Wrap-up

It is truly a joy to accompany these fine young women and men as they compete, and they engage with one another.  Their abilities, their intellects, their sense of humor, their pride, their spirit...  I have seen them display what they have learned to do, I have seen them test their skill in intense, focused competition, I have seen them giddy with success, and I have seen them come to tears when disappointment tore at them.

I hear them laughing next door now.

Round 7 - end

Jonathan Liu held his advantage to win his final game.  Mindren took a draw.  Otherwise, Maine South prevailed.  Isha and Jonathan took their games down to the wire...

Round 7 - in the midst of things

The best news is that Jonathan Liu, on eighth board, is up a piece in the early endgame, so that is looking good.  Going by clocks, Jonathan Lee and Mohammed are up on time, but Mohammed is done two pawns.  George looks like he is in trouble -- low on time, and under attack.  Most of the rest of the team looks to be under stress as well, mostly behind on clocks.

Looking at the evolving results page (almost live), most matches on other tables, whether above or below, have some results now.  Every one of the eight games on long Table 6 is still in contention.  Northside is fighting hard.

Round 7 - Maine South

...promises to be a tough one.  Maine South was the team that upset Whitney Young (known to be vulnerable, but still...).

Aspiring to 6-1

For most good teams, the great aspiration is to win 6 matches.  At 5-1, Northside is now one of the fourteen teams in contention for six wins.  Seven teams will get the six they yearn for.  Seven will finish 5-2, along with many teams that have so far won four, but who will climb to a fifth will n to n the final round.
Round 7 awaits.

Round 6 -- A strong match win!

George fought on in a balanced position.  He was far down on time, but managed his position well, and maneuvered to a place where the last knight and bishop would have been traded down or sacrificed, leaving pawns that neither Board One player would let pass.  Thus, he managed a draw.

Overall, the score came out 62-6 for Northside -- a strong win in the penultimate round.

Round 6 - some great stuff!

Mohammed closed out his game as it looked like he was going to.  Jonathan, who was far down on time with no material advantage and pieces all over the board, seized an opportunity and found victory on eighth board, for his second win of the tournament.  Isha went from a time advantage with equal material to complete domination, and her opponent resigned.  George plays on, down on time, but without other clear disadvantage, so let's see what he will do.

Round 6 -- a couple games fall into place

Matthew finished his game with a win.
Jonathan gave up his bishop, and was technically down a pawn, but evidently, he had the situation in hand.  With his two rooks, he pinned the king to the back row and checked the king from the opposite side of the board, forcing his opponent to interpose with one of his rooks.  But the interposing rook was undefended, so Jonathan took the last remaining impediment to checkmate off the board and claimed the win.
Isha is well ahead on time, though material is equal.  Mohammed looks to be in control in his game.  Jonathan Liu is stil in the mid-game, but down on time.  George is battling on first board.

The four finished games give Northside a score of 36, so the match is clinched for our team.  We are still rooting for George, Isha, Mohammed, and Jonathan.

Round 6 -- first wins after an hour

More than an hour into the match, Northside scores a win with Mindren on third board.
Shortly after, Richard takes board 6.
Meanwhile, Ihsa, Matthew, and Mohammed all have more than double the time on their clocks than their opponents.  Matthew, in fact, is closing out his endgame -- just choosing whether to try to mate the king with queen and bishop, or simply to move in his king for a a queen-king combo.
Jonathan used more of his time than his opponent, but he has used it well.  He is in a rooks and pawn endgame, but he is up a bishop.  His opponent is strong enough not to let him finish easily or soon, but, barring a blunder on Jonathan's part, he is certainly in the driver's seat.

Round 6 -- St Ignatius

In this round, Northside faces one of the Chicago Catholic school teams -- a powerhouse in some years -- St. Ignatius.  This year , St. Ignatius was seeded only #77.  So, again, on paper this looks like a match-up Northside should handle comfortably, but as we have seen, the unexpected often happens. Lets root for our players to show their stuff this round!

--And Jonathan Liu returns on 8th board, so best of luck to him.

Meanwhile, in other news

Big upsets happened Round 5 - Stevenson, a school loaded with top talent, suffered an upset for the third year in a row.  Northside's City rivals, Whitney Young, got upset by Maine South.  Now, they, like Northside, are shooting to be one of the few teams who win 6 out of 7 matches.  But there are 22 teams who have won four matches, all hoping to win the next two in a row, plus four 5-0 teams vying for the state championship, but not planning to lose two in a row in any scenario.  Only six or seven teams will emerge with the coveted 6 wins.

Round 5 -- phew.

Well, we survived.
Mohammed, Richard, Matthew and Mindren won on boards 7, 6, 5 and 3.  That's almost enough to draw the match.  Unfortunately, Isha suffered a tough loss, Jonathan Lee lost and Anna saw her 2-year string of State victories come to and end. It all came down to George's game, and George was running out of time.  In the end, he took a draw, and that pushed us over.  Final score 37-31.

Round 5 - too close for comfort

hoo-wee.  Games contiue to go down to the wire, and not all of them are falling for Northside.
Yikes.

Round 5 - down to the last 30 minutes

At an one and a half into the match, still no games have been decided.  Mohammed's opponent managed to leverage his attack to win back the pawn, so they are again even on material.
Everyone is working hard, thinking hard.

