Evanston Chess became the first Illinois high school team to win two tournaments this season after defeating Lane Tech, in a close 35-33 contest, to take top honors at last Saturday’s Highland Park Giant Classic.
ETHS had previously taken top honors at the Hinsdale Red Devil Challenge on October 19. With this pair of victories, the Wildkits can claim a spot among the top teams in the state, along with Lane, Stevenson, Waubonsie Valley, Whitney Young and a few others.
The win over Lane was secured when Adam Elgat drew Avi Kaplan, a highly ranked master, on Board 1. Kaplan and Ochirbat Lkhagvajamts of Conant are clearly the strongest high school players in Illinois, but in the opinion of this writer, Elgat fits among the next tier of elite high school players in the state. Other keys to winning the match were Shane Asbra’s late win on Board 5 and faster wins by Asa Lieberman, Max Tornheim and Will Zalmezak.
Earlier in the tournament, the Wildkits posted victories over Antioch, Glenbrook North and a strong Glenbrook South team that upset Payton, the current IHSA State Chess cochampion, in an earlier round
All nine varsity team members had good results. Elgat and Asbra won prizes for their individual performances. Zalmezak, Tornheim and Josh Beatty were all undefeated while sharing duties on Boards 7 and 8. Somil Bose, Lieberman, Sam Kemeny and Manu Zerega each had plus scores on boards 2, 3, 4 and 6, with a single loss for each player.
Credit: Keith Holzmueller
The ETHS JV team of Wayra Sheridan, Zach Gudwien Stoll, Ilan Elliott and Drew Hastings exceeded expectations to take third place in the JV Team division. All four players finished with even or winning records, led by Sheridan’s 5th place finish with four wins and one loss.
Editor’s note: This story has updated to correct the first name of Drew Hastings.
Chess: Wildkits claim second tournament victory is from Evanston RoundTable, Evanston's most trusted source for unbiased, in-depth journalism.
