Extra Congratulations to several players

Slav Djukic finished 11th among 2nd boards with  5  1/2  wins

Ryan was undefeated on 3rd board!  He won all 7 games he played.  Wow!

Max placed 7th among 4th boards, with  5  1/2  wins.

Ronald was 9th among 5th boards, at 6-1.

Richard placed 7th among 7th boards, also 6-1.

Extra special congratulations to these players!

Trophy award

5th in State!

All the results are in, and the Northside team has tied the school record.
Fifth place, scoring the coveted six wins in the seven-round State tournament.
Way to go, Mustangs!

It wasn't easy -- but could it be?

We are on the edge of our seats.
It wasn't perfect. But no other team was perfect, either. It wasn't easy, but there is a real chance NCPchess could make school history.
The highest finish to date (2012) was fifth in state.

Round 7 conclusion

Win!
Score 53.5-14.5
Christian was first to win after Matthew.
Max and James drew.
Ryan, amazingly, win on time.
Slav won.  Ronald won.

Round 7 final minutes

No new decisions yet.
Christian is up a rook to a knight.
James has a rook, but opponent has knight plus two pawns.
Ryan dropped his queen
BUT, it is not clear that he is losing.  He took pieces in compensation, and Florin says opponent may not know how to close it out.
Lots of games short on time, even on material, hard for me to tell.

Round 7 first decision

Matthew has won his game. For the first points of the match.  Other games I can't call.

In other matches, it would be nice for our standing if Hinsdale Central would take the trophy from WY, and they have scores the first points in their match.  But WY has a time advantage on most clocks, and I don't truly see them surrendering enough points to lose.
We're also rooting for Waubonsie Valley to limit Evanston's points and
 Glenbrook South to take a bite out of University of Illinois Lab school.
But  Naperville North, Benet Academy,  and  Stevenson could well move up, too.
Like I said, what we need is to score heavily against our own opponent. Hang in there, Mustangs!

Round 7 still on all eight boards

Matthew is now up by two pawns and a knight.  He offered to trade rooks and opponent accepted.  It looks like it is in the bag for Matthew, though everyone is taking time to think and play deliberately.
Other players are up on time except Max and Christian.

Round 7

We are playing Wheaton-Warrenville South in the final round.  A perennial top-20 team, they were 11th seed.  Matthew has returned on eighth board. In the early going, he is up a knight and a pawn.  This pleases me for two reasons. He is winning, and he is winning for such clear reasons that I can actually tell that he is winning and let you know.  Yay!

Root for the team to  do very well this round.  It is hard to tell how tiebreaks will fall, but it is a live possibility that Northside could finish higher than ever before.  It depends on how well we do this round.  It also depends on how other teams fare, but mainly, it is up to the Northside players right now.

This is it.

Go mustangs!

Round 6 -- clear win over Lane Tech

Well, Northside beat Lane decisively.  Slav, Ryan, Max, James, Ronald, and Richard all won and won early -- not at the last, agonizing moment this time.  Christian drew.  Isha played against her roommate, but unfortunately lost.
Score 57-11

Round 6 proceeding

Max and James have won.  Ronald's game has not finished, somewhat to my surprise, but he has rook and three pawns to rook and one pawn.  He should be able to queen and win.
Everyone else is up on time -- from well up to way up.
But I won't breathe easy unless every player has won.

Round 6

Looking pretty good so far vs. Lane.
I watched Ronald's opponent use several minutes off his clock before making the only move he could make. That is a giveaway that he knows he is losing -- but just looking desperately for a miracle that isn't there.
Other games are complex enough that I can't tell who has the stronger position -- but that's not saying much. Florin says we look like we are in good shape.

Round 6

Look at that-- now we play Lane Tech.  The rest of the year, I root for Lane Tech to grow stronger, and re-establish a traditionally strong chess team.  (Trivia: about 60 years ago or so, Lane Tech won the first ever *National* high school chess championship)
But not today.
Right now, I want our players to win on every single board.  Lane took second in the Prep Bowl back in December, due to tiebreaks that were outside our control (depended on number of wins by our opponents).  It is time to set the record straight on that score.  Nothing personal.

