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Catalina Foothills High School's 10th-grade chess team won first place in its division at the recent K-12 national chess championships, organized by the United States Chess Federation and held Dec. 2-4 in Houston. The school's 11th-grade team finished second in its division.

The victories are a result of the players' year-round efforts, said their coach, attorney Robby Adamson.

The team members individually participate in an average of 15 tournaments a year, including competitions with adults, and take private lessons with Adamson or another area instructor. They also study chess and play online.

More than 1,500 kindergartners through 12-graders from all over the country competed in the Houston tournament, Adamson said.

Vaishnav Aradhyula led the sophomore team individually with 5.5 points out of a possible 7, finishing fourth in the country in the 10-grade division. His teammate, Landon Brownell, scored 5 points to finish sixth. Teammate Victor Yee scored 4 points.

The junior team consists of Chris De Sa, Eddie Moskala, Sean Higgins, Pavel Savine and Yunlin Zhang. Individually, De Sa and Moskala scored 5 points to finish seventh and ninth in the country in their classes, respectively. Higgins scored 4.5 points.

"The pleasant surprise of the tournament was Eddie Moskala," Adamson said. "The reason it was impressive is because he made two large upsets, only losing to players that finished third and fourth in the country in their division."

Moskala's only losses were to two U.S. Chess Federation-rated "experts," Adamson said. "Eddie did phenomenal."

This is the third time Catalina Foothills High School has won a national chess championship, Adamson said. Last April, the high school team finished first in the nation in an even bigger tournament, called the Supernational, also a U.S. Chess Federation event, he said.

The other time the school team won was in 2004, when the freshman team won the K-9 national championship, which was played in Tucson.

Other Tucson-area players who placed in the Houston tournament are Kevin Zhang of Esperero Canyon Middle School, who finished 6th in grade 7; and T.J. Ragsdale of Sahuarita Intermediate School, who finished 33rd in grade 5.