CHECKMATE
9-year-old nabs chess crown
Westover student credits school for fostering hobby
By Barry Lytton
Erik Nebylovych, one of the hundreds of students displaced by mold at the old Westover School, hasn’t let moving whole school building mid-year get in the way of his chess, which he still plays at recess. Nebylovych last weekend won a state champtionship for his age group, besting 50 other chess players. Nebylovych is photograph on Tuesday at his home in Stamford.
Erik Nebylovych plays a friendly game of chess with his father Taras Budzinskyy at their home in Stamford.
Erik Nebylovych, one of the hundreds of students displaced by mold at the old Westover School, hasn’t let moving whole school building mid year get in the way of his chess, which he still plays at recess. Nebylovych last weekend won a state champtionship for his age group, besting 50 other chess players. Above, Nebylovych practices his moves on Tuesday at his home in Stamford.
Erik Nebylovych shows off some of his trophies.
STAMFORD — Learning in a new school building after fleeing moldy conditions in Westover Magnet Elementary School this year hasn’t changed one fourth-grader’s recess ritual.
No matter where Erik Nebylovych receives his education — now in a South End office building once home to Pitney Bowes on Elmcroft Road — Nebylovych said he seeks out the chessboard come time for indoor recess.
If he can find a friend that knows how to play — and one who is up for the challenge — that is.
Last weekend, 9-year-old Nebylovych headed up to Manchester for the 2019 Connecticut State Scholastic K-12 Chess Championship, besting four other competitors and drawing another in competition for a score of 4.5 out 5 to win the elementary division.
“It was a long drive and tough games,” Nebylovych said. “The first game, I did very well, but the others — in the beginning I was struggling, but came up with tactics and came out victorious ... and one draw.”
Nebylovych’s score was better than the some 50 other competing students ranging from kindergarten through sixth grade, according to his local chess academy, the National Educational Chess Association.
The Stamford-based association runs before- and after-school programs in some 30 schools, said Alex Eydelman, the association’s president.
Nebylovych, who practices an hour a day and enjoys working through chess puzzles with his father, said he’s been working at chess since he was five.
His mother, Alina Nebylovych, said it was Westover that made her son’s early success possible, even with the school’s location in flux — it was announced last week that the school’s 700 students and 100 staff members will stay in the South End through next school year.
“He started playing at Westover before school,” she said. “It all came from school.”
Nebylovych’s most recent state title isn’t his first.
Last year, he took home the state title for the primary division, kindergarten through third-grade players.
“He’s a strong player,” Eydelman said. “He’s a product of our schools.” barry.lytton@stamfordadvocate.com; 203-964-2263; @bglytton