The chess team duked it out with 128 different schools district-wide throughout Illinois, placing 32nd. The first day of games were fourth board, senior Jacob Frosch’s, favorite part of the state tournament. After Frosch went undefeated with all four of his games that day, it all came down to the final match. 

  “It was like are these two people going to win? and if they won, we would win as a team,” Frosch said. “Both of them won at the exact same time. Because of that, we won the match and it was super exciting.” 

This year’s team not only placed higher at state than past years, but they also excelled at sectionals.

  “We usually end up going to state, but this year we went 4-0 at sectionals”, captain Simon Snydersmith, senior, said.

 While every chess player has a strategy, their coach encourages individuality in how they capture the king. 

  “I think that the best target is the one the player feels most comfortable with,” Josh Bloodgood, adviser, said. There are many different board alignments and there are a variety of ways a player can respond. 

 “I believe that each individual perfects their own strategy,” Bloodgood said.

“I like to employ the London system if I’m white and when I’m black I play the Sicilian system. Both these systems are center-based and allow me to control as much of the board as possible,” senior Austin Sanza said. 

The London system is a play style that is very balanced and suited for beginner and expert play styles. The Sicilian system is a play style that is used on the black side of the board. 

  “The Sicilian is the most popular and best-scoring response to White’s first move. Not only is Sicilian balanced, it offers the most advantages against white” according to chess.com. 

Frosch enjoys playing closed games because of the huge advantage involved, the advantage of having the opportunity for one extra piece that can defend. It can put a lot of pressure on the opponent when playing a closed game. His strategy is to lock all of his and his opponents’ pieces together.