Jacob Parrish Shows Knack for Making the Right Moves
Greensboro News-Record, 1-17-07  

Jacob Parrish, a 16-year-old sophomore at Grimsley High School, has a unique after-school routine. He does his homework and takes a nap as soon as he gets home, and then from 8 p.m. to midnight each day he studies chess.

He reads chess books, visits Web sites from top-level tournaments and compares notes and strategies with strong players. He also works with Mikhail Neponnyoshchiy, a Russian international master and chess trainer who lives in Greensboro.

All that hard work paid off for Jacob in December when he won the high school division of the 19th annual Southern Scholastic Chess Championship, held in Charlotte. More than 300 players in kindergarten through 12th grade participated in the event.

"It felt really great to win," Jacob said.

Jacob is the son of Robert and Angela Poteat, of Greensboro, and Alex and Jennifer Maness, of Greensboro. Jacob learned to play chess at about age 10 from his stepfather, Robert Poteat. It didn't take long for him to become hooked.

He went to his first tournament in seventh grade, a small school tournament in Cary.

"I realized then I was pretty good," he said.

In eighth grade, he won his first state championship. He attended some meetings of the chess club at his school, Kiser Middle, helping teach strategies to his peers.

Jacob found the transition to high school difficult.

"People would give me a hard time for playing chess all the time," he said.

So Jacob quit playing chess for four months.

"I wanted to be cool," he said.

Trouble was, he missed it too much. He started playing chess again and set a goal of competing in the Southern Scholastic Championship. Now that he's won first place at that competition, Jacob has set his sights higher. He is training for the high school state championship, and if he wins that he will advance to the national championship.

"It's next to impossible, but I think I can do it," Jacob said.

He runs cross country for Grimsley and still plays chess with his stepfather, though Jacob gives him two extra minutes between plays. He also plays in tournaments when he can.

"Nine out of 10 tournaments are not age-restricted, so I compete against adults a lot," Jacob said.

In the long term, he hopes to play chess for a strong college team and is looking at the University of Texas at Dallas.

Whatever he does, he said he knows he wants to keep playing chess.

"I'd love to travel around and play and become a grandmaster," he said. "I'd have to be nominated and appointed by the World Chess Federation, but it's my dream."