Teams from Oak Hall School and The Frazer School won three national titles at the U.S. Chess Federation National K-12 Grade Championships. 

Oak Hall’s kindergarten and first grade teams brought home gold along with The Frazer School’s 10th grade team.  

The championships happened in Maryland over the weekend, and the Eagle’s wins break a five-year curse lingering at the school since 2009.  

The team scores are made by combining the top three players from each school.  

Levi Merkel led the way for the Oak Hall kindergarteners with an individual score of 5.5 out of 7—placing him fourth. A trio of teammates scored a 4 and helped claim the win, including Aahan Patel, Santiago McMillen and Tanner Samant.  

For first grade, Suraj Jani scored a 5.5 for Oak Hall. Individually, that put Jani outside the top 10 by one place. But when combined with Harry McLellan, 5/7, and Hayden Webb, 4.5/7, the Eagle’s claimed another trophy.  

This first grade team also won gold in kindergarten last year. 

In its inaugural year, The Frazer School sent a team to the chess nationals, and their sophomores delivered. The school also partnered with a Gainesville company to offer NIL deals for their chess team earlier this year.  

With only three team members, The Frazer School had no room for error.  

Abhiram Pothuri earned third place individually with a score of 6, setting the team up nicely. Jerry Yao came next with 5.5 followed by Jolie Huang with 5. The team secured the lone gold by half a point.  

In more Florida chess news, the American Heritage School from Plantation won the 11th grade team championship.