Round five post mortem

Northside had several games that looked to be winning, then one after another fell apart.  Wound up losing 21.5 - 46.5

Round five final

That hurt.  That hurt really, really bad.

Ryan won.
Christian and Ronald on a tightrope.
Slav, Richard , and Phil look strong, but their games are not over yet.
Root for us now.

Rd five tense

Four games look good for us; two look even.   Any five wins the match, most four and draw combos clinch, too.   Very very tense.

Round 5 in danger

Max just lost. Hinsdale has scored the only points so far.
We need four and a half of five of the remaining six games.
Christian looks like he is in a tight spot.
Slav, Ryan, Ronald, Richard, and Phil look better.

Round 5 deepens

Vishal Meduri is making Christian think on 1st board, giving up his time advantage.
Ronald has given his opponent something to think a it, too, and has gained the advantage in think time in his game.  Slav is still looking strong, but opponent is strong enough not to crumble in any hurry.
Phil is playing black, but his opponent, playing white, is sitting in a very defensive position with nearly all his pieces behind pawns that haven't been moved.  Seems strange, and I hope a good sign for Phil, though it makes it hard for him to attack.  Presumably his goal is to pick the position apart without overextending and committing a blunder.

Close to a decision

Slav is mounting a strong attack.
James is nursing just a few seconds on his clock-- things don't look good for his game.
Christin, Ryan, Richard, Phil are maintaining their time advantages.  Max and Ronald still behind.

In other news, Benet leads Evanston by a sliver, and New Trier has taken a lead against Whitney Young.

The rest of the hall is beginning to empty out as the teams who are not at the upper levels finish their games much earlier.

early Round 5

Early on, Christian, Slav, and Ryan are up on time, while Max, James, and Ronald are down on time, and Richard and Phil are up.  No telling what that really means -- I won't be surprised if this goes down to less than five minutes on nearly every board.  Max's board is filled with pieces, Christian has traded and cleared out a lot more space.

Evanston is playing Benet Academy, who played WY tough.  Evanston coach Ken Lewandowski talked to me about how they won't get a lot of tiebreaks for beating Benet, since Benet already lost one.  Remember I was noting yesterday how tough our opponents were, while Evanston got some lighter opposition?  At the time it seemed like Evanston was getting a break, which came from their 3rd seeding as opposed to our 2nd.  Now we have higher tiebreaks because we faced, and triumphed over, the tougher competition.

By the way, I think Evanston should worry about winning against Benet, not how many tie-breaks they are going to get before their eggs are hatched.  I think Benet could well upset Evanston.

As Slav adroitly pointed out last night, however -- if we win seven games, tiebreaks don't matter.
!

Images of Round 5 start

Handshake to start Round 5 with Hinsdale Central.  And, now-- joining us on 8th board - Phil Abraham.  Look close and you can see the Mardi Gras beads accenting his NCPchess attire.  Go, Phil!

Video snippet of team warm-up

This is what our players do.  Five seconds of Flying Hands

A good nights' rest

In what I consider another victory for the coachaperones, players were intent last night on getting to bed early and getting a good nights' sleep. Well-rested, well-fed.  Most of my job is done.  Now it is up to the players to play their best.

4-0 after first, tough day

Northside never got an easy match-up.  Never got a sweep.  But we made it.  4-0 on Day One.

Tomorrow we shoot for 5-0, a score we have never attained before.  Wish the team luck!

pre- Round 5

Northside is one of just 7 teams who are undefeated after the 4 rounds today.
We had several tough opponents already.  If you look at the Standings, http://www.ihsa.org/data/ct/mstandings.htm , you'll see the pay-off -- our tough opponents have afforded us high tiebreak points, resulting in a temporary standing of second place.

In fact, we and Whitney Young have faced the toughest competition of any teams -- of the eight opponents the two top CPS teams have faced, only one has lost a match to any other team besides us.  And that team, Kaneland, who we defeated in Round 1, only lost in a squeaker, 31-36.

Tomorrow we face Hinsdale Central.  Northside has never met Hinsdale Central, a perennial powerhouse, in eight-board team competition.

