Livingston High School Chess Team Wins State Championship for Second Year

SCOTCH PLAINS, NJ — For the second consecutive year, the Livingston High School (LHS) chess team returned from the 2024 New Jersey State Championships with the state title and is aiming for success in the National High School Chess Championship in April after placing second in the team’s inaugural season in 2023.

During Monday’s Livingston Township Council meeting, the mayor and council issued proclamations to varsity and junior varsity chess team members as well as head coach William Peklo in recognition of their outstanding accomplishments and the pride the LHS chess program has brought to the community in recent years. Assemblywoman Rosie Bagolie, a fellow Livingston resident and former township council member, also presented the team with a similar proclamation from the New Jersey State Senate and Assembly.

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On behalf of the entire team, co-captain Eric Guo expressed gratitude toward Coach Peklo, who is a special education teacher in the LHS Math Department and was named LHS Teacher of the Year in 2020.

“Without him, this season would not have been so successful,” said Guo. “Mr. Peklo has not only mentored us, coached us, and inspired us, he has also fed us very delicious pizza, and he epitomizes dedication. In fact, the week of the state tournament, Mr. Peklo was expecting a baby, and he still came with us for both days of the tournament, and he managed to watch us win the state championship for the second year in a row.”

Although LHS has had a chess club since 2015, a competitive chess team did not exist until the 2022-2023 season. Thanks to a handful of current team members who petitioned the Livingston Board of Education (LBOE) as incoming freshmen to support the establishment of an official team, the LHS chess team now has players in the double digits and continues to grow each year.

Peklo, who welcomed his second child shortly after the chess team’s state championship win, jumped at the opportunity to lead the newly formed team and has since been instrumental in the growth of the LHS chess program.

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In the 2023-2024 winter season alone, LHS chess team co-captain Roger Zhang explained that the team went undefeated in regular season play and earned high marks in several prestigious tournaments.

“I have with me a plaque of a major team tournament in the U.S.—actually one of the biggest in the nation—called the World Amateur Team Championship,” Zhang said of one of the team’s greatest accomplishments this season. “We out-competed many other stronger teams to win the Best High School Team award for the club, which we are extremely proud of.”

In addition to accepting the township’s team proclamation, Peklo also received a special gift from the team.

The LHS chess team will compete in the national competition in Batlimore over spring break in April.

Student members of the varsity and junior varsity teams who were honored on Monday are listed below:

Varsity: Eric Guo (captain), Haari Muthukumar (captain), Aston Roberts (captain), Roger Zhang (captain), Quan Tran, Lev Koganov, Claire Cheng, Tom Kunisky, Matt Ge, George Cui and Lucas Xiong

Junior Varsity: Benjamin Murkis, Sam Israel, Aayush Saxena, Elias Chen, Jerry Ji, Xander Luo, Aviral Bhardwaj and Abhimaan Chandan

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