Checkmate Champions
Local High School Teams Compete Against The Best At State Chess Finals
By DWIGHT ESAU Journal Sports
This report introduces the sport (or activity) of high school chess to Journal readers.
Lost amid all the hoopla of basketball, gymnastics, and other sports, is the fact that today and tomorrow, the Illinois High School Association stages its annual state chess championship tournament in downstate Peoria.
In seven rounds of competition, nearly 1,000 chess players from 121 high schools will oppose each other in very quiet competition in the U.S. Cellular Coliseum.
Seven of those 121 schools are in the Journal area, and the Journal spoke this week to one of their coaches – Don Barrett of Prospect. The Knights are seeded in the top half of the field in this year’s tournament.
By the way, the IHSA classifies chess as an “activity” on its website.
But, at least temporarily, the Journal is going to treat it as a sport, mostly because it involves competition between players who are on teams and have coaches.
“Chess has been a sanctioned sport in Illlinois since the mid-1990s,” Barrett said. “We’ve had a team at Prospect since at least that time. It is a very popular sport at many area high schools among a select group of players, some of whom are very good at it.”
Other area teams participating in this weekend’s tourney are Leyden, Conant, Niles West, Elk Grove, Rolling Meadows, and Maine West high schools.
“The Mid Suburban League functions as a conference for chess, just as it does for other sports,” Barrett said. “Some teams participate in the conference and locally, but do not choose to field a team at state.”
Prospect’s team includes 17 players, but Barrett is taking only eight of them to state. “Each team selects eight of its top players and ranks them 1-8,” Barrett said. “At the tournament, my number-one player will oppose the other team’s number-one, two will be against two, and so on.
You get 12 team points for a win, and six for a draw. You play seven games in a match against one team, and you play seven rounds, four on Friday and three on Saturday. Points are also awarded for how well a player performs overall in each game.”
According to Barrett, the Knights are led by their top-ranking player, Peter Dimopoulos. In rank order, the Knights’ other top eight group includes Tejas Shah, Michal Zwolenik, Kevin Kostka, Arun Nair, Bryan Mahan, Alex Burck, and Lucas Koprowski.
Prospect opposes sixth seeded Cary Grove in round one today.
The top seeded team is defending state champion Stevenson. But Barrett says Barrington is probably one of the strongest teams in the state this year.
“They went undefeated in our conference this season,” he said.
Other top-seeded teams are Niles North, Illinois Math and Science Academy in Aurora, Whitney Young, Neuqua Valley, Hinsdale Central, and Evanston.
Maine West, coached by Robert Rasmussen and Jack Vogel, has a 12-member team this season. They are Andy Colson, Sean Connor, Kendall Frank, Melvin George Matt Gilliland Corey Hinkes, Steve John, Kyle Kolling, Ben Kusnierz, Jenna Mussar, Matt Mussar, and Eric Vogel.
Elk Grove, coached by Persida Bujdei, is represented at state by Mike Carroll, Parth Chandra, Calvin Cheng, Arielle Espina, Nick Estrada, Winston Feng, David Gonzales, Mike Krick, Javier Morelos, Fabian Rosca, and Tim Whiddon.
Checkmate, anyone?
Source: http://www.journal-topics.com
Thank you for helping out.
It’s not USCF rated, is it?
Go Crossville!
As long as it is chess, I don’t care!
Yes, Bill Hall gave Crossville multiyear deal to host events while blocking other organizers from doing the same. Good job Bill Hall!
Don’t tell half stories, what was the reason the organizer was blocked. Tell the truth.