The story starts last year, May 18th, 2023, with the Nassau County Chess Championship taking place at no place other than our very own Kumar Wang Library. Held breaths and prying eyes filled the atmosphere of the second floor as our marvelous team – Thomas Crisi (junior), Kidder Bacon (class of ‘23), Cooper Mott (sophomore), Daniel Baskind (class of ‘23), Sam Laserson (senior), Meher Walia (sophomore) – went to battle.

Though we lost in the semifinals, we ultimately closed out the 2023 Nassau County Chess Season with an impressive 3rd place finish.

The FA Varsity Chess team has had a season of success:

Our first two matches against Freeport and Chaminade concluded in a 45-0 win for Friends – flawless. 

Our next five matches followed a similar story, with clean wins against St. Anthony’s (42.5-2.5), Schreiber (27-18 Thomas was on 2 hours of sleep, really it wasn’t close), Great Neck North (39-6), ‘ledge (34-11). 

Our only midseason loss was against the juggernaut of Jericho High School – the winners of last year’s Nassau County Chess League. 

Now, as the new team – Thomas “Ice Cold” Crisi (junior), Cooper “duloop” Mott (sophomore), Sam “the Chisled” Laserson (senior), Daren “yours truly” Zhong (sophomore), Meher “magic” Walia (sophomore), Ethan “big guy” Kalimian (sophomore) – heads into the 2024 Nassau County Chess Championship hosted at Portledge on April 18th, we hope to put an end to Jericho’s legacy. Go FA!