Round 5 - one hour in

After one hour of play, we have no decisions yet.  Most NCP players are up on time.  Jonathan Lee started down on time, but has since caught up.  His position looks sound.  Mohammed, on 7th, has mounted a strong attack on the center, which wins him a pawn, but his opponent has managed to get attacking pieces in place to make the position double-edged.

Time to show resilience -- Day Two, Round 5 - Mt Prospect

After yesterday evening's shock, the team is rested and ready to return to play.  Facing 40-seed Mt Prospect, Northside is strongly favored.  The team is now heading up the six flights of stairs from the skittles area to the competition ballroom.
Go Mustangs!

Round 4 -- Oof.

Well, that turned out to be a setback.  I saw that nearly all our board were behind on time early on, which is not a good sign.  The team has lost this round.

Reflections

As I walked up the rather long aisle of 13 tables from Table 4 to Table 16, I noticed two teams with girl players on first board, at the head of the team.  I saw several other girls and began to form the hopeful impression that there may be more girls playing these days than a few years ago.  I hope there are. Chess is obviously unbalanced, with far more boys than girls.  I decided to count, to check my impression with data.  I walked the length of the aisle.  I counted 16 girls among the 13 tables, each of which seats two teams of eight. So, in this sample, where I was hoping to be impressed that there are more girls than a few years ago, the proportion was about 1 in 16.  Mmm...  I couldn't argue if anyone said they were unimpressed.

I have never heard anyone say that they like it this way.  All three teams who traveled on our bus have at least one or two girls on the team.  That is a little better than past years.  There are quite a few women coaches, although nowhere near gender parity there, either.  I would say that the atmosphere, while filled with nerdy boys (as well as plenty who aren't  nerdy - that's just a stereotype), is basically welcoming and supporting.  

Round 4 -- in action

This is certainly where the going gets challenging for Northside.  Can Northside upset the 6th seed and finish the day 4-0?  Only eight teams will emerge undefeated today, out of the field of 149 who began this morning, nine and a half hours ago.  Every game will be tight; every game will be tense; every game will be contested, and, most likely, every game will go down to the wire, lasting for the full two hours allotted. 

So far, seven Northsiders have won every game they have played - Jonathan Liu one game, Anna, also on 8th board, two games, and Mohammed, Richard, Isha, Mindren, and Jonathan Lee, three games each.  George and Matthew each have won two games and lost one in different matches.

Against New Trier, every game will be fought hard.  Not all will go our way.  But we have our chances.  Northside is the underdog, looking for the upset.

Round 4 upcoming - New Trier

Indeed.  Northside now climbs up to Table 6 to take on New Trier.  Until now, teams have come up
To challenge Northside; now, Northside is the challenger.  Jonathan delivers his pep talk, team member by team member-- issuing decrees for our players to prevail.

Round 3 - wrap-up

Richard ends his game with a win.  The only risk would have been a stalemate, with all the power Richard had on the board.  But he would not make that mistake.
Final score; 60-8

Northside has won all 3 of the first three matches in dominating fashion.



Competition can be expected to stiffen up in Round 4 and beyond.

Round 3 - George found the edge

From a balanced position with no obvious advantage, George found a way to get his pawn past the line and earn a queen.  Soon after, he cornered the king for a win.
Current score 53-8
Only Richard remains on the board now, but all the pieces on the board are his white ones, except the lone black king.  It appears Richard is playing cat-and-mouse.  It is all but over.

Round 3 - first decisions

As usual, the first decisions are on the lower boards.
For starters, congratulations to Jonathan -- in his first State game he earns a win!

Further up the boards, Mohammed wins on seven, but Matthew lost on board five, and Isha wins on four.
Richard is still playing, in a position that he dominates.
Mindren plays, and Jonathan Lee... wins -- his opponent tipped over his king just now.
George has lots of time on his clock, but with pawns and a knight, his position looks susceptible to a draw.

Round 3 - Jonathan Liu comes in

Jonathan Liu is making his State Championship debut on Board 8.  Go, Jonathan!

Round 3 - Schaumburg

On paper, this ought to be the easiest round.  Northside faces the #121 seed, Schuamburg.  But you have to play the games, and when a player says, "we have nothing to worry about", I have to reply, "except over-confidence".

Round 2 - Benet - final

George was not able to work out of time pressure, but both Jonathan and Mindren pulled out wins on their boards.  Almost everyone came away with a victory -- seven wins and one loss.  Board 1 is worth 12 points, so the score is 56-12.

Great start for Northside 2017!

Round 2 - Benet -- decisive

Well, Anna won, Mohammed won, Richard won, Matthew won, and Isha won.  Five wins takes the match.  But we still want to score extra points, which go into the final rating, known as "tiebreak points".  George is up on time.  Jonathan is far down on his clock.  Mindren is crowded into a corner, though he is even on material.

Round 2 -- Benet

Benet was very strong a couple of years ago, but all their best players graduated at once.  Seeded 30 this year.

Then I turned around, and…

Boom.
When I walked back into the competition area, I was greeted by Mindren carrying the results sheet up to the records table.
Not only did Jonathan, Isha, and Mohammed wrap up their winning games, but everyone without exception won their board.
Northside sweep 68-0
Beautiful start.

Round 1 - after 1 hour, everyone is still playing

Jonathan Lee is in command on second