Chicago Chess Conference

 

The conference brings together Chicago area private high schools, primarily Catholic schools. The purpose of the conference is to promote chess in Chicago area high schools and to provide match play for teams of member schools. Our member schools are Brother Rice, De La Salle Institute, DePaul College Prep, Latin, Leo, Marist, Mt. Carmel, St. Ignatius, St. Patrick, and St. Rita.

Each school fields a team of eight boards, consisting of the top players ranked by playing strength. Additionally, up to four alternate players are allowed to compete. At the end of the season, trophies are awarded to the best twenty-five players, tournament winners, and the top teams in the conference.

Our playing schedule for the season starts in early October with a blitz kick-off tournament. The following week, all teams start holding their scheduled matches. Half of our matches are played at home and half are away contests. We play our matches in Foglia Library, an ideal location, and a beautiful setting for intellectual pursuits.

The conference tournament is held in January and an individual competition in February. A blitz tournament takes place at the end of the season, followed by a presentation of awards to players and teams that earned them. Our group also competes in several non-conference events to gain experience and improve our level of play.

St. Ignatius chess teams have finished in first place in six of the last eight years, 2015, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021 -shared-, and 2022 -shared-.

The 2014-2015 team had an undefeated 9-0 match record for the season thanks to 65 wins in 72 games for a 90% winning percentage, which combined with a strong performance at the state tournament made this our best team between 2010 and 2015. Students on this team were John Lennon -captain-, Matthew Dziekan, Trevin O’Keefe, Michael Vidovic, Austin Kerwin, Tom Stefancic -co-captain-, Efrain Torres, Will Dreux, Chris Bibbs and Jack Wyman. Tom created the design for our team shirts.

The 2018-2019 team had an equally impressive season as the 2014-2015 squad. A 9-0 score in matches played over the course of four months with 65 wins in 72 individual games yielded a 90% winning percentage.

The 2019 – 2020 team also had a perfect 9-0 match record resulting from a score of 67 wins in 72 games for a 93% winning percentage. That, plus, other achievements and a Top Twenty status in Illinois made this team the strongest during my tenure. They surpassed the 2015 team as the best team since 2010. Students on this team were Nevin O’Donnell -captain-, Victor Ruan, Dylan Rosario, Kirk Tejas, Nikola Le Tien, Vince Marino, Emeka Ezike, Sean Neiza, Emanuel Demisse, Zaid Akkawi, Philip Kujawa and Alexander Espinoza.  

During the 2020-2021 season our team again achieved Top Twenty status among Illinois schools. This was the year the pandemic forced all high school competitions to go virtual. Even the state tournament was held virtually. Throughout the state, all players gathered at their schools to play in it under supervision of their coaches. Kirk Tejas was our team captain that year and Victor Ruan, co-captain. Other members were Nikola Le Tien, Philip Kujawa, Aidan Cascio, Matthew Erlec, Alexander Espinoza, Jose Cortes, Daniel Gomez, Kate Johnston, John Waldo, and Emanuel Demisse.

Five freshmen joined the team during the fall of 2021. This bodes well for the future. Our team won all conference competitions, but one, this year. The most memorable match of the season was against Marist.

Around the time of this match, there was a McDonald’s Restaurants commercial - “Bishop Takes Fries” - airing in Chicagoland and available on YouTube. It featured the story of Shakira Luster, Trechelle Williams, and Imani Hill who are Marist’s top three players. Our students showed quite a lot of excitement for this match as Marist was also undefeated and a leading contender for top honors.

Game time: John Waldo, board 3, won against Imani in just 22 moves, a miniature game. He is the most talented and creative player to come along in a long time.

Nikola Le Tien, board 1, prepared well to play Shakira. He played a King’s Indian Defense, and, after an intense battle, emerged triumphant. Shakira was the top player in our conference the previous year.

Philip Kujawa, board 2, won against Trechelle in a technically difficult endgame. This completed the 3-0 sweep of their famous opponents and made the final match score 46-22 in our favor.

Shakira, Trechelle and Imani had been featured in New in Chess magazine at the time of their McDonald’s commercial. NIC, from the Netherlands, is the leading chess publication in the world, full of articles and game commentary by grandmasters.

A summary of the team’s performance during the 2021-2022 season was written by our captain for the school newspaper.

“Coached by Mr. Hernandez and captained by senior Nikola Le Tien ’22, SICP’s chess team saw many talented minds and the return of multiple players, as well as the strong support of the Saint Ignatius community. As chess returned to in-person formats, the team started the season with a 1^st place win at the Blitz Kickoff Tournament, finishing 1^st in the conference and winning the post-season conference tournament. The chess team went on to have an undefeated 4-0 record at Sectionals, qualifying for state and becoming champions of the Chicago Sectional. Senior Nikola Le Tien won the final Blitz Tournament. This was the final season for seniors Nikola Le Tien, Tomas de Abreu e Silva and Alexander Espinoza.”

Sophomore John Waldo, who lost only one game during the entire season, was the Blitz Kickoff champion, while freshman Jacob Komorowski won the Individual Conference Championship. Other team members, not previously mentioned, are Philip Kujawa, Sean Neiza, Matthew Erlec, Patrick Daly, Wyatt Buquid, Joe Brentuo, Semeon Alazar, Kate Johnston, Anthony Rosinia, Valarie Giblin, and Daniel Gomez. Philip was elected captain for next year.

I would be remiss if I did not mention the tremendous support from the Ignatius community throughout the season. Thank you all! My gratitude goes, as well, to all the bright and highly motivated students who give their time, effort, and dedication to make the success of our chess team possible.

 

 

U.S. Amateur Team Championship-Midwest, 2020. Nikola LeTien -in the foreground-, Dylan Rosario and Zaid Akkawi in white shirt, standing.

 

Chess Team 2019-2020

 

Chess Team 2021-2022