time in Decades

Editor's note: The following information was provided by Diane Moca. 

Ten talented students representing in Woodridge had all the right moves during the Southeast Dupage Elementary Athletic Association Chess Tournament held at Lace School in Darien Saturday.

The Jefferson team captured first place in the season-ending match-up against six other teams in the school conference, pulling an upset over top-ranked Cass Jr. High School in Darien. 

It was the first time in 21 years the Jefferson chess team earned a first place trophy in the tournament. The local players also bring back another trophy to Jefferson for coming in third place in the season with a 7-5 record.

Wechman had been telling the nine boys and one girl for days that he knew they could checkmate their way to a surprise win at the tournament.

Each player competes in four games during the tournament, with each win counting as one point.

The crafty Jefferson team earned 30.5 points out of a possible 40. Each team consists of 10 players ranked by their coach from first to tenth based on chess ability and past performance. The top player of one team competes only against the top players from the other teams at the first board level, on down to the tenth board level.

The tournament awards a championship medal to the player with the best record at each board level.

Five players from Jefferson took home those championship medals for winning their board level: Bashkim Useni on third board, Austin Moca on fourth board, Amber Moca on seventh board, Walter Marsh on eighth board and Anish Patel on tenth board. Four of them won all four games, and Amber won three games and had a draw (worth half a point) in one game.

Three of the champions – Austin, Amber and Marsh – are still in elementary school. Austin is in sixth grade, and his sister Amber is in fourth grade at Willow Creek school; Marsh is in fifth grade.

Members of the Jefferson chess team are: Adrian Palaia, Aaron Leonard, Pradeep Kumar, David Martinez, Coach Wechman, Ben Cortez, Bashkim Useni, Anish Patel, Walter Marsh, Austin Moca and Amber Moca. 

Graduating members are: Ben Cortez (First Board), Adrian Palaia (Second Board), Bashkim Useni (Third Board) and Aaron Leonard (Fifth Board).