2012 Wrap-Up NCP vs Stevenson - by Coach Caveney

I agree with you [neilski of CPS Sports Blog] that it is no shame to lose to Stevenson. This year the top 8 seeds were very deep, and any match between them was bound to be tight. Notice that the champion and the seven 6-1 teams were all the top 8 seeds -- no underdog was able to break into this group, unlike last year.I want to congratulate Stevenson for playing an outstanding match against Northside. Stevenson's combination of strength on the top boards and depth on the bottom boards was very impressive. Their players were the only ones to beat Northside's Boards 1, 3, 7 and 8 the whole tournament.

On Boards 1 and 3, Kent Cen and Matt Yang took advantage of the White pieces very well, chose good and challenging opening variations, and obtained early advantages that could not be recovered from. On Board 2, Josh Dubin played a great King's Indian. Northside had to hope for a Board 4-8 sweep, but Stevenson's bottom boards were too tough. I was very proud of Jayce Feiger, Aamir Ansari, and Alex Bologna for their wins against very tough competition from Stevenson. Feiger and Ansari scored perfect 7-0 records and won 1st place in the State on Boards 4 and 5.

Here in CPS, we focus on competing against Whitney Young with a dominant Board 1 -- we know we most likely have to dominate Boards 2-8 to beat them. Stevenson presented a new challenge with Dubin, a dominant Board 2, which made them a tougher match-up against the Northside team.

I also want to point out that Northside's victory over Neuqua Valley in Round 7 was not easy! The match was not decided until the final 5-6 minutes, when the top 3 Boards and Board 6 were still going. Northside had a 25.5 to 2.5 lead, but Neuqua Valley had the advantage on Boards 1, 2 and 6, and Board 3 was a close to equal position. If those evaluations held up, Neuqua Valley could have won 37.5 to 30.5. But on Board 3 Edmond Jay took excellent advantage of his opponent's time trouble, put pressure on him, and the opponent lost a rook. Jay converted smoothly to clinch the match and the 6-1 record for Northside. Bologna followed with an inspired comeback win from a lost position, and Chengliang Luo fought amazingly hard to hold a draw on Board 1 even though he was behind on the clock with 1 minute vs. his opponent's 25 minutes at one point in the game. 

I'm very proud of all the Northside players for their excellent performance in this tournament. They scored at least 5 points on every single board, and finished with 46 wins, 3 draws, and only 7 losses. It's an honor and a pleasure to coach them.

Team Placing

Evanston 8th place.
Hinsdale Central 7th
Glenbrook South 6th
NORTHSIDE 5TH!!
University Lab School Urbana 4th

Trophies
Whitney Young 3rd
Stephenson 2nd
Niles North State Champions

Individual Awards

Harris and Ahmed jointly went 5-2 on board 8.
Slav takes the stage for coming in fifth on board 7.
Alex takes fourth for board 6.
Aamir is FIRST on Board 5!!
Jayce is FIRST on Board 4!!
Edmond is sixth on Board 3.
Christian was 5-2 on Board 2.
Liang won 5 1/2 on Board 1.

Final moments

With 25.5 points to zero, we were still on pins and needles - Neuqua Valley is taking us to the wall, threatening on boards 1, 2, 3, and 6.

Christian is doomed.  

Edmond clinches it!

Northside wins 6 games for the first time in school history!!

Alex pulled out his game.

Liang isin severe time trouble, but the game is completely balanced.  Nursing mere seconds against his opponent's 14 minutes, he stays in the game.
His opponent goes down to 42 seconds.
Liang is at 7 seconds.
Neuqua makes an illegal move!
Liang gets 2 minutes added to his clock.
2 pawns each, Liang's knight vs opponent's bishop.
Enough time to think, to maneuver accurately.
With less than 20 seconds each, Liang offers a draw.
Declined.
Liang sacrifices knight for pawn.
Trade pawns.
No pawns.
King and bishop cannot mate.
Draw.

