Local Chess-Playing Triplets Win State Tournament

Triplets Andreas, Constantine (“Costas”) and Nicholas Oskiper won first place as a team in the K-3 division of the New Jersey Elementary Championships, held Sunday in Lincroft. For them and their mother, Hightstown’s Katherine Varsou, it was a long day—five hours of chess plus breaks—but a victory in terms of competition and camaraderie.

The 7-year-old brothers, who go to school at SciCore Academy in Hightstown, held their own against students from Princeton Day School, which sent 20 students to the tournament and came in second in the team competition. Costas told his mother his least favorite part of the day was “us three competing against a team of 20.”

The Oskipers also earned individual trophies, with Andreas coming in sixth and Costas eighth among all K-3 players—98 chidlren altogether—while Nicholas took fourth place among first-graders. (The data is here, though it doesn’t take into account tiebreaking matches, which had an effect on the boys’ finishing places.)

“The boys did a wonderful job supporting each other as a team so that when one would lose, the others would win and keep the team up and in the competition,” Varsou said.

The personal prizes were important to them, Varsou said. “They have this competition among them, so one does something and the other two get jealous and want to do the same thing,” she explained.

The brothers rose to prominence in December, when they in the 2010 National 1st Grade Championship and caught the attention of national and local media outlets, from hyperlocal Patch to the large-scale New York Times. (Soon after that tournament, Costas at a game of chess here in Hightstown.) Varsou said because of those articles, her sons now get recognized. “It was challenging because they had some pressure,” she said, with some people asking them, “Are you the triplets?”

The United States Chess Federation recently ranked Costas 30th nationally among children 7 and under. “When his brothers saw that, they basically started getting more serious and more responsible,” Varou said, deciding they should also get themselves ranked in the top 1,000.

Costas’ high ranking was why it was surprising to the family this past weekend when Andreas, who’s usually the second best of the triplets, came in above Costas. Andreas is also the brother who professes not to like chess, Varsou said. “Sometimes he says, ‘I hate chess,’ but he doesn’t really mean it,” she said. “It’s just that he doesn’t live and breath for it like Costas does.”

It was a stressful time waiting for the scores to be announced and having to play against some of their friends, but the boys said via their mother that they had a good time at the tournament.

“It was a bit hard to be in the top but it was fun,” Costas said. “I got to play new people and get a chance to improve my rating."

Nicholas said his favorite part of the day was playing someone with a higher ranking him and nonetheless getting a pawn across the board, where it was promoted to a queen.

Andreas, perhaps fittingly, given his professed dislike of the game, said his favorite part was “when all games were over and I could play outside and spend all my energy.”

Varsou said what amused her the most on the day of the tournament was a question Nicholas asked her, specifically “whether they could have more siblings and in particular a baby brother.

“When I asked why, he replied, ‘He could really help us by being part of our chess team,’” she said. “When I pointed out that the age difference would not make it possible to have him play in the same section, he replied, ‘Never mind then. The three of us will have to be enough.’”