Orcas Island HS team consists of Lamai Hons, Colter Bond, Thurmond Russell, Elijah Griffith, Leo Battles and Tim Malo

Orcas Island High School chess team scored 14.5 wins over the course of the two day, 60th annual Washington State High School Chess Team Championships this weekend in Everett, earning the title and repeating as State 2B high school chess champions.  52 teams qualified for State and competed. See full press release below.

The Orcas Island HS team consists of Lamai Hons, Colter Bond, Thurmond Russell, Elijah Griffith, Leo Battles and Tim Malo.

Here are the Orcas Island chess team match scores from State 2026.
Scoring is 1 point for a win, 0.5 for a draw, counting five Varsity games only per round.

Round 1  vs  Granger   5.0 wins    
Round 2  vs  Lakeside (Seattle)   0.0 wins  
Round 3  vs  Mariner (Everett)   3.5 wins  
Round 4  vs  Cleveland STEM (Seattle)   2.0 wins          
Round 5  vs  Bainbridge   2.0 wins
Round 6  vs  Sehome HS (Bellingham)  2.0 wins

Washington High School Chess Team Championships 2026

The 60th annual Washington State High School Chess Team Championships were held February 27 and 28 at Mariner High School in Everett.  52 high school chess teams competed in six rounds over two days, to determine who would take home the Ollie Cup.  Together with the State All-Comers tournament, 320 chessplayers competed, and the record for Most Teams Ever at Chess State (48) set back in 2002 was broken.

High school chess teams have to qualify to compete at State.  Out of the 52 teams, 28 qualified out of the four Washington high school leagues — Metro, Kingco, Wesco and Northwest.  The other 24 qualified out of the various Regional Qualifier tournaments that took place throughout the state.  Teams of all size classifications compete with each other in leagues, regionals and at State.

A chess team consists of five players. The State tournament format is six rounds, no elimination, scoring by total game points (one point per win).  Each player is allotted 60 minutes on the clock, so each game lasts up to two hours each.

After two days and six rounds of competition, Lakeside High School of Seattle claimed the Ollie Cup for a year, emerging as Grand Champions by scoring 23.5 wins out of a possible 30.  Second overall was earned by Interlake (Bellevue) with 22.5, and Skyline (Sammamish) placed third with 21.5 wins.

Here are the State Champions in each size class.

4A:  1st Skyline (Sammamish), 2nd Newport (Bellevue), 3rd Jackson (Mill Creek)
3A:  1st Lakeside (Seattle), 2nd Interlake (Bellevue), 3rd Seattle Prep
2A:  1st Tesla STEM (Redmond), 2nd Sehome (Bellingham), 3rd Cleveland STEM (Seattle)
1A:  1st Lynden Christian, 2nd Meridian (Bellingham), 3rd Seton Catholic (Vancouver)
2B:  1st Orcas Island, 2nd Tri-Cities Prep (Pasco), 3rd Granger
1B:  1st New Life Christian (Ephrata), 2nd Pope John Paul II (Lacey), 3rd Calvary Christian (Kennewick)

The tournament culminates the high school winter chess season and is organized annually by the Washington High School Chess Association.