Bikram Kumar Sahoo

After winning their respective boards and collecting their awards, the chess team stands together, holding their trophies. Sophomore Prateek Nemmali (right) captained the team and led them to an overall second-place finish. “In terms of community, I feel [chess] is a nice team spirit-building thing, especially when playing in team tournaments. It’s competitive, but you feel together when you play the game,” Nemmali said.

Seconds pass as small clocks tick in a silent room while tension mounts. High school students from towns across Mo. gather in the silent playing hall, facing off in a tactical game: chess. Junior Santosh Sahoo quickly deploys pawn to e4, playing the Italian Game. The match has begun. 

Sahoo, a chess club member, participated in the 2023 Missouri State Chess Championship on Saturday, March 18. He and fellow members juniors Raj Jaladi, Jason Tsao and sophomore Prateek Nemmali traveled to Battle High School in Columbia, Mo. to participate in the Swiss-style tournament, where they won second place as a team. 

“Chess is about perseverance and patience. You’re not running or jumping but thinking with your mind. [Often], the [opponent] you battle in chess is not the pieces but the mental and physical exhaustion. Chess is everything to me. It teaches me to be a better person, not just on the board but off the board. It teaches me to focus better in school and have a good time,” Sahoo said. 

During the tournament, Sahoo took first on board four, Tsao won first on board two, and Nemmali secured second on board one. Players from different schools were matched based on their overall rankings. 

“When you are playing a tournament, you feel a competitiveness there which is weird because it’s quiet. It is quite serious when you are playing. There is a lot of competition, especially playing high-ranked people or lower-ranked players that worked hard to prepare. When you play these players, you can be surprised by how hard it is,” Nemmali said. “We were surprised to place second; we didn’t think we would get that far. Over the last couple [of] years, we have gotten a series of third placements and lower but have never gotten this high.” 

Both Sahoo and Nemmali began their journies in chess through their fathers, who valued teaching their children the culturally significant Indian game. The two began learning rules and pieces young. Sahoo won his first tournament in elementary school, while Nemmali improved with the help of a tutor. 

“Back when I first started playing against my dad, I thought I could handle myself. That didn’t work out too well. So, he found me a tutor from India. My tutor helped me move up 1000 points in two years, which was helpful. He inspired me and although he is not ranked, I hope to become as skilled as him and teach one day,” Nemmali said. 

The chess team plans to keep improving throughout the 2023-2024 school year and looks forward to better results next year.

“It felt amazing to win and receive the trophy because I wanted to win something for the school. Individually it’s great to win something, but it is better when you get to fight for your school or a team, and I know that I made the school proud with [my teammates],” Sahoo said.

Nemmali has advice for any students wanting to start their journey into the world of chess.

Start with the basics. Don’t get too ahead of yourself, to begin with. I would recommend starting with Chess.com. They teach you how each piece moves, ideas, openings, game strategies and the basics [of the game]. Once you feel like you have a good hang of it, there are more lessons to take on pushing your thinking level and knowledge of the game,” Nemmali said. “Chess isn’t just a game itself. As you learn how to place pieces and attack, you begin to think about what decisions are better for yourself, both in the game and [in] the real world.”