One of my extracurriculars is chess and I won State and national championships in chess as well as opening up my own chess school to coach others in chess. However, for the countless hours I devoted to chess, I feel simply listing it as an activity in the Common App is underappreciated and may easily be “overlooked”. How can I let AOs notice this spike? How would I emphasize this aspect?
Congratulations on your accomplishments! Winning chess tournaments at that level takes an enourmous amount of preparation and dedication. You could talk about your experiences teaching chess in an essay - either the common app essay or one of the supplements.
You can note “see additional information” in the activities section under chess and then expand upon it in the additional info section.
Be succinct if you do this.