CHAMPAIGN — The Uni chess team played its last league match of 2007 Thursday night at Parkland College, sweeping Danville in a two-round contest by a combined score of 116-0.

Senior Micah Berman was also present, taking video footage for the yearbook.

The varsity team consists of junior Gordon Ruan (1), senior Alex Zhai (2), senior Geoffrey Beck (3), junior Alan Liang (4), junior Greg Atherton (5), and junior Brian Wang and sophomore Daniel Cheng, who alternate on Board 6.

Uni faced little challenge in Round 1, decisively winning 58-0. Ruan went back to his original opening, playing the highly complicated Yugoslav Attack and ended up checkmating his opponent by sacrificing a rook. Also, Wang played well in just his second varsity game of the season.

In Round 2, Danville failed to make a comeback and lost again 58-0. Zhai and Liang played very powerfully in their games, initiating strong combinations and eventually checkmating their opponents.

In the individual junior varsity matches, sophomore Danny Ge and freshman Youyang Gu won both their games. Wang and Cheng played one match in JV, each winning their game. Gu is ranked No. 1 in the league JV standings.

Uni is 7-0 in the East Central Illinois Chess League. The team members will play their next match on Jan. 10 against Charleston.

The IHSA state tournament is scheduled for Feb. 8-9 at the Peoria Civic Center. Last year Uni finished eighth overall and first among small schools.