Students Take Top Honors In Chess Championship

Four students from the School District of Palm Beach County placed in the top 10 in the nation, while teams from Elbridge Gale Elementary School finished in third and eighth place in the nation at the National K-12 Chess Championship held in Orlando from Dec. 12-14.

Approximately 1,500 students competed in the National K-12 Chess Championship. The winners included:

• Maya Behura, who is in the second grade at Citrus Cove Elementary School in Boynton Beach, tied for second place in the second-grade category at the chess championship. She also was the highest finishing girl in the nation among all school grades.

• Marvin Gao, in the first grade at Waters Edge Elementary School in Boca Raton, earned second place in the first-grade category.

• Anthony Leyva, a senior at Suncoast High School in Riviera Beach, tied for fifth in the 12th-grade category.

• Raghav Venkat, in the fourth grade at Elbridge Gale Elementary School in Wellington, tied for seventh place in the fourth-grade category.

Two teams from Elbridge Gale Elementary also had top-10 finishes. The school’s fourth-grade team finished in third place, and its third-grade team finished in eighth place.