Would being a good chess player be a good "hook"?

Seahawks506
Sat, 06 Aug 2011 23:09:20 +0000

A person who I used to know was a NM at age 14 and also a concert pianist and math whiz. He got into Princeton as a junior.

Me? I’ve been playing since I was a kindergartener, but I can’t list that (or can I?) I sort of quit after seventh grade, at which point I was top 10 in the state of Washington. Just lost interest in all the opening/theory/pawn structure/endgame books. Junior year rolls around and a friend (1700+) and I decide to start the chess club at our school that’s been defunct for a decade. We find a couple more players who haven’t played since middle school and a math genius who learned chess strategy in a month.

In our miniteams league, we placed second to Interlake high school (I’m sure you’ve heard of them) and got sixth at state- I’m rated 1500 and almost beat a 2100, but I missed some tactics. This next year, we’re going to reach out to the local middle school and try to get students interested in chess.
It’s not going to be a big part of my application, but it’s nice to talk about chess here.