By Gargoyle news staff
Posted Sunday, Feb. 11, 2007, The OG, news

PEORIA — Sophomore Alan Liang placed second on Board 6 as the Uni chess team claimed its second consecutive top 10 finish at the IHSA state tournament.

Uni ended the two-day, 118-school event in eighth place, tied for Uni's second-highest finish since the IHSA went to a single class system in 1995. Uni placed fourth last year. In 1996, the team also finished in eighth place.

This year's tourney was held Friday and Saturday at the Peoria Civic Center.

Before 1995, the IHSA chess tournament had two classes: A for small schools, AA for large. Uni won six Class A state championships: in 1978, 1979, 1986, 1991, 1992, 1994. History teacher Chris Butler coached the last four of these championship teams. Uni's six titles rank first in the state along with Evanston Township's half dozen.

The 2007 team would have easily won the Class A title if the small-school division still existed. Of the final top 10 schools this year, only Uni had an enrollment under the Class A limit of 730 students:

1. Maine South (2,586 students), 6.5 pts, 118.3 tiebreaker pts
   
2. Whitney Young (1,901 students), 6.0 pts, 170.8 tiebreaker pts
   
3. Niles North (2,292 students), 6.0 pts, 152.8 tiebreaker pts
   
4. Evanston Township (3,242 students), 6.0 pts, 130.9 tiebreaker pts
   
5. Stevenson (4,595 students) 6.0 pts, 129.4 tiebreaker pts
   
6. Walter Payton College Prep (856 students), 6.0 pts, 100.1 tiebreaker pts
   
7. Mundelein Carmel (1,385 students), 6.0 pts, 97.4 tiebreaker pts
   
8. UNI HIGH (244 students), 5.0 pts, 128.0 tiebreaker pts
   
9. Lincoln-Way Central (2,954 students), 5.0 pts, 124.8 tiebreaker pts
   
10. New Trier (4,094 students), 5.0 pts, 124.6 tiebreaker pts
    

Individually, here is how Uni players fared:

Board 1: Gordon Ruan, sophomore, 15th place

Board 2: Alex Zhai, junior, 27th place

Board 3: Geoffrey Beck, junior, 15th place

Board 4: Marquis Wang, senior, 42nd place

Board 5: Annie Liang, senior, 42nd place

Board 6: Alan Liang, sophomore, 2nd place

Board 7: Daniel Cheng, freshman, 41st place

Board 8: Brian Wang, sophomore, 45th place

Board 8: Greg Atherton, sophomore, 113th place

“Although we didn't place as high as we had hoped, I think that we still performed well overall,” Zhai said. “There's always an element of luck when it comes to the state tournament, and this year it didn't play in our favor. On the sixth round, we nearly defeated Maine South, the first place team. That probably would have put us back in contention for the top three, but a few unfortunate turns in the final games allowed them to win.”

Uni went into the tournament seeded third, behind only Niles North and Whitney Young. The team will lose Marquis Wang and Annie Liang to graduation, but Zhai is already looking forward to 2008.

“What's important to me is that next year, we still have a strong team,” he said. “This tournament showed to me that last year's placing was not just luck. Uni has the potential to become a perennial contender for the top places at state.”

Chris Merli is the team's head coach. John Garvey is assistant coach.

RELATED

— Gargoyle preview: Uni goes to state

— IHSA: 2007 chess results

— IHSA: Chess record book