Local Schools Excel at IHSA State Chess Tournament
This past weekend, 124 teams totaling over 1,000 high school students competed in the IHSA State Team Chess Tournament in Peoria. This event, in its 45th year, is one of the largest HS Team Event in the world and one of the largest chess events of any kind.
After 7 grueling matches over 2 days, Barrington High School, coached by Jeff Doles came away with Second Place Honors. Chicago Whitney Young earned the Championship by defeating them in the last round. This penultimate match always attracts many spectators and each move is crucial.
Pictures taken by Coach Doles are available at
https://www.facebook.com/pg/barringtonhighschooltv/photos/?tab=album&album_id=2290553944337429
The players competing for Barrington (and their records) were:
1: 5-2 Shreya Mangalam
2: 5-2 Rishi Narayanan
3: 5-2 Shreyas Reddy
4: 5-1-1 Ethan Gagliano
5: 6-1 Omkar Prabhavalkar
6: 4-3 Jack Bradley
7: 5-1-1 Nicholas Edels
8: 3-4 Prathik Kandimalla
According to Dylan Canavan, President of the Illinois Chess Coaches Association (ICCA),
"The players work all year for the opportunity to come down to Peoria and play the best teams in the state. The two days are grueling, 7 rounds of chess, each of which can go as long as 2 hours. Players will typically stay after their game is done to watch the results of their teammates. Then they will have maybe 30 minutes to grab something to eat before they are back on the board for the next round."
Ken Lewandowski, retired Evanston Coach and past Secretary of the ICCA feels one of the best parts of this event is that every school gets to play all 7 rounds, there is no elimination. This year, there were 6 other teams tied with Barrington at 6-1. There is a complicated formula used to break the ties and rank these teams. The results of some of the matches of some lower teams could affect the tie breaks of these top teams.
In addition to Barrington, many teams in the Hearld's area competed. The complete results can be found at
https://www.ihsa.org/SportsActivities/Chess/StateSeriesInformationResults.aspx?url=/data/ct/crosstables.htm