Chess Club is back and ready to win.

Chess Club’s actual competitive season started on October 1 and will end February 14. In between the start and finish of the season, the team practices hard to accomplish their goals every Tuesday and Thursday. If a tough competition is coming close, the team may squeeze in a couple more practices to make sure they’re as prepared as they can be.

At the time of final exams, the team had only had two tournaments and two meets.  The team’s first post-break meet, with Fenton, has been cancelled due to weather.

“Five of [the teams we faced were] Top 20 teams in state right now,” Chess Sponsor Dave Monti said.

The team has had four wins and seven losses.

This year, the team has a goal to improve last years score of 3-4 at IHSA State competition.  While that was the farthest the team had gone for six years, a series of unfortunate events, such as missing the first board player – the best player on the team – and having six of eight players being brand new to the team, hurt the team’s final results greatly.

Luckily for this year, all eight players from the IHSA State competition will be back for this year. In addition, a few other talented chess players will also be competing to get into the lineup.

“We had one All-State member last year, Konrad Kroczynski, who was a first year player as a Junior, and was playing two boards higher than he played all year, which is incredibly tough,” Monti said.

Chess Club’s next competitions and tournaments will be held all in January. Chess Club has three meets, one quad, and one more tournament.

The IHSA State competition will be held February 13 and 14 in Peoria.

Good luck to Chess Club with the rest of the season.