HOPING TO IMPROVE on last year's eighth-place finish, the Uni chess team will play in the IHSA state tournament Friday and Saturday at the Peoria Civic Center,

Uni goes into the tournament seeded second out of 121 high schools.

"The seeding meeting's a fairly complicated procedure," said Uni coach Chris Merli. "Basically, the reason Uni ended up second was because most of the coaches who were there felt that Uni had the best chance of beating Niles North, which is seeded first."

A No. 2 seeding would be impressive under any circumstance, but it is especially so considering that the IHSA does not divide chess-playing schools into small and large classes.

The only school seeded ahead of Uni, Skokie Niles North, has an enrollment of 2,223 students; Uni has about 240. Last year the team was seeded third heading into the tournament.

This year, led by junior Gordon Ruan on first board, the Illineks were undefeated in league play until three weeks ago, when they lost to Normal University High. The defeat ended a four-year streak of winning the East Central Illinois Chess League title.

Uni finished the ECICL season 9-1, second behind Normal U-High, which is seeded ninth in the IHSA tournament.

At state, Uni will be up against 30th-seed Oak Forest (1,537 enrollment) in the first round. All teams will play a total of seven matches, four on Friday and three on Saturday. Each match is approximately two hours long.

"This is the last year that we will be competitive against the larger schools, especially the ones from Chicago," said Ruan, who placed second in the state individually as a freshman on Board 1. Last year he placed 15th.

Ruan was referring to the fact that the team will lose Alex Zhai and Geoffrey Beck to graduation. The seniors play second and third boards, respectively. Zhai finished 27th at state last year, while Beck placed 15th.

The year before, when Uni took fourth at the state tourney, Zhai finished third on Board 2; Beck was 56th on Board 3.

The rest of the varsity squad in league play this year featured junior Alan Liang on Board 4, junior Greg Atherton on Board 5, and junior Brian Wang on Board 6. In the state tournament, sophomore Daniel Cheng will be on Board 7 and freshman Youyang Gu will be on Board 8, with junior Jason He as an alternate.

The team will enter the tourney missing only two varsity players from last year: Marquis Wang, who placed 42nd on Board 4, and Annie Liang, 42nd on Board 5.

The team hopes to place in the top three this year — which would earn Uni a trophy — if not win the championship outright.

"As Coach Merli told us last week, winning this tournament is really about always challenging the opponent and not giving up, as much as it is about skill level, " said Zhai. "I'm honestly not sure how good we really are compared to the other teams, but I think that we're on the right level to win a trophy, and if we are able to just focus on the game and brush up on a few basics these last couple days, we can finally accomplish what we got so close to two years ago."

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 last year, only Uni had an enrollment under the Class A limit of 730 students.

"We're lucky in recent years to have a collection of good players at Uni at the same time, and I am happy to have been on the Uni chess team for four strong years," said Zhai. "I hope we have established a chess tradition at Uni that will continue."

As for this weekend's tournament, Merli had some advice for his team.

"What I would hope is that the players will remember that it's going to be a struggle," he said, "and there are going to be times during the tournament where it may look like we're not going to win a round or where they're personally not going to be able to do well in a game, and they have to hang in there, and they have to think in terms of it's a team effort. Even if they seem like they're in trouble, keeping the pressure on their opponent may be enough to just get back the half point that we need."

TOP 10 SEEDS AT THIS YEAR'S IHSA CHESS TOURNAMENT

• 1. Skokie Niles North (2,223 enrollment); 2007 finish: 3rd
• 2. UNI HIGH (247 enrollment); 2007 finish: 8th
• 3. Chicago Lane (4,216 enrollment); 2007 finish: 27th
• 4. Barrington (2,917 enrollment); 2007 finish: 17th
• 5. Lincolnshire Stevenson (4,548 enrollment); 2007 finish: 5th
• 6. Chicago Whitney Young (1,983 enrollment); 2007 finish: 2nd
• 7. Evanston Township (3,130 enrollment); 2007 finish: 4th
• 8. Chicago St. Patrick (2,000 enrollment); 2007 finish: 12th
• 9. Normal University (614 enrollment); 2007 finish: 16th
• 10. Winnetka New Trier (4,201 enrollment); 2007 finish: 10th

MORE PHOTOS: UNI CHESS

The Uni chess team. From top left: senior Alex Zhai, junior Brian Wang, senior Geoffrey Beck, junior Alan Liang, sophomore Danny Ge, sophomore Daniel Cheng, and junior Greg Atherton. From bottom left: sophomore Daniel Wilson, junior Gordon Ruan, junior Jason He, and freshman Youyang Gu.
Gargoyle photo by John Garvey (click to enlarge)

Coach Chris Merli ponders a move while playing junior Gordon Ruan. Gargoyle photo by Alex Zhai (click to enlarge)