Published Friday, April 19, 2002
Jackson
High wins national chess title
ebrecher@herald.com
Miami Jackson High School chess players have won another national
championship, the fourth in four years under coach Mario Martinez.
Senior Clifton Brown, junior Victor Agosto, and sophomores Alan
Estrada and Joseph Lopez, defeated 600 students on 80 teams to capture the
U1300 division -- a ranking-point designation -- of the U.S. Chess
Federation's 2002 National High School Chess Championship. The tournament
was held April 11 through Sunday in Louisville, Ky.
None of the winning students had played competitively before
joining Jackson's team.
Marcel Martinez -- no relation to the coach -- won the individual
junior championship in 1999 at 19, just after leading the team to a
first-place finish in the scholastic division.
''I never thought it would happen again,'' said an elated Mario
Martinez.
After the fourth round, Jackson was in 13th place. Then ''not one
of them lost in the last three rounds,'' defeating Columbus [Ohio]
Alternative High School for the championship.
Agosto, the team captain, said, ``Our prospects didn't look good.
We were all pretty down. But Coach told us to go out and have fun and
think out our moves. . . . Going into the last round, we were a point
behind first place, and we weren't sure if that was good enough to
overtake the first-place team.''
It was. ''We were ecstatic,'' Agosto said.