WEST CHICAGO — The Uni chess team finished second out of 16 schools Saturday in the West Chicago Team Invitational Tournament. Uni had a record of three wins and one loss, losing to top-seed Niles North in the final round.

The invitational tournament is held annually at West Chicago High School, and the best teams in the state come to play four rounds with an eight-man team.

This was Uni’s first time playing in the invitational tournament, and the team defeated Glenbard South 53-15, Glenbard West 48-19.5, and Barrington 42-26. Uni lost to Niles North in the last round 40-28.

Niles North, which brought its full team (Uni was missing one of its varsity players), won the tournament with a full score. Earlier this year Niles North edged Uni for first place at the individual Knights of the Round Table Tournament at Bloom Trail.

Despite falling just short of the title, Uni was able to use the West Chicago tournament as an assessment to see how the team would fare against the best schools in Illinois. The IHSA state tournament is scheduled for Feb. 8-9 at the Peoria Civic Center. Niles North placed third in 2007.

“I think the performance at the tournament shows that we have a chance at state,” said coach Chris Merli. “We did not have our best team, and we did not even play as well as we could, but we still gave one of the top teams [Niles North] in the state a tough match.”

Uni brought exactly eight players to the tournament, with the team's usual Board 4, junior Alan Liang, absent.

Here is how the Uni team fared individually, according to the results posted by the Illinois Chess Coaches Association:

• Board 1: Junior Gordon Ruan, 3-1 (W, W, L, W), third place
• Board 2: Senior Alex Zhai, 2-1-1 (W, D, W, L), seventh place
• Board 3: Senior Geoffrey Beck, 2-1-1 (L, D, W, W), fifth place
• Board 4: Junior Greg Atherton, 1-3 (W, L, L, L), 13th place
• Board 5: Junior Brian Wang, 3-1 (W, W, W, L), third place
• Board 6: Sophomore Daniel Cheng, 3-1 (W, W, W, L), fourth place
• Board 7: Freshman Youyang Gu, 4-0 (W, W, W, W) first place
• Board 8: Sophomore Danny Ge, 1-3 (L, W, L, L) 11th place

Uni placed eighth at the state tournament last year. This year, the team members are determined to bring home a big trophy.

“I don't see any reason why we cannot finish in the top 10," said Merli. “However, exactly what place we get will depend on how well we play that weekend. I still want to see us bringing home one of the top three trophies, and as we showed in this tournament, we can win it all. The top Class A [small school] team prize would be almost a disappointment.”

Uni’s next tournament will be on Jan. 6, where the team will host its own tournament, the Illini Classic, at the University of Illinois.

(Note: For another perspective on the West Chicago tourney — namely, the long trip back in a snowstorm — see Gordon Ruan's staff blog entry here.)

Freshman Youyang Gu (facing camera) won the first-place trophy on Board 7. Photo by John Garvey (click to enlarge)

Uni won second place at the elite West Chicago Invitational on Saturday. Seated from left: Alex Zhai, Gordon Ruan, Geoffrey Beck, Youyang Gu (holding his first-place Board 7 individual trophy), Daniel Cheng. Standing from left: Coach Chris Merli, Greg Atherton, Danny Ge, Brian Wang. Photo by John Garvey (click to enlarge)