Rookly: The Power of Friendship

Howdy! It’s the Chess Friends!

Happy New Year! We hope 2026 brings you everything you wish for, and that it’s filled with fun and friendship.

In September, in our post Back to School, we mentioned that we would be playing in an esports chess league Rookly, opened to K-12 chess teams from all over the United States. For the past three months, every week, for 10 weeks total, we, The Chess Friends, together with three more of our friends, played in this league. Today, we wanted to share our experiences and what we learned!

How Rookly Works 

The Rookly Fall League ran from October to mid-December, and chess teams competed in divisions based on their geographical locations in the US. Once a week schools would log in into the Rookly online portal to play for 1 hour in an arena format with a 10+0 rapid time control. The arena format means that instead of playing a fixed number of rounds, like in most tournaments, you play as many rounds as you can in a given time. If you play slow, you will get 3 guaranteed games, but if you play faster, you can get up to 10 or even 12 games in an hour!

Point System 

In most chess tournaments, a win gets you 1 point, a draw is worth 1/2 points, and a loss is 0. In the Rookly format, every win, or a point by a team member, adds to a total for the team, but for a draw or a loss, no points are awarded. This way, players are encouraged to play for a win, even in equal positions, so everyone pushes for wins, learning and gaining experience, which we all love! The individual goal is to help your team earn the most points, and the top 4 scorers from each team are counted for the final tally. Each week, the winning team gets 3 bonus points, 2 for second place, 1 for third place. The sum of the top six weekly scores gives the team's score in a season.

Our Team 

Our chess team is called WIISER (Washington Innovation Institute for STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics) Education and Research), the nonprofit homeschool group we are part of. We played in the En Passant League with teams all over the West Coast, inlcuding schools like Lakeside in Seattle, WA, Temecula Prep in Winchester, CA, Laurence in Los Angeles, CA, Oregon Episcopal in Portland, OR, and many more!

Our team has 6 players: your very own Chess Friends The Man Benji, The Myth Sarang, The Legend Vivaan, plus our good buddies Odbayar, Siana, and Deeksha!

Our coach is Siva, Sarang and Vivaan’s Dad, who is funny, smart, cool, and of course, very helpful! What makes our team special is we all play for each other, hype each other up, and encourage everyone on the team to keep pushing even after a bad loss. 

Celebratory dinner post Championship!

The Chess Friends at Grand Central Bakery!

Shoutout to FM/WIM Megan Lee and her Cloth Tattoo and Snippet Studios businesses for her support of the team! She made these shirts! She also recently earned her first IM norm and second WGM norm in Austin! Brava!

Fall Final Results 

At season's end, the top 5 teams were: 

Tied for 4th place, with 124 points total: Laurence School and Moreland Middle School from CA!

Third place, with 140 points went to Lakeside School from Seattle!

Second place, with 151 points, Temecula Prep from CA 

And at #1, the team with a whooping 190 total points is... drumroll please… 

Badabadabadabadabadabada---Boom! 

WIISER Homeschool!

LET'S GOOOOOO! 

Stats

Here are our final stats: 

Deeksha 20-0 (Won every single game she played, the only player in the league to do that!) 

The Man Benji 63-1-2 (Very good record, with only 2 draws and one loss!) 

Vivaan 64-14-1 (Was able to average 9.8 games every week, the speedster!) 

Siana 65-9 (Very good record!) 

Sarang 66-8-6 (Very good record!) 

And our team leader with the second most wins in all of this league: 

Odbayar going 67-3! SIX SEVENNNNNNN 

Winners from other leagues 

There are 8 leagues in Rookly, (mostly from the west coast and east coast) and here are the winners of each of them: 

• WIISER (our team) in Seattle, WA, winner of the En Passant league with 190 total points 

• Cardinal Kung Academy in Stamford, CT, winner of the Bishop League with 154 total points 

• Pace Academy in Atlanta, GA, winner of the Rook League with 170 total points 

• Stanford Online in Stanford, CA, winner of the Queen League with 164 total points 

• Opportunities For Learning in CA, winner of the Sicilian League with 164 total points 

• Calvary Day School in Savannah, GA, winner of the French League with 141 total points 

• Trinity Episcopal School in New Orleans, LA, winner of the Gambit League with 133 total points 

• Rogers in Rogers, AR, winner of the Knight League with 148 total points 

Top Scoring Teams Overall 

1.      WIISER (190)

2.      Pace Academy (170)

3.      Opportunities for Learning (164) 

4.      Stanford Online (164)

5.      Cardinal Kung (154)

Why This Format Is Awesome 

There is so much to love about Rookly and team chess. Even if you lose a game, you can still cheer on your teammates and that gives you extra motivation to win the next one! Another cool thing about this format is speed matters, and everyone gets to run their own race.

I (The Legend Vivi) play roughly 10 games in each hour-long Rookly arena. I love playing speed chess, and I know I can help my team even if I lose some games. Another wonderful thing about team chess is you don’t have to compete against your teammates. I love training with my team, but I don’t like playing against them in tournaments because I really want them to win too!

I (The Man Benji) am always excited every Monday before Rookly! It's a fun and unique experience to be on a chess team, instead of playing on your own as usual. If I lose a game, I know it's ok because my team is there competing by my side, and I am always motivated to bounce back quickly, knowing that it's not just about me.

Some Interesting Positions

Every week the Rookly league offered instructive positions that we wanted to share! See if you can find the wins!

The Man Benji wins with White here! Do you see the plan? It has to do with squares!

The Man Benji mates in 1 here with White!

The Myth Sarang made a move where with Black that caused his titled opponent to resign.

The Myth Sarang has mate in one with White here! Do you see it?!

The Legend Vivi has mate in one with White here! See it?!

The Legend Vivi has mate in one with Black here! Can you find it?!

What's Next

The Top Teams tournament from all the divisions will be on January 14th, where the top scoring teams are invited to send exactly four players each to compete. We will likely run the lineup of Benji, Sarang, Vivaan, and Siana for this one. It should be a really fun challenge! 

The Top Individuals Tournament, which all six of our players are qualified for (and likely Odbayar, Deeksha, Sarang, and Siana will play) will be held on January 16th. There are several very strong players, including some titled players, competing. Can't wait!

After that, the Fall league will officially be over, and the Spring League will start in February! We will keep you posted!

Three Cheers, Fellow Future Master Chess Friends!

The Man Benji, The Myth Sarang, The Legend Vivi