After an amazing regular season and tournament at YU in March, the prestigious Rambam Chess team headed back to YU on Monday to play in the 33rd annual Rabbi Mair Wolofsky z"l Yeshiva League Chess Championship. Rambam would be competing against 3 other schools: Frisch, MTA, and North Shore. Each of these teams won their respective divisions, so it would be a tough slate of games up ahead for Rambam.

Rambam would be playing 3 games against North Shore, 2 against Frisch, and 2 against MTA. Before the games began, Rabbi Baruch Pesach Mendelson from MTA shared a few words about Rabbi Wolofsky z"l and what he meant to the chess season/ championship and the yeshiva league as a whole. He really ran the league on his own for 33 years, and his passing this past March was extremely tragic.

Rabbi Mendelson shared how this was not a solo effort and thanked all the coaches from the 4 teams involved. He explained how Rabbi Wolofsky's goal in his endeavor was for yeshiva guys to play chess and how much of a success it has been the past 33 years. The tournament was named in his honor, and hopefully, his family will continue to run the league for many years to come.

The games began and each side would have 35 minutes to spend throughout the game. As always with chess, every game is different, and it was very interesting to see all the different types of games that were being played at the championship. Some games finished quickly, and some were longer games which required more thinking. MTA had a hot start and took the lead early, with Rambam and Frisch closely behind.

Rambam was not doing extremely well early on and only had 2.5/5, a prompt third place. However, there were still 2 games left to play. Rambam won both of their final 2 games, headlined by an amazing pin from Aaron Grimm (10th) and a brutal fork from Jakey Glass (12th). Rambam would finish the tournament with 4.5/7, an impressive score. MTA and Frisch, the teams closely behind Rambam, had 2 games left to play against each other.

MTA was at 3.5/5 and Frisch was at 3/5, so it was almost certain that Rambam would tie with one of the other 2 schools. That first game between MTA and Frisch ended in a draw, so it set up the stakes for the final game. An MTA win would mean they win the championship alone, a draw would mean Rambam and MTA would be crowned co-champions, and a Frisch win would mean Rambam and Frisch would be crowned co-champions.

After a crazy pin, a controversial touch-move violation, and the game being decided by literal seconds on the clock, Frisch's player came out victorious, and Rambam and Frisch would be crowned co-champions for the second time in the past 4 years. This would be Rambam's third Championship win in the past 4 years. Shoutout to Aaron Grimm, Jakey Glass, Ethan Farber (12th), and Shimmy Orenbuch (9th) for winning their games.

That being said, we’d like to wish a farewell to all the seniors who have played this season. Unco-captains Avi Pearlman and Shachar Klein, Jakey Glass, Ethan Farber, Noam Leban, Yehuda Gol, Moshe Holzer, Mark Khaimov, and Isaac Masri. The team next year will be headlined by captains Aaron Grimm and Yehuda Fistel (11th). A big thank you to captains Avi Pearlman and Shachar Klein, assistant captain Aaron Grimm, and the rest of our starting players.

Rambam Chess should continue to be successful for many more years.