Oak Hall School wins K-1 national chess title

Oak Hall School won a national title in the K-1 section at the U.S. Chess Federation’s 2026 National Elementary Championships. Courtesy of Tim Tusing (1)

Oak Hall School students recently competed at the U.S. Chess Federation’s 2026 National Elementary Championships.

Courtesy of Tim Tusing

Key Points

Oak Hall School recently won a national title – and earned an additional top-tier finish – while competing at the U.S. Chess Federation’s 2026 National Elementary Championships on May 1-3 in Baltimore.

According to a press release, the event drew over 2,500 young chess players from around the nation. Over the course of seven rounds, with each one lasting up to three hours, students competed for individual recognitions and team titles in what is considered one of the biggest scholastic chess events in the country.

Gainesville’s Oak Hall School won the national championship in the K-1 section after a closely contested battle with New York’s Spyer Legacy School Dragons. The release states that both schools finished the competition with 19 points, but Oak Hall managed to prevail on tiebreaks by a final score of 89.5 to 79.5.

Melody Zeng and Tanner Samant combined for 10 points to lead Oak Hall, while Levi Merkel and Leon Wu added 4.5 points each.

Also contributing for Oak Hall were Miyuki Phillips (four points), Xenos Vrakas (three points) and James Courter (three points).

With this latest title, Oak Hall has now won 31 official national chess championships, according to the release.

In addition to claiming the national title in the K-1 section, Oak Hall also had a top-tier finish in the K-1 Under 500 section.

While competing against 45 teams, the Eagles finished in first place with 21.5 points, beating New York’s Trinity School by just half a point, the release said.

It should be noted that the K-1 Under 500 section does not award an official national championship.

Maximo Brooks led Oak Hall with 6.5 points. He also tied for first in the individual standings.

Also contributing to Oak Hall’s final point total were Landon Reintgen (five points), Asher Blumberg (five points), Jordan Epstein (five points) and Maxton McDaniel (four points).

“I am so proud of our students and their performance,” Oak Hall chess coach Tim Tusing said in a text to Mainstreet on Tuesday. “The months of hard work and dedication to their studies have certainly paid off.”