The recently restarted Uni High Chess Team went to state in their first season of competing after winning three out of four games at sectionals.
Though this is the team’s first year of competing as an IHSA team since they were established just this school year, there used to be a Uni High Chess Team a long time ago, which was dismantled around seven years ago. Kaylee Zheng, the founder and team captain of the current Uni High Chess Team, stated that she restarted the Uni High Chess Team by finding and gathering Chess Club members who would be interested in joining it, then working on the logistical aspects of starting the team with Bob Fitzgerald, Uni High’s principal, and Tom Kiesel, the computer science teacher and chess team sponsor.
Kiesel said “I’m really proud of these kids and I think it’s an amazing thing they did. Stepping up and trying to make the team happen. I think that’s amazing. I think that is just a wonderful thing.”
With 128 teams at state, Uni High placed 19th overall, winning five out of the seven games they played. Kiesel described state overall as fun and enjoyable, even against the really tough teams.
There are currently nine players on the chess team, and all nine went to state.
Each player on the team played against one of the opposing team’s players. After all the players have finished their game of chess, the amount of points each player gets individually adds up to the team’s final score, determining whether the team won, tied, or lost. They were then ranked not only based on how many games they won or lost, but also how strong of a team they were overall.
“There were a couple times where they found out the name of the team they were going to play, and it was a really, really scary team… I’m very proud of them for not getting too psyched out and in their own head about it. They were able to go, oh, okay. But they still went out there and tried their hardest and took some points off of some really scary teams,” Kiesel said, reflecting on the team’s overall experience at state.
The process of getting to state and even sectionals was difficult for the chess team, because of how late they started. To compete in sectionals or state, a team must have competed in enough events, such as different tournaments or contests. Since the team started late, they were in a bit of a hustle to get enough of those events in. Kiesel said, “Champaign Central helped us out with that. They set up a little micro-tournament of just us and them. That was what we needed, that extra event to qualify and get enough events to be able to do state.”
The team meets every Friday after school in 106 South. Since chess club and the chess team are two separate things, the club being more recreational and the team being more competitive, players could also go to the chess club meetings, which are Wednesdays during lunch in room 218, for more practice. In preparation for state, the chess team members played against one another at meetings, practicing different openings and styles and talking to each other about the games afterwards. At state, the team would even practice with each other more in between games.
After a long year, from restarting the chess team, to squeezing in events to be able to compete, to dealing with wins and losses, and finally, going to state, the chess team has had its final game of the school year. Now that state is over, the chess team plans on continuing to meet for the rest of the semester.
