The ETHS chess team had another good outing at last Saturday’s Illinois High School Chess Cup. The team finished in a very admirable third place after losing three times to the tournament host and overall winner, Waubonsie Valley, while winning its other six matches.
The tournament’s unique format made it possible for one team to lose three times to another team during the competition. Instead of the usual four-match tournament format, each team played a total of nine matches, divided into three mini-tournaments. The first three matches lasted up to 90 minutes, the next three matches lasted between 20 and 25 minutes and the final three lasted no more than 10 minutes.
ETHS played Waubonsie Valley in all three mini-tournaments, while Fremd, the team that finished in second place, had the good fortune of only playing and losing to Waubonsie once.
The Wildkits barely won their opening match against Hinsdale Central; they may have been tired after their more than hour-long drive to Aurora. Their later match wins were more comfortable and included two wins over Conant, which was the only team to defeat the Wildkits this season until Saturday.
Several of the Wildkit varsity players thrived in the tournament’s unique format. Shane Asbra had seven wins and a draw in his nine games. Daniel Dligach, Sam Kemeny and Manu Zerega each scored seven out of nine possible points, and Alastair Keely-Walker scored six and a half. Adam Elgat, playing Board 1, played five of his nine games against players who are at the Master level in U.S. Chess Federation ratings. He posted his own master-level performance in two of those games.
Evanston also entered a Varsity B team that played extremely well to finish in sixth place among 18 teams. They also finished ahead of the other three Varsity B teams, from Waubonsie Valley, Fremd and Hinsdale Central. Aiden Wang had an outstanding result for this team, scoring seven and a half points while playing Board 3, while Micah Mostovoy and Daniel Melnikov each scored six points. Drew Hastings played in the individual open section and posted an above average result of five points.
The team will be competing at Niles North this weekend before taking a well-earned fall break during the week of Thanksgiving.
ETHS takes third place at Illinois High School Chess Cup is from Evanston RoundTable, Evanston's most trusted source for unbiased, in-depth journalism.
