By Gargoyle staff
Posted Friday, Oct. 6, 2006, The OG, news

HEYWORTH — The Uni chess team opened the 2006-07 season by losing its first match but winning its second against conference newcomer Bloomington Thursday.

The Illineks lost the first contest 30-28 but rebounded to win the second 35-26. Uni had to play without three of its usual boards — Geoffrey Beck (third board), Marquis Wang (fourth board), and Annie Liang (fifth board). All three players had scheduling conflicts and couldn't attend the contest.

Uni placed fourth at the IHSA state tournament in February. The team didn't lose a single player from its top eight boards to graduation, so expectations are high this season. (Click here and here for Gargoyle coverage of the IHSA tourney.)

In Thursday's contest, the results were:

— Gordon Ruan, sophomore, first board: L (lost first game), W (won second game)
— Alex Zhai, junior, second board: W, W
— Alan Liang, sophomore, third board: L, L
— Greg Atherton, sophomore, fourth board: W, L
— Daniel Cheng, freshman, fifth board: W, D (draw)
— Tony Costa, senior, sixth board: L, W

Bloomington's players were Scott Schmidt, first board; Ben Leifheit, second; Josh Strong, third; Jayanth Madleswaran, fourth; Nick Wiese, fifth; and Cameron Johnson, sixth.

Bloomington is a new member of the East Central Illinois Chess League. Uni has won the conference title the last four years. Chris Merli is team coach and French teacher John Garvey is faculty sponsor.