The American Continental Stage of the FIDE ISCF World Schools Team Championship 2026 concluded at the DoubleTree by Hilton Cariari in San José, with the team that had led the standings since Wednesday still in front. Saco Oliveros de Lince of Peru won the title without losing a match all week, finishing on 15 match points out of a possible 16. Harvest Park Middle School from the United States took second, and Crescent Heights Academy from Canada took third; all three teams now advance to the Grand Final in December.
Round 7
Saco Oliveros began the final day just as they had ended the previous one. Having beaten both of their nearest rivals on Thursday, they opened with a 4–0 sweep of Chile’s Saint Gabriel’s School, and from that point, the title was theirs to lose.
The tension was further down the hall, where the teams behind them were playing for the two remaining qualifying places.
Colegio Madre del Divino Pastor 1½–2½ Harvest Park Middle School
On board one, Zhuoyuan Wu (pictured below) was rated 199 points lower than his opponent, Jasmany Shallom Castillo Romero, and he emerged with a draw that should have been a win. His opponent erred in a same-coloured bishop endgame, leaving Wu in a winning position. However, endgames are unforgiving with under a minute on the clock, and a single error in a critical position turned it into a dead draw.
Harvest Park won boards two and three, but board four produced the most heartbreaking moment of the day. Playing White, Ruyi Hu played an excellent game with 96% accuracy. Her opponent blundered, and she punished it, winning a queen for a couple of pieces. By move 33, she was comfortable, up material, and completely winning. Her clock, however, was not. Her flag fell in a winning position – fate that has befallen every chess player who has ever played with a clock, Magnus Carlsen included. Regardless, Harvest Park won the match 2½–1½.
Crescent Heights Academy 2½–1½ Colegio Celta Internacional
Board one brought together two closely rated titled players, FM Lucas Mason Pin Qian Yao and CM Fernando Cortes Medina, producing no fireworks at all: just a balanced game and a peaceful draw. The fireworks came on board two, where Colegio Celta Internacional’s Sophia Itzayana Mote Amasifuen (pictured above), playing White, launched a kingside attack and finished the game with a sacrifice.
Position of the round
White played 24.Nxh7!, drawing the black king onto the h-file, as after 24…Kxh7 25.hxg6+ there is no defence. The game concluded quickly: 25…Kg8 26.Qh5 fxg6 27.Qh7#.
On boards three and four, Aiden Yin and CM Andrew Yin both outplayed their opponents comfortably, securing the match for Canada.
Round 8
Saco Oliveros de Lince 4–0 Martin Klein Schiller
The champions finished just as they had started the day, with another clean sweep.
Marcos Beltrán Meneses Morales won comfortably on board one. On board two, Dante Iván Vilca Contreras was better for most of the game, simplified into an endgame a piece up, and converted without difficulty. Board three was the most complicated. WCM Fabiana Jiménez Salas had a shaky opening and found herself in trouble in yet another opposite-side castling game – the type of position that has recurred on the top boards all week – with her opponent’s pieces better placed. What followed was volatile enough that the advantage changed hands with almost every move, ultimately coming down to the oldest rule in chess: the winner is the one who does not make the last mistake. Jiménez Salas broke through and set up an unstoppable checkmate.
On board four, Rihanna Irina Rojas Salas was the first player in the hall to finish, completing the tournament with a perfect score.
Crescent Heights Academy 2–2 Colegio Madre del Divino Pastor
Second place was still up for grabs when this match began, and it was decided here. The two Yins won their games quickly, but board one went the other way. Both players – Lucas Mason Pin Qian Yao (White) and Jasmany Shallom Castillo Romero (Black, pictured above) – misplayed the opening. White then committed a positional error that handed Black a sizeable advantage. An incorrect breakthrough on the queenside produced a passed pawn that Black had no trouble containing; White began dropping pawns, and the position fell apart. The 2–2 draw left Crescent Heights in third place rather than second.
Harvest Park Middle School 3–1 Harrison College School
On board one, Zhuoyuan Wu drew with the higher-rated AIM Jeremiah Farley, despite having had chances. On board two, FM Patrick Liu, who outrated Charis Stuart by 640 points, built an advantage that only grew and had no trouble converting it. Ethan Sun played a clean positional game on board three; his opponent eventually dropped a pawn, and with the extra material, the more active position, and far more time on the clock, Sun converted.
On board four, Ruyi Hu’s (pictured above) luck finally turned. Her opponent missed a chance to win a free piece, and a draw was agreed upon immediately afterwards.
Saco Oliveros finished with seven wins and a draw, not losing a single match all week. The only match points they dropped across the eight rounds came in round two, against Columbus American School.
Three perfect scores
Nine players were still unbeaten after four rounds. Three finished the championship having won every single game they played:
- Rihanna Irina Rojas Salas, Saco Oliveros de Lince, Peru, board four
- Aiden Yin, Crescent Heights Academy, Canada, board three
- William Nicolás Rodríguez, Columbus American School, Colombia, board one
Two of the three are on teams heading to the Grand Final. Rodríguez is not, as Columbus American School finished twelfth. He played board one in all eight rounds, facing the strongest opposition each team could put in front of him, and won all eight.
A fourth player finished on 100%: Sayel Sebastián Vega Portilla of Don Bosco Macas won all six games on the reserve board.
The three qualifying teams each took a board prize on boards one through four, and Costa Rican players took second and third on the reserve board.
A final afternoon for the players
Before the closing ceremony, the final afternoon still belonged to the players. A dance workshop filled the activity area, followed by a Kahoot Chess Quiz that rounded off the side programme with a lively, competitive finish, keeping the energy high right to the end.
A farewell to San José
The championship ended just as it had begun: with players, coaches, parents, and officials gathered together. The official closing ceremony opened with expressions of gratitude to those who made the week possible, chief among them Freedom Holding Corp., the main sponsor of the American Continental Stage and General Partner of the International School Chess Federation, alongside the Costa Rican Institute of Sport and Recreation (ICODER) and the Costa Rican Chess Federation.
The Costa Rican national anthem and the FIDE anthem opened the evening. A highlights film then looked back on the week in San José, and as familiar faces flashed across the screen, the children were invited to cheer whenever they spotted themselves. They did so loudly and without hesitation, the hall filling with shouts of recognition and bursts of laughter that turned the recap into one of the warmest and most emotional moments of the night.
The evening also carried special significance: 15 August is Mother’s Day in Costa Rica. In the days leading up to it, each child had prepared a card and a few words for their mother. During the ceremony, these heartfelt greetings were shared with the hall – a wave of thank-yous, drawings, and tender little messages as the young players sent their love to the mothers who had cheered them on from home. Rather than delivering a formal speech, ISCF Chief Operating Officer Andrei Vodianov dedicated his remarks to the occasion, offering a heartfelt tribute to the mothers who make every young player’s journey possible.
Representatives of the participating federations then presented the individual board awards and team medals.
To close the event, José Antonio Carrillo Pujol (President of FIDE Americas – CCA) and Timur Turlov (President of the ISCF and CEO of Freedom Holding) declared the American Continental Stage officially closed in a video message shown as part of the highlights film, before the evening ended amid applause and emotion.
What’s next
The World Schools Team Championship 2026 cycle now moves to its final continental stage: Europe, in Tsaghkadzor, Armenia (28 September – 3 October), before the leading teams from all four continental stages meet at the Grand Final in December.
Written by Aruzhan Aldasheva and Charlize van Zyl
Photos: ISCF, Arlan Olzhabay