Final score 48.5 - 19.5
It doesn't look as close as it was.  Then again, when our players close it out, that is the way the team scores points.

Aamir won his game, so we are up 25.5 - 0, but that's not a clinch.

Liang is down to a minute six, Christian is down to 3, Alex is down to 4 minutes.  All are even on material.
Edmond has 10 minutes.
Send us some positive mental energy now.

others

Whitney Young has already won against Naperville North.
In the title match, Hinsdale Central took the first points, but they are only 9-0 up to this point.

Round 7 - 30 minutes left

Jayce has won, and Ahmed took a draw, giving us 17.5 pts along with Slav's win.
Liang looks like he is in trouble- way down on time. Christian is down on time.
Edmond is up, while Alex and Aamir are about even.

Idle speculation on tiebreaks

(None of which matters unless we prevail against Neuqua Valley)
Neuqua Valley actually has higher tiebreaks than we do now.
The loser of the title match should come out with great tiebreaks unless they get crushed, which is implausible.
Presumably Stephenson and Whitney Young will be 6-1, bringing good tiebreaks with them.  The one who played the winner of the title match will receive more tiebreaks, so WY is rooting for Hinsdale Central, and Stephenson for NN.  We get tiebreaks mainly from winning against Neuqua Valley, but we will get a boost from Stephenson getting up to 6 wins.
(None of which matters unless we prevail against Neuqua Valley)

Round 7 - 45 minutes

Neuqua Valley is a strong opponent - even if we did beat them roundly at Glenbard South, with Christian on first board.  Coming into this round, they have higher tiebreaks than we do!
Slav won his board first.
Alex has an intricate array of skewers and pins on his board.
Christian has a lacework of pawns throughout the center of his board.
Liang is down on time.

Round 6 - BTW, 68-0

And we wound up with a sweep, which is really good.

Other matches 3!!

Stevenson's Cheryl Liu, 6th board (not 7th) collected her win, as expected.  However, David Paykin survived on board 3 to clinch for Niles North by the skin of their teeth, 37-31, I believe.

Whitney Young goes down to Hinsdale Central!
Meduri drew Schmakel and...

ohter matches 2

Niles North 27, Stevenson 21.  7th  board will go to Stevenson, but that won't decide it.
HInsdale Central is momentarily up on Whitney Young 14-10 and Aakash Meduri is seriously challenging Schmakel.

Tie breaks too soon to tell

....but, at the moment, Northside is on the top of all nineteen of the 4-1 teams.  After this round, there will be two 5-1's who were 5-0 before.  They may bring lots of tiebreaks with them.  And Northside needs all the boards we can get.

Other matches

Stevenson up 24-6 vs Niles North, but Rosen's game looks like 12 pts in the bag, so let's say, it's effectively 24-18.  Still rooting for Stevenson, but the momentary points advantage does not imply a greater chance for victory in the end.  It remains to be seen.
WY vs Hinsdale Central all eight boards still active.

Round 6 - Riverside-Brookfield

Liang, Edmond, Alex, Slav, and Mohammed have taken their matches.  Jayce and Aamir are both up on time, while material looks even.  Christian is up a piece and even on time.  I have been pulling for every player every game, not because I want to hurt our honorable opponents, but because I want to see every player win, without exception.  Now, another motivation for maximizing points is to gain the highest tiebreaks possible.  There will be a single team whose tiebreaks do not effect overall placing, the team that wins every match.  For the rest of us, overall placing depends on our performance, weighted by the performance of our opponents.  Due to this factor, every team winds up rooting for the teams they have played against once their match is over.  So I am rooting for Stevenson against Niles North--in fact, rooting for them to win it all.  It is possible, I believe.  Stevenson has taken the first points in their match-up.  However, Rosen is still playing, and the other boards show time advantages for Niles North.