End Round Four

Whew.
Breathe.
Whew.
Christian lost before anything else happened.   We were behind.  Five more games.  Two minutes left in the round.  They offered a draw to Slav. Good sign. Slav declined. Very good sign.  Slav won.  33 points.  One draw will clinch.
More seconds gone by.
Ryan has a good position but only 51 seconds on his clock.  51 seconds.  For Ryan, that's an eternity.  Light at end of tunnel.  We're going to get this one.
Ryan wins.
James draws
Final score 47-21.
Makes it look a lot easier than it was.

Whew!!

Nine minutes.  Locked up.  Omg.  Not another one like Evanston 6th round last year.  It's only 4th round now!

Round four - tenser

Down to fifteen minutes remaining.  No more results.  

It is not consoling, but Whitney Young is just as tight in their contest with Benet Academy.  

Nerve-wracking

Round 4 - tough

Yeah, things are really kicking in now.  The match has been on for an hour and a half now. The only decisions are seventh and eighth boards.  Richard won, scoring 6 points on board seven.  Isha lost on board eight, so IMSA has 5.  So, technically we're ahead, but really, nothing at all is decided with just twenty-five minutes left in the round.

Accelerated Pairings

I promised to describe accelerated pairings.  This is not like March Madness, which is a single-elimination tournament featuring -only- 64 teams.  Every one of the 138 teams here will play every one of the seven rounds.  That's because chess doesn't take up much space, and you can have 69 simultaneous matches featuring over 1,000 contestants in one big room.  (Also, chess is not much of a spectator sport, though I personally love it, so you don't need any bleachers at all).
But that is not the only difference.  Chess is not much fun when a lot of matches are shut-outs, and chess teams span a great range of strengths, so organizers have come up with a way to get teams to play other teams close to their own strength.
Accelerated pairings match top-seeded teams against one another and lower-seeded teams against one another at first.  And, in fact, they don't match the highest vs. lowest - the top 32 teams play the second 32 teams this way:  1-33, 2-34, 3-35, 4-36...  But later on, teams play other teams that have the same number of wins and losses.  At some point, they have to stop the accelerated parings, so that strong teams from the bottom 64 seeds get a chance to play up.  If there were 128 teams (2x2x2x2x2x2x2), this plan to split them in halves would work the same for everyone.  But there are 138 teams, so it doesn't always split evenly.

So -- top seeds like Whitney Young and Northside sometimes get stuck playing really high-seeded teams (14 and 27 last round), while 3rd seed (Evanston) gets to play a 70th seed that beat a couple of really low-seeded teams in the first two rounds.

Round 4

We play IMSA, number 9 seed.  This is a strong opponent.
Isha is returning on 8th board.  It is great to have both Isha and Matthew on our team-- few teams have such depth.

Round 3 outcome

58-10  Six victories, including Matthew.  Two draws: Christian and James.

It ain't easy being top seed.  Evanston, #3, played 70th seed in Rd 3 and swept 68-0.  So did several other top ten teams.  (I will explain the accelerated pairings that lead to this in another post)
But 1 seed Whitney Young played 14 seed Glenbrook South, and NCP played Highland Park, 27 seed who just got done upsetting 12th-seeded Waubonsie Valley.  HP wrestled us to a couple of draws.
Why do I bring up Whitney Young, too?
You know them, the ones with the highest-rated Illinois high school player in memory (higher than Eric Rosen - perhaps the highest since Florin in the late nineties?)
Well, Glenbrook South is a perennial nemesis for Whitney Young.  They took WY to the wire, and scored 27.5 points against them.  I believe this is the best any team has done against WY since last year's City Championship, when Northside narrowly lost 32-36.  And how did they do it?  Ever heard of Gavin McClanahan?  You have now -- he beat Sam Schmakel!

