On February 17-19, the Sacred Heart University Chess Team traveled to Parsippany, NJ for the 2024 US Amateur Team East Tournament.  This team match play event is one of four high profile annual regional chess tournaments around the country.  There were 330 four-player teams entered, including teams from colleges, K-12 schools, and non-affiliated independent teams.  In total, 1400 players competed face to face in six rounds spanning over three days.  Each game typically lasted 2-3 hours.  See the tournament web site for the final team and individual results. 
 
Sacred Heart Team A and B were SHU's official college teams.  Our third team, "SHU Plus 2", was actually a hybrid team consisting of two SHU two students augmented by Chris DeDona, the younger brother of Mark DeDona, and Matt Chan, a friend of a team member. 
 
Individual highlights include SHU Team A National Master and current SHU Chess Club President Mark DeDona finishing in 9^th place out of 330 Board #1 players and 58^th overall out of 1400 participants.  Aidan Shamas, SHU Team B, also had a strong tournament, finishing in 33^rd place at Board #3 and 194^th overall. 
 
The following are the team and individual results:
 
Sacred Heart A, avg rating 1680:
202^nd with a score of 2.5
Board #1: NM Mark DeDona – 5.0
Board #2: Brent McCreesh – 2.5
Board #3: Ryan Richter – 1.5
Board #4: Mark Khalil – 2.5
Sacred Heart B, avg rating 1148:
194^th with a score of 3.0
Board #1: Declan Coleman – 1.5
Board #2: Joey Cyr – 3.5
Board #3: Aidan Shamas – 4.5
Board #4: Evan Gioia – 3.0
SHU Plus 2, avg rating 1238:
268^th with a score of 2.0
Board #1: Matt Chan – 4.0
Board #2: Chris DeDona – 2.5
Board #3: Treyden Medonis – 2.5
Board #4: Roman Pearl – 2.0

To learn more about Chess at SHU, please visit our club sports chess web site or email chess@sacredheart.edu.