February 2002.

    With its largest participation of children from the Hoboken Chess Academy up to date, the results were similar to the previous 14 competitions.

The Hoboken Chess Kids came home champions!

With 19 local children competing with over 80 children throughout the State, in a tournament in Upper Montclair, N.J., and sanctioned by the United States Chess Federation, The Hoboken Chess Kids came home with an unpressedented11 individual championships and 5-second place finishes. The combined overall record of the children was 40 wins, 5 draws, and only 5 defeats.

The Champions were Tyler Burke, from the All Saints school. Joseph Pliszka, from the Mustard Seed School. Ilija Bubalo, from the Learning Community Charter School. Ciaran Finnegan and Ben Lenz, from The Hoboken Charter School. From the Elysian Charter School the champions were, Desiree Rivera, Ariel Colon, David Zaks, Liudmil Liudmilov, Curt Beck and Steve Smith.

The second place finishers were Emerson Perna, Enver Abazovic, Brendan Evers, Sabastian Alvarez and Louis Colon.

Also competing and finishing with a respectful victory each were Johnny Bauers, Tim Lenz and James Arsenault.

Join me in congradulating these children in this amazing accomplishment.

Peter Croce.