The chess team has won the Danbury Area Scholastic Chess Team title in 2006, 2007, 2012, 2014, 2015, and now 2017.

The Danbury Area Scholastic Chess Team league has been around for more than 30 years. Other schools in the league that compete against Danbury for the trophy include: Newtown High School, Ridgefield High School, Joel Barlow High School, and Taft.

The trophy that the league gives out to the winning school is known as the “traveling trophy.” It is called this because the winning school gets to keep the trophy until another school beats it. The trophy holds significance because the history of champions are recorded on the trophy. Right now, the trophy can be seen by the main office.

There were six players that represented Danbury this year: Dylan Costa, Duy Le, Ryan Cirella, David Calle, Philip Lund, and Anthony de Faria.

To win this year’s league title they had to work together as a team to beat their opponents. Taft had the No. 1 chess player in the state on its team so he was hard to beat and Joel Barlow had an all around good team.

Working together is what led the team to their win. Club adviser Jameson Parker stated, “It was great knowing that it was such a team effort. We lost one of our best players last year. I was afraid we wouldn’t do well but we did and I am so proud.”

One of the players that represented Danbury, de Faria, was also very proud about his team’s win. “My most memorable moment while competing this year was when I won two critical games,” he said.

The Chess Club is open to all students at Danbury High, regardless of their knowledge of the game. Chess Club meetings are spent with the students playing against each other and receiving instruction from each other, Parker, or Coach Glenn Budzinski.

“We are lucky to have someone like Glenn Budzinski,” says Parker, noting that Budzinski is a ranked chess master in the United States Chess Federation.

Everyone in the Chess Club has a love for chess and is proud to be a part of a team that has found so much success.

 “If you want to be physically strong lift weights, if you want to be strong minded play chess,” Parker says.