CHICAGO HEIGHTS — The Uni chess team finished second out of 30 schools Saturday at the Knights of the Round Table Tournament, just 2 points behind top-seed Niles North.

Junior Gordon Ruan went undefeated in five games to win first place in the top section (1800+ rating) and came in second overall out of 288 competitors.

The tournament is held once every year at Bloom Trail High School. Many of the top players in the state come to the tourney, where they play as individuals in five games.

Niles North, the tourney champ, has an enrollment of 2,223 students and placed third overall at last year's IHSA state tournament.

The top five players' scores from each school are added together to determine school rankings. Uni brought seven players, which is quite small compared to first-place winner Niles North, which brought 14 players.

The players from Uni were:

• Gordon Ruan, junior, 5-0 (W, W, W, W, W), 2nd
• Alex Zhai, senior, 4-1 (W, W, W, L, W), 20th
• Alan Liang, junior, 4-1 (W, W, W, W, L), 18th
• Greg Atherton, junior, 4-1 (W, L, W, W, W), 41st
• Daniel Cheng, sophomore, 3-1-1 (W, D, W, W, L), 46th
• Brian Wang, junior, 3-2 (W, W, W, L, L), 59th
• Youyang Gu, freshman, 3-2 (L, W, L, W, W), 123rd

The Uni chess team’s total score was 20.5.

Last year, the team finished seventh out of 28 teams and had a score of 18, impressive with the absence of Ruan and senior Geoffrey Beck.

“We all played really well at the tourney, but something we need to work on is playing more precisely in our games and making as little mistakes as possible,” said Ruan.

More information about the tournament can be found here.

Uni placed eighth at the IHSA state tournament last year. The team’s next contest is scheduled for Thursday at Parkland College against Notre Dame de LaSalette.