IM Jason Wang Wins 2024 National High School Championship

After seven rounds in Baltimore, Maryland, Ohio senior IM Jason Wang is the 2024 National High School (K-12) Champion. Our flash report covers more results, and all results are available here.

Jason Wang during his last-round game, with IM Gus Huston right behind him (literally and in the standings) (Photo Caroline King)

Wang entered the event with the highest US Chess rating (2563) and led throughout, winning his first six rounds before agreeing to a draw against IM-Elect Brewington Hardaway in their last-round encounter. In round six, his impressive victory over FM Tugstumur Yesuntumur in the battle of the last remaining players on 5/5 scores left him in sole first on 6–0:

To set up their last-round encounter, Hardaway improved to 5½/6 with a nice endgame win over Toshinori Underwood that showed the value of experience (and a couple extra minutes on the clock):

Hardaway making a practical choice early in a must-win game with the black pieces (Photo Caroline King)

In Wang and Hardaway’s head-to-head clash, Hardaway chose the ambitious King’s Indian Defense against Wang’s queen’s pawn opening (1. d4), showing a clear intention to play for a win. But excellent opening play in a trending line (5. h3) gave White a safe position. After surviving a few tricks, Hardaway agreed to a draw, giving Wang at least a share of the title.

In addition to Hardaway, three more players entered the final round trailing Wang by a half-point, and each of their games went the full distance. But two of these players — IM Gus Huston and FM Sharvesh Deviprasath — were paired against each other and settled for a draw after Huston was unable to convert his extra pawn, but then stopped Deviprasath from getting anywhere with his extra pawn.

Huston devi — Huston and Deviprasath (left photo) each had chances to tie for first, as did Terry Luo (R, against Max Lu) Photo Caroline King)

Lu Luo — Huston and Deviprasath (left photo) each had chances to tie for first, as did Terry Luo (R, against Max Lu) Photo Caroline King)

The third player on 5½/6 was FM Terry Luo, but he was the one playing catch-up against IM Max Lu, and their game also ended peacefully:

This left Wang in sole first on 6½/7, while six players ended up in a tie for second place on 6/7 scores. In tiebreak order: IM-Elect Brewington Hardaway (NY), FM Sharvesh Deviprasath (TX), FM Terry Luo (DE), IM Gus Huston (NY), Derek Clasby (NJ), and Taiwei Wu (CA).

New Jersey's Derek Clasby and California's Taiwei Wu were the only players who tied for second without official FIDE titles (Photo Caroline King)

Below are Clasby and Wu’s (very different!) last-round wins:

The Dalton School (NY) won the K-12 Team Championship with a score of 21 out of a possible 28 points, a full point ahead of Livingston High School (NJ). Three more New York schools tied for third. On tiebreaks, Columbia Grammar & Prep finished third, Hunter College Campus School fourth, and Stuyvesant fifth.