On Saturday, June 4, the Encinal High School (EHS) chess club went undefeated against Alameda High School (AHS) in the first ever “Island Board” chess tournament. The event was held on AHS’ campus.

“It felt great to win,” said EHS chess club president Jonah Abrami. “We weren’t super sure if we were going to win but we went there and were confident in our abilities. The participants were matched by seed to make the games fair and competitive.”

The event was organized in collaboration with Alameda High’s Chess Club. To ensure the event ran smoothly, players heavily relied on the integrity of each other.

“We kept track of matches and also used the honor system a lot, so people would report how their matches went,” said Abrami.

With the Island Board being a new event hosted late in the school year right before finals week, the competition didn’t garner much attention from the student body.

“Next year we’re going to try and have it a little earlier in the school year, but it will be a yearly thing,” said Abrami.