On February 17-18, 2018, four members from the Fossil Ridge High School Chess Team participated in the 2018 Colorado State Chess Championship and took third place in the state in the K-12 age division. This two-day tournament between the best chess players in the state was held at the the University of Denver as well as Metropolitan State University at the Tivoli Student Center in Denver.

Fossil took third overall behind second place Cherry Creek and champions Fairview with a total score of 14 points, where winning a game of chess equates to one point scored. Cherry Creek scored 14.5 total and Fairview had a total of 16.5 points after the end of the tournament. Junior Joshua Lee scored 4 points out of his 6 rounds leading the Fossil team in points. Freshmen Curtis Chun and Kylan Jin scored a hard fought 3.5 points out of their 6 rounds with very difficult match ups throughout the tournament. Freshman Ethan Ko scored an impressive 3 points out of 6, especially when he played the state champion during his first round. Overall, a very impressive showing from the team.

One of the cool features of this tournament was the live broadcasting of the top games in the state, which would be showed in a conference room next to the competition rooms. Chun was given the opportunity to play in one of these games against one of the best chess players in the state. Though he was beaten, he lost with 9 seconds left on the opponent’s clock, making it one of the most intriguing games of the tournament.

Currently, the Fossil chess club has about 20 members and meets Tuesdays during lunch at E102 to have chess lessons and practice. They attend chess events year round throughout Colorado. Players are given a chess rating based on their performance at these competitions. This year, the club received the highest team average in Fossil history with a rating of 1489.

Lee, the captain of the Chess team, said, “I think our team did very well. There was a difficult pool of players and a lot of lower rated players defeating higher rated players, and I am very proud of their success.” The chess team will be playing next at the State Team Championships. “We will be working more on our openings and endings to prepare for this event, and I believe that we can do even better in the next tournament,” said Lee.