A Step Down from Olympus

Eight tough games.
Jayce, Aamir and Slav won their games.  The other games fell in Stevenson's favor.
Stevenson appears to have been under-rated, much as I suspected.
We have two more round to win, just the same.

20 min later

Five of our players are down at least a little on time.
Slav is up on time, but still down a pawn.
Jayce is up on time.
Aamir is up on time a little, and he is playing with Queen and two extra pawns against opponent with two rooks.  According to the "points per piece" system I was taught in second grade, that's  supposed to be even.
Alex has traded two more pawns and one rook, so his board is less cluttered than the others.
Edmond has a strip of pawns in the center of the E file, black/white/black/white, which I've never seen before.
Too close to tell.

Round 5 - one hour in

Things are tight.  Slav is down a pawn.  Christian and Josh Dubin are separated by a great wall of pawns winding across the board, all pieces behind their own pawns.  Alex has traded a pair of pieces and a pair of pawns.  Some are up on time, some are down.  Things are tight.

the other contenders

Our players are fully focused on their opponents.  I get to see things from a wider perspective, to observe and ruminate on more distant parts of the universe -- which extends about 90 feet.  The hockey arena beneath our feet, the advertisements on the walls, people going about what is known as "ordinary business" are all otherworldly.  If its not chess, it's not exactly real today.  In fact, the zone behind the velvet rope demarcates the clearly observable universe from distant nebular regions such as Table 27.

Niles North is facing University Lab School of Urbana in perhaps the most interesting match beyond our own.  Since Urbana is downstate, they are the least understood of the top teams.  They look strong, but who knows how strong they are?  Niles North will test them.

Whitney Young is paired with Evanston.  Evanston has a rich crop of promising freshmen, who have strengthened the team that narrowly defeated us last year.  On the other hand, their top board from last year has not played for them this year, and who knows which factor will have the bigger effect.  Next year, they will be stronger as their young players mature.  This year?  About time to find out.

HInsdale Central plays Neuqua Valley.  Neuqua Valley finished well at Glenbard South, but the Mustangs defeated them without Liang.  This match ought to go to Hinsdale, unless they are overrated themselves.

BTW, Michael Auger is wandering about, checking in with his alma mater, Whitney Young.  Always good to see that fine young man.

Round 1 underway

The teams shook hands.
I think I finally got a photo of the handshake.  Chess photography is a minimalist craft if ever there was one.  The one visually distinctive moment involving all players together is the handshake.  Last time I tried to capture it, the camera powered down half a second before I snapped the shutter.  Eager for pictures?  Oops, I forgot my USB cable, so no live uploads.  Actually, I forgot my camera, too.  Thanks to Christian for lending me his so I can try to get a few images.

Chicagoans

Four Chicago teams are currently 3-1:
Lincoln Park is challenging IMSA on Table 7.  Good luck to their team.
St Patrick and St Ignatius are at adjacent Tables 13 and 14.  St Patrick is defending against Plainfield South, while Ignatius is challenging the creditable Riverside-Brookfield team.
Kelly is currently the top Chicago team in the standings after NCP and WY,  and they are defending Table 18 against 61 seed Elgin.

2-2
Lane Tech
De La Salle
St Rita
Brother Rice
Leo

1-3
ACE Tech
Marshall

Day Two Dawns

Now things get serious.  Eight undefeated teams.  All strong. Four will win, four will take their first loss and be out of contention for the state title.
Last year, we made it into the undefeated eight, and we proudly finished eighth.  This year, we intend to go beyond.
On paper, the number two seed would be distinctly favored against the 7 seed.  On paper, Stevenson has two boards USCF rated above 2000, likely the highest-rated board 2 in Illinois.
At Evanston in November, Liang beat Kent Cen on Board 1.
The match will be decided over the board today, in Peoria.
We shake hands in two hours -- at 9:00 AM.

It is 7:00 AM now.  Coach Caveney is knocking on doors.

Reflections on Day One

We end the day at 4-0.
Six players are 4-0 individually.  The entire team has lost one game, and drawn one.
Every game mattered.  As coach and assistant coach, Jeff and I watched the team close in on victory on every board.  And when the match was clinched, we could not exhale and feel that everything was OK, now.  We really cared about each player winning their game, and we couldn't turn that off just because the overall match was already won.  We only exhaled when all eight closed out even the toughest games, even when the match was already decided.
Last year we were 4-0 at the end of the first day, and we were exhilarated.  We are happy today, too, but it feels different.  This is what we came here to do, and, so far, we have met our expectations.  We feel right.  We feel on track.  We know that the serious challenges start tomorrow.
Coach Caveney and the team have worked steadfastly, with a solid plan, dedication, and determination.  They put in the hours, and they put in the effort.  Here is where all that shows.
What a feeling -- not to be exhilarated.  What a feeling it is.

Round 4 - Tension mounts, but in the end...

Edmond won soon.
Jayce's game got very interesting, and tension mounted.  Eventually, he pulled out a win again.
Aamir's game got crazy.  His opponent built a clever mate threat, leaving Aamir with no option but to give up his queen for a rook.  His king went itinerant, wending its way across the board to the improbable h5 before finding a safe haven.  Once his king was out of danger, Aamir took advantage of his 4 surplus pawns, strung his bishop across the board, supported by his rook.  He got a pawn to the seventh rank, and apparently checkmated with pawn and bishop.  He said his head was swimming after that one.
Finally, Christian seemed to struggle as his time dwindled to 56 seconds, while his opponent retained almost a quarter of an hour.  But Christian fought with deadly precision from then on, executing his moves within the five second delay, and spending fewer than 10 of his precious seconds as he closed the trap.  His opponent resigned with a good ten minutes left on his clock.
After a healthy dose of excitement, the Mustangs emerged with victory from each board.
68-0

Round 4 - in the thick of it

Looking good. Liang won, Alex won, Slav won and Ahmed won.
Christian is about even on time and material.
Edmond and Jayce are way ahead on time.
Aamir is down on time, but up 4 pawns!
Meanwhile, Glenbrook South and Whitney Young are in a death match - no games resolved, WY up on time in three games, GS up on time three other games.  It could really go either way.  Schmakel and Manoj are all knotted up.

By the way, Kelly's Lauro Nava pulled out the win on first board against Evanston.  I thought he could do it.

Don't forget the CPS Sports Fan's perspective

Blog that gives a CPS league-wide perspective on the tournament, covering round-by-round ---  click below:

CPS Sports Fan blog

Round 4 - Pairings and premature rankings

We face 15th seed Downer's Grove this round.  Meanwhile, Whitney Young is up against 8th seed Glenbrook South.  But it is not just Glenbrook South's seeding that makes this interesting.  Glenbrook South fought Whitney Young down to a last-second victory by Sam Schmakel over the formidable Gauri Manoj.  They gave Whitney Young trouble  in last year's State championship, as well, threatening them more than any team short of Niles North.
One might wonder why we play 15, while the top seed plays 8. The best I can figure is that IHSA has a list of the standing of every team so far in the tournament, and at the moment, the tie-breaks favor us rather than Whitney Young.  In fact, like last year, Northside is currently listed as the first school in the standings, just as we were last year after three or four rounds.  Once again, it looks like our competition has been performing better than anyone else's competition, so we get credit for dominating successful adversaries.  By the end of seven rounds, that will stand as a pretty fair  measure.  Caveat: after three rounds, that hierarchy is pretty meaningless.  Note that Eric Rosen is currently listed as number 11 among the 18 currently undefeated first boards :-)  But if you enjoy looking at Northside listed as number 1, check it out while it is fresh and have your fill.

Click to view Crosstables and "Standings"

In fact, if we and WY both prevail this round, Glenbrook South should provide them with a boost of tiebreak points.  On the other hand, if something else should result from this round's match-ups ... ~~~   ~~~~   ~~~~~   ~~~~~

Back to reality.
Rounds 4-7 will decide who is really number one this year, and the Mustangs are major players, giving it their best.

Round 3 finish

Jayce took his game, Slav finished his off.  The rook managed to outmaneuver Alex's 3 pawns for a loss, and in the last moments, Christian settled his tricky game with a victory.
Final outcome 61-7 Northside.

Round 3 - crunch time

Overall, the team is in good position, but the excitement is in the details.
Liang, Edmond, and Ahmed have won their games.
Christian is up a pawn, but his position looks a little scary to me.
Jayce is working with two rooks and a bishop against a queen.  On paper, he has a clear advantage, but the mix of pieces confuses me, and the position is not so clear that I can tell the other guy might not have something up his sleeve.  Nonetheless, my money would be on Jayce.
Alex is in a really tantalizing endgame.  He is down a rook, which sounds bad, but he is up three pawns.  If one of those queens, the game changes, so I'll have to see where his game goes.
Slav has the only queen on the board, and there are only Kings and pawns on the board besides.  His opponent has one pawn more than Slav--both on the 6th rank, accompanied by the king.  But Slav's pawn is on the 7th rank all by itself on the other side of the board.  So it looks like Slav has the game in the bag.

Round 3 - Chicago in the House!

We face Glenbard South this time--a perennially solid team seeded 21.
Chicago is well-represented behind the velvet rope this round.  While we and Whitney Young defend our tables, the challengers who have come up are St Patrick facing Niles North on Table 3, Kelly vs Evanston on Table 5 (I'll be interested to see if Kelly can take a bite out of Evanston- Kelly's first board, Lauro Nava, played strong against Sam Schmakel and other heavy hitters at the CPS Championship), and Lincoln Park playing Stevenson on Table 7.

Location, Location, Location

Two years ago, Northside was in the middle of the pack.  We were seeded 32, finished 30 - but in between we bounced around on boards all over the enormous hall.  We started at Table 2 first round, where we lost to Niles North, and got banished out to Table 40 or 60 for second round.  The we moved up to a new row of tables after winning, fought our way up  behind the velvet rope again, but again were sent wandering out into the hall.

The perspective is different as the #2 seed.  We get to sit in a stable location next to the podium at Table 2, as contenders make the trip to face us.  We don't have to crush up to the bulletin board where pairings are posted and jostle with the swarm of chess-playing humanity to find out where we go next, nor locate Table 67 or 24 among the rows and columns.  We still eagerly await the pairings, and mobilize into position as the round begins, but we know where we are headed already, and settle in to chairs that seem like ours.

Taking Care of Business - Round 2

Northside took care of our boards against Charleston, for a 68-0 sweep.  Smoother than the opposition put up by Waubonsie Valley.
Other top-seeded teams similarly breezed through this round with lower-seeded opponents.

Round 2

Our opponent is Charleston, 63 seed.  I had expected to see a 15, due to accelerated pairings, with a lower seeded opponent showing up next round.  However, in a surprise, Tournament Directors have switched off accelerated pairings in Round 2 this year.  According to sources, for the past 13 years, accelerated pairings have been used in the first two rounds, which helps zero in on two undefeated teams earlier in the tournament than un-accelerated pairings, and even leaves an opportunity for a top-seeded 5-1 to face an unexpected 6-0 for the title in the last round.  For those who may not remember, this is just what happened to 2010's top seed Whitney Young, who lost one early round, and then played undefeated Niles North in the championship match.  Niles North stayed undefeated, however, sending Young to an ill-fitting eighth-place finish.
Mathematically, though, with this year's 125 teams, 7 rounds will still result in 2 undefeated teams playing for the title in the final round, no tie-breaker required (the math should be good up to 2^7= 128 teams) (unless two or three teams tangle up with 5 wins and a draw each~~~~ ~~~~).