Round 3

Isha has gone 2-0 on 8th board.  Now, Matthew is stepping in for Round 3.
Isha is taking on scouting duties.  We have noticed Evanston players hanging about, looking over our shoulders and taking notes on our openings.  Well, then-- time to reconnoiter for NCP.
I have to admit, I don't think of Evanston as archrivals the way I think of Whitney Young or Niles North.  I get the impression that they think of us as archrivals, though. That probably has a lot to do with us coming out on top in our meetings with Evanston recently.  One year ago, an insane, down-to-the-wire, on-the-wire, in-the-wire 6th round match (see below for a reminder).  Back in January, at Glenbard South, we and Evanston not only had matching 4-0 records after a full day of matches, but each of four different tie-break measures was dead even.  So we had to play a blitz play-off, and Northside won by a slim margin of 36-32. Prior to the playoff,  In December, at the Frosh/Soph tournament, our young players encountered, and defeated, both Evanston's A team and B team of young players.  Our Junior/Senior squad played them in the final round, forged a 25-25 tie, and then brought home the 1st place trophy on tiebreaks.
I suppose we have made an impression on them.

Our opponent for the 3rd round is Highland Park.  They are coming off two close matches-- including an upset of Waubonsie Valley.

inter - round

You want to know something that is awesome to see?  Not just one, but two superstar chess coaches working in top gear with our players, who are some of the strongest, most highly motivated players you can find.  In between rounds, Florin and Jeff are analyzing and coaching in tandem.  The players eat it up, testing moves, navigating opening lines, replaying critical passages from the games they just played, or preparing opening lines for their next games.  Aristotle called this type of exercise of ones' powers "energeia", the activity in which one is most fully oneself.  Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi called it "flow".  When you are in it, or even, as I am now, in the presence of it, nothing more needs to be said, because it is the real thing.  Even from a distance, it is beautiful.

Round 2 reflections

Nobody is looking invulnerable.
Only top 10 sweep was Benet Academy.
Waubonsie Valley is one of the first upsets.
all results: http://goo.gl/kN2eXE

Round 2 concluded

Score 56-12.  James won his nth straight to finish the match.

Round 2 continued

Ronald won, but Christian lost.  James is still playing.  James has won a lot of games this year.  To be more precise, he has not lost a game all year long.

Round 2 clinched

Slav wins -- clinches the match.

Round 2

Ryan, Max, Richard and Isha win.  One more to clinch.

Round 2 preflections

We're facing Normal Community HS.

I walked down between the tables where other teams were playing.  I saw team after team that I recognize as strong teams that just a handful of years ago were on tables above Northside, and who stood imposingly between us and higher aspirations.  Today, Northside defends Table 2, a place we have now held at the start of the tournament for three years in a row.  All these other teams deserve respect, and Northside will have to play strong if we are to prevail.  They will be gunning for us.

On Table 1, Whitney Young is playing Niles North.  More than once in the past 7 years, that was the title matchup.  Bizarre to see them paired in round 2.  If Niles North's 16 seed was somewhat too low, they'll have to claw their way back to the upper tables after losing to Whitney Young.  On the other hand, if their 16 seed was freakishly low, maybe they'll upset WY in the second round!

Round 1 reflections

OK, 57-11 win to start off.  Granted, I like to see 68-0 in the first round, because I am rooting for each one of our players, but seven out of eight is a lot to be happy about.
Let me take a look at the other early results:  Most notable would be losses on two boards by Whitney Young.  So they allowed more points scored against them than we did.  Evanston swept Lemont, but Urbana (University) [which I call the U of I Lab School] surrendered 10 points to Payton, a team that we swept at the CPS City championship.  Hinsdale Central is the only other top 10 team that swept, and Waubonsie Valley the only other from the top 20.

Round One Won

57-11
Max was down to a minute fifty seconds, same as opponent, and pieces were allover the board. Suddenly pieces started falling and everything lined up like Max had planned it all this way.  Two minutes later, max had used ten seconds and his opponent's flag fell. Given more time, Max would have had mate.  It was in the bag.

Surprise and a half

I thought Slav might have something up his sleeve, but he ran out of time and lost.  Ryan needed a miracle, I thought, and it appears that he manufactured one.  Ryan won!
Max meanwhile still looks like he's in the middle game with seconds left on the clock.  Can't tell where this one's headings, but I'll find out soon.

worries

Slav down to 1 minute, opponent still has 20.

Ryan got a pawn back, but still his bishop vs rook, and opponent has passed pawn.  Not looking good.

