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- The Rookly Winter 2026 Season is Heating up!
The Rookly Winter 2026 Season is Heating up!
Your weekly recap of league standings, plus a look at the Game of the Week and the Move of the Week.

Welcome to the Rookly Winter 2026 Season weekly newsletter! This is where we will share a weekly update on league standings, highlight some great moments from each week’s games, learn a thing or two from our coaches, and of course, share any news about Rookly.
First let’s look at the scores. You can click on the title of a league to view the full standings for that league. The standings pages are public, so please feel free to share with parents, friends, or whoever you think might be interested!
And now, without further ado, here are the results of the fourth week of the Rookly Winter 2026 Season:
Week #4 Standings
(4:00pm ET) | (3:30pm PT) |
|---|---|
iMater Academy - 89 | WIISER - 107 |
Boys' Latin - 81 | Moreland - 68 |
Ark Connections Academy - 56 | Laurence - 63 |
Drew Charter - 54 | Lakeside - 63 |
Cathedral School NYC - 46 | Temecula Prep - 62 |
(3:30pm ET) | (4:00pm PT) |
|---|---|
Scarsdale - 75 | Stanford Online - 87 |
Grayson - 74 | Gilman - 76 |
The Journey School - 70 | Temecula Prep - 56 |
The Study Academy - 62 | Archer - 41 |
Ursuline - 60 | Holy Ghost Prep - 34 |
(5:00pm ET) | (3:00pm ET) |
|---|---|
RALI - 72 | OFL - 63 |
Upper St. Claire - 63 | Winston Prep - 51 |
Rogers - 55 | Hudson Catholic - 43 |
Eastbrook Academy - 48 | St. John Paul II - 35 |
Texas SD / Montgomery Academy - 44 | Westbrook - 29 |
(3:30pm ET) | (4:30pm ET) |
|---|---|
Overhills - 75 | Trinity Episcopal - 74 |
Manatee School for the Arts - 69 | Troy - 67 |
Macon ECHS - 68 | Eureka Springs - 67 |
MVCA - 56 | Austin Jewish Academy - 64 |
Frederica Academy - 52 | Cedarville - 59 |
Game of the Week
The Game of the Week this week goes to Connor W from Scarsdale (white) and Ryan S from Pace Academy (black) for this beautifully sharp game that developed from a Sicilian Defense: Wing Gambit.
This one was interesting right from move two with white playing b4—an attempt to destabilize black’s Sicilian by trying to divert black’s focus from the center of the board.

1. e4 c5 2. b4 — Sicilian Defence: Wing Gambit
White achieves the strong center and healthy development that they were after, but black now has this strong pawn on b4 that they would love to make use of.

Black now has a pawn on b4.
Two moves later, and now black’s b4 pawn is supporting a knight on c3. Pay special attention to this knight, as the next time it moves this game ends in checkmate.

Black establishes a knight on c3.
On move 15 white commits to the kingside attack with the move h5. White has strong piece development, and it looks like there might be a viable attack here, especially with the white rook supporting from h1.

White starts to attack black’s kingside.
At move 21 we can see that white’s attack has not made much progress, but black has improved their position. Note that the queens are in tension: who would benefit more from a trade here?

Further development and queen tension.
Black initiates the queen exchange, removing a key defender of the e2 square.

Queen exchange initiated by black.
White tries some more aggressive manoeuvres on the kingside, but there’s no time to mount an attack. Black’s c3 knight was waiting 19 moves for this moment—Ne2# wins the game for black!

Ne2#
A wonderful game by both players! You can check out the full game here:
Move of the Week
The move of the week this week goes to Kylie T from Archer (white) for this incredible c4# move!
Despite being eight points down on material, Kylie’s rook was able to stay active, and after Rh6+, black made a mistake with the move Kd5. Kylie was then able to pounce—landing checkmate with the c-pawn’s first move of the game on move 44.

c4#
If there’s anything that you need help with this week please feel free to get in touch with Coach Lucas at lucas@rookly.com.
Looking forward to another great week of chess!