Gainesville schools shine at 2026 Florida State Scholastic Chess Championships

The Frazer School K-12 champion team at the 2026 Florida State Scholastic Chess Championships.

Courtesy of The Frazer School

Key Points

Three Gainesville schools had successful showings at the 2026 Florida State Scholastic Chess Championships held March 21–23 in Orlando, with the Frazer School and Oak Hall School winning all five of the championship sections, and Queen of Peace Catholic Academy earning multiple top 5 finishes.

Frazer School

The Frazer School led the way with three first-place victories for the K-1, K-8 and K-12 sections. The school also placed second in the K-5 section.

Andrew Yang-Fang was the K-1 state champion, earning a perfect score and winning all five of his matches. Meanwhile, Aakash Jani, the current fifth-grade U.S. national champion, tied for the state title in the K-5 section, with a near-perfect 4.5/5 score (four wins and one draw) and finished second on tie-breaks.

The Frazer School also had several students finish the tournament with 4/5 scores, helping contribute key points to the team standings. This included Abhiram Pothuri, Sophie Li and Damian Alexander.

The Frazer High School team will compete in the 2026 National High School K-12 Championship on March 27-29 in Chicago, Illinois.

The Frazer School K-8 champion team. Courtesy of The Frazer School — Courtesy of The Frazer School The Frazer School K-8 champion team at the 2026 Florida State Scholastic Chess Championships.

The Frazer School K-1 champion team. Courtesy of The Frazer School — Courtesy of The Frazer School The Frazer School K-1 champion team at the 2026 Florida State Scholastic Chess Championships.

Oak Hall

Oak Hall had three first-place finishes for the K-3 Under 600, K-3 and K-5 sections. While the school placed first in the K-3 Under 600 section, it is not considered a championship section, according to chess coach Tim Tusing, meaning Oak Hall won just two state championships.

With those two titles, Oak Hall has now won 41 state chess championships, according to Tusing.

In the K-3 Under 600 section, Oak Hall was led by Natalie Roth and Sam Lin, who combined for 8 of the 14 total first-place points.

For the K-3 section, Hayden Webb and Andrew Pinkoson combined for a score of 6.5. Aiden Kropp and Arjun Setty also combined for 4.5 points to add to the 11-point total.

In the K-5 section, Oak Hall placed first with 14 points, narrowly defeating The Frazer School, which came in second with 12.5 points.

Three Oak Hall students placed in the top 10 individually for the K-5 section.

Addison Baumstark, fifth place

Asher Austin, ninth place

James McDonald, 10^th place

Asher Austin also placed second in the Blitz competition.

Oak Hall's K-5 team placed first at the 2026 Florida State Scholastic Chess Championships. Courtesy of Tim Tusing — Courtesy of Tim Tusing Oak Hall’s K-5 team placed first at the 2026 Florida State Scholastic Chess Championships.

Queen of Peace

Queen of Peace placed fourth in the K-1 section, second in the K-3 section and third in the K-5 section.

In the K-1 section, Bradd Mackey, Wyatt McKitrick and Paul Dickert combined for 5.5 points to help lead the way.

For the K-3 section, Queen of Peace was led by Weston McKitrick, John West Gray, Quinn Gray and Luna Flores, who combined for a total of 8 points.

Flora Rabi led the way for Queen of Peace in the K-5 section, scoring a 3.5 and finishing just outside the top 10 by one spot.

Nick Anschultz is a Report for America corps member and writes about education for Mainstreet Daily News. This position is supported by local donations through the Community Catalyst for Local Journalism Fund at the Community Foundation of North Central Florida.

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Nick Anschultz

Before joining Mainstreet Daily News to cover K-12 and higher education, Nick spent three and a half years at the Levy Citizen, where he served as the newspaper’s editor/reporter. In that role, Nick covered everything from government and education to sports and local events. He discovered his passion for journalism while attending the University of Florida, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism in May 2021. When he is not typing words on his keyboard, you can usually find Anschultz watching sports – especially his Florida Gators – fishing, or spending time with friends and family. Nick is also a Report for America corps member.

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