The Chess Team has impressed us once again. On Friday February 12 and Saturday February 13, the Bulldogs made their way to the 42nd Annual IHSA State Chess Tournament in Peoria. Going into this tournament, RB was ranked 64th out of 146 teams.

“It was predicted we would win 3 matches, maybe 4, depending on the overall pairings over the two days,” Dave Monti said, Chess Team coach and sponsor.

The RB Bulldogs pushed through, and ending up winning 5 of their 7 matches, ending in 21st Place overall.

“Because of the huge size discrepancy in the schools competing, the IHSA allows the Illinois Chess Coaches Association to award 1st Place awards for schools grouped in six divisions based on enrollment. RB won 1st place in their division 2A out of 33 schools similar in size,” Monti said.

On Saturday, the Bulldogs were undefeated.

“RB had one of the toughest overall tournament pairings, facing 6 teams who finished with a winning record,” Monti said.

Chess is a team and individual sport. Without the success of the individual, the team could not have done it. Congratulations to senior Lukas Kulbis who went 4-3 and finished in 44th Place out of 147 players. Senior Tristan Kotlicky who had four wins on Board 4, finishing 57th out of 150 players. Freshman Joey Vitek had four wins and one draw on Board 8. He finished 24th of out 255 players, just missing earning an All-State medal.

In the final round of the tournament, RB was in 8th Place for their division, 25th overall.

“Because of our tiebreaks and the high difficulty level of our opponents, we leapfrogged Bloomington and Payton to finish in 1st Place,” Monti said.

Congratulations to the RB Bulldogs on their wonderful performance at State!