When I first began playing on the Uni chess team as a freshman three years ago in 2005-06, the chess team had a lineup of talented and strong players. That year, we won the East Central Illinois Chess League decisively and finished fourth overall with a record of 6-1 in the IHSA state tournament finals.

Despite us not bringing back a trophy, that was the highest a Uni chess team had placed since the advent of a single-class tournament system. (Uni won six state titles when there was a two-class system based on school enrollment.)

Full of satisfaction with that achievement, we entered our 2006-07 chess season occupied with high hopes of winning the 2007 IHSA state finals. With almost the exact same lineup, our team once again won the ECICL title. Our seniors, Annie Liang and Marquis Wang, were very enthusiastic and desired for the team to follow up by winning the state title in their last year at Uni.

Unfortunately, state turned out to be a total letdown. We didn’t perform well and ended up finishing eighth overall with a record of 5-2.

Regardless of our rather disappointing performance last year and our loss of Liang and Wang due to graduation, our team is definitely capable of claiming the state title this Friday to Saturday in Peoria.

In our first round we’ll be playing Oak Forest, which I predict won’t be a tough match for us. The only teams that I’m concerned about possibly posing threats to us are the top Chicago teams like Niles North, Barrington, and Whitney Young. Our harder matches will be in Round 4 or 5, and if we play well and win those rounds, we’ll be dealing with those top Chicago teams.

Of course, everything depends on how well our team performs in those two days, and anything can happen. However, we’ve learned our lessons from last year: Never give up and never underestimate your opponents. I believe we’ll win, and we’ll try our best.

Note: For a preview of this weekend's IHSA state chess tournament, click here.