The St. Ignatius College Prep chess team, coached by Héctor R. Hernández, had a stellar performance at the IHSA (Illinois High School Association) State Tournament on February 14 and 15 and achieved Top Twenty status by finishing in 18^th place among 126 schools. The team came in behind Payton H.S., but ahead of Whitney Young, Northside College Prep, Lane Tech and Lincoln Park.

Our squad also captured the Division 3A Title, which is awarded by ICCA, the Illinois Chess Coaches Association: ILChessCoach.org. We placed ahead of Lisle (Benet Academy), which has Grand Master Nikola Mitkov as one of its coaches. There were twenty-one Division 3A schools competing at State, another four did not qualify and three withdrew prior to the start of the tournament. Division 3A schools have a student enrollment of 1200 to 1700.

Three of our players earned silver medals for outstanding performances with 6-1 scores: Dylan Rosario (Sr.), Nikola Le Tien (So.) and Philip Kujawa (Fr.). Also representing our school at State were team captain Nevin O’Donnell, Victor Ruan, Kirk Tejas, Zaid Akkawi, Emanuel Demisse and Sean Neiza. Without a doubt, this is the best St. Ignatius chess team during my ten-year tenure.

The Highland Park H.S. chess team, coached by Pablo Alvarez, finished in third place overall at State, behind Lincolnshire (Stevenson) and Winnetka (New Trier). Last year Pablo’s team finished in fourth place. They moved up one spot in this year’s final standings. Highland Park had two silver medalists, 6-1 scores, – Stefano Velazquez (Sr.) and Sammy Harris (Sr.) – and three bronze medalists, 5.5-1.5 scores, – Chris Arzac (Sr.), Michael Chiflikyan (Sr.) and David Condroski (Sr.).

Other Mexican American coaches at the Peoria Civic Center event include Martha Martínez of Franklin Park-Northlake (Leyden), Salvador Velasco and Rodolfo Gutiérrez from Chicago (Acero/García); and Manuel Montes of Oak Lawn (Richards). Salvador and Rodolfo have done an excellent job hosting the Chicago Prep Bowl for the last two years. This competition brings together the city’s CPS and private schools to compete for top honors. This year’s IHSA Sectional Tournament, in January, was also held at Acero/García. This is a qualifying event for the State Tournament. 

Of the 1,205 competitors at the State Tournament, there were many Hispanic students not only from Chicago and suburban public and parochial schools, but from other parts of Illinois as well. One of these young ajedrecistas is Diego Morales, who is originally from Venezuela. He is the top player for Northbrook (Glenbrook North). Other Latino students include silver medalists Alex Aluzas (Sr.) – Summit (Argo), Nick Tovar (Sr.) – Maple Park (Kaneland) and Isaiah Jara (Fr.) – Chicago (Mt. Carmel).