The Evanston Township High School chess team had a grueling but successful trip to last weekend’s U.S. Chess K-12 Grade Nationals in National Harbor, Maryland. At this event, which was organized by the U.S. Chess Federation, all games were played against others in the same grade, and all team and individual awards were based on results within grade.
A delayed evening flight and problems with hotel check-in meant that team members didn’t reach their rooms until after midnight on Thursday. Although the tournament didn’t start until Friday at 1 p.m., the team’s late arrival may have affected their first round performance, when they won just three of their 16 games. The larger factor was the strength of the team’s first round opponents; 12 of the 16 Wildkit players were matched against opponents with higher national chess ratings.
ETHS had much better results in Friday’s second round. Team members won every game that was played against a lower-rated opponent, and several Wildkits scored upsets against higher-rated players. This pattern largely continued for the three rounds that were played on Saturday and for Sunday’s final two rounds. Their consistently strong results helped the ETHS teams in each grade move up in the standings over the course of the tournament.
The ETHS 12th grade team had an especially strong finish and moved all the way up to fifth place, just ahead of Chicago’s Whitney Young, to claim the final team trophy. Somil Bose, Manu Zerega and Daniel Dligach were the team’s top scoring team members, with each scoring four points in their seven games. They were closely followed by Sam Kemeny, Will Zalmezak and Lucia Scrimenti, who each scored three points. The 11th grade team moved up to eighth place in the final team standings, and the 10th Grade team finished in 12th place.
None of the Wildkits finished among the top 10 individuals in their grade, but six of them won rating-based awards. Zerega, Dligach and Scrimenti swept the awards for rating class 1000-1299 in grade 12. Lucas Lazaro and Ryan Cowan were the top two players with ratings under 1000 in grade 11, and in grade 10, Micah Mostovoy finished first in rating class 1000-1299. All six of these winners improved their U.S. Chess rating, and Zerega, Dligach and Mostovoy moved up to the next rating class.
The team will now take a break from tournament play, but the competition will heat up in January as Illinois high schools prepare for the IHSA Chess State Series in February.
ETHS seniors take 5th at chess nationals is from Evanston RoundTable, Evanston's most trusted source for unbiased, in-depth journalism.