Meanwhile, Max looks like he's still in the middle game, pieces crowding the board, while he has just 6 minutes and opponent only 10.

First round is won, but a couple of worries

Christian, James, and Ronald joined Isha and Richard in the win column, and the match is clinched.

But Ryan and Slav could each be in trouble.  Slav is down to 6 minutes, while his opponent still has 23 on his clock.  But Slav is making him think, so we will see where this goes.  Ryan looks like he is in serious trouble, however.  Down by a rook to his bishop, and missing two pawns, he will probably need a severe blunder from his opponent to come out on top.

Posing and in place

pawn sacrifice

I saw that Richard was even on material in a late game position, when every piece counts.  Then he checked his opponent with a pawn.  But the pawn wasn't covered, so his opponent simply captured with his king and apparently went up a pawn for free.  (?)  Why did Richard sacrifice his pawn?  I didn't see it, and his opponent didn't either, but I knew this opponent was about to suffer the consequence.  Richard moved his knight, forking king and rook.  In the time it has taken me to write this post, the game will be over.  Two games won, six to go.

First blood

Isha Gani is the first on the team to score a victory.

Thanks for starting things off right, Isha!

Team line-up

The team line-up for round one is

1) Christian Kavouras
2) Slav Djukic
3) Ryan Toepfer
4) Max Haugh-Ewald
5) James Fan
6) Ronald Rodriguez
7) Richard Kim
8) Isha Gani

Hit the ground running

	Dan Caldwell (@dc1729)
9:07 AM, woke at 7:00. 12 minutes for breakfast, hour 55 for chess. Team finished at least 17 blitz practice gamespic.twitter.com/oPnorudYFk

Download the official Twitter app here

Years of hard work got us to the starting line.

It is nothing short of astounding that this team comes into the tournament as second seed -- again!
See all those names of powerful players in the post below?  Six of them were on the team last year, and this year's team is doing this without them!  Northside lost more talent than most Illinois high school teams ever get on one squad.  But, as I said, NCP JV is possibly the best in the country -- last years' JV is largely this year's varsity -- some of them (James, Richard) have been waiting three years for their shot on varsity, and they are hungry!

So, prefatory congratulations on getting to this point.  A lot of hard work from players and masterful guidance from coach Florin have been paying off.

Soon we begin.

Shout outs to chess alums and our fantastic JV

You may not be here with us in person, but we know that you're behind us.
Teammates from past years:
Jayce, Sam, Liang, Aamir, Edmond, Alex, Ahmed, Harris, Hikari, David, Abdul.

Junior Varsity - the best JV chess squad in Illinois, probably the country -- critical to our success as a team:
Jacob Diaz, Charlie Sell, Alejandro Linan, Kevin Flores, and Anna Alvarez!
Brian Lehman is in Peoria as an alternate.

Sources of Information

1) The official IHSA Chess site - main page  Links to pairings for each round and detailed results.
2) If you use twitter, you may find me tweeting.  My handle is @dc1729 if you want to follow me.  You can post your own tweets, and use hashtag #ncpchess so anyone else can find your tweets, too.
3) Finally, if you have a gmail account, you can sign up to follow this blog and post comments.  I would love to hear your thoughts and feelings.

Bellies Full

Once we finally lit from the bus at our hotel, the next order of business was to get food in everyone's stomachs.  In past years, we have nearly starved ourselves while changing our minds about where to eat.  This year -- Five Guys.  Done.
Whew.

Next order of business...  Well, there is no business.  Blitz, bughouse and camaraderie take care of themselves until lights out at 10:00.

Thumbs Up

Me, Kai, Jeff
This morning before take-off.
Kai is wearing his summer Mustang Chess Camp shirt today in support of the team.

IHSA State Tournament 2014 begins Friday morning

The team boards the bus at 11:00 AM Thursday.  Travel, eat, sleep, wake up and play chess!  (Jeff and Florin and I also make them eat breakfast)

I just looked at First Round Pairings.(click to have a look yourself)
We start against Kaneland HS of Maple Park.
Q: Guess who we played first round last year?  A: Kaneland HS of Maple Park