For Pairings, CLICK link below:

Pairings

For detailed results, CLICK link below:

2012 IHSA Chess Tournament Results

No-one expects an upset in the first round

And no-one surprised the top eight teams.  Behind the velvet rope, I saw mostly sweeps and near-sweeps, such as our stingiest-mathematically-possible-non-sweep 65.5-2.5.  Only Evanston (5 seed) was challenged on more than two boards.  Their second board narrowly escaped with a draw against University Normal - the Normal player was bitterly disappointed not to secure the win.
But then Coach Caveney bumped into Mount Prospect's coach in the hall.  They played us very strong last year, and, like all our opponents in 2011, finished strong.  This year, seeded 41, they played 13 seed Benet Academy of Lisle, who have a crop of hot-shot freshmen.  Mount Prospect came out on top, and now look like a wild card.

Round 1 concludes

Christian's opponent makes an illegal move.  Confusion.  Resolution.  Christian wins.
Liang was down on time 3 min to 7 min. But when he goes below two minutes, he is even on time.  I can feel the balance tip now--Liang is in control of the canoe-- down goes Waubonsie's board 1-- bravely, but Liang has won.
Ahmed looks like he is in trouble...
But he pulls out a draw!

Final score 65-3.

Round 1 last minutes

Aamir is joined by Alex and Slav with wins.

Jayce is up on material, but in trouble with his position.  Jayce is on the ropes.
Jayce's opponent misses a hanging rook - blunder.
Jayce capitalizes and pulls out a win from the jaws of defeat

Edmond is up two rooks to two bishops...
now two rooks to one bishop.  We can see where this is going

Close games on 1, 2 and 8  --Waubonsie Valley is really giving us a run for the money.  We will win as soon as Edmond closes out his game, but they are going down fighting.

And we are under way

It's on.
Sitting within view of three monumental trophies, the Mustangs have shaken hands and started play.
In fact, time for the first round is about half through.
Aamir is the first to finish, with a win on board 5.
Other players are in the midgame.  Jayce is up a knight, and Slav is up a pawn.  Everyone else is even on material and typically close on time.  Waubonsie Valley, seeded 30, is showing their mettle.  We knew they were strong this year, despite losing their promising freshman, Arthur Li, to 11th-seed IMSA, where he now plays 4th board.
Liang (black) had a center pawn (E5) attacked by both rook and queen, without two pieces covering it, so to my eyes (similar to a lower JV player), it looked like he was in danger of losing the center and a pawn.  But Aamir reports that Liang applied pressure elsewhere, used a pin, and succeeded in pushing the pawn, so he is now in control on board 1.
Coach Caveney noticed that when our team starts up near the podium, players from other teams scope us out, taking notes on our openings.  Coach and Aamir concur that it is depth and tactical strength that matter most.  Nonetheless, as moss grows on the north side of a tree, a team in a special position gets treated in special ways.

Auspicious numerology before the real event

Our first pairing is against Waubonsie Valley, the very same team we played in Round 1 last year.
We are seeded #2 and they are seeded #30.  Two years ago, we were seeded #31 and played the #2 seed, Niles North.  You may remember how Niles North fared in 2010. (if not, you can look it up at http://www.ihsa.org/SportsActivities/Chess/RecordsHistory.aspx?url=/data/ct/records/series-index.htm ).

The team's room numbers end in 1, 3, 6, 8 -  which will be the boards playing white in our opening round match.

If you need more detail than this blog provides, check the official IHSA site,
http://www.ihsa.org/SportsActivities/Chess/StateSeriesInformationResults.aspx

We are in Peoria

This year we traveled with teams from Lincoln Park, Lane Tech, and Marshall.
On the bus, people played cards, talked about nanotech, life in the universe, and the physics of drag racing.  Some of us caught some zzz's.
After we arrived, we played football , until we got cold, thirsty, and hungry.
The team is now snugly packed into a room at Springhill Suites. Bellies full, bughouse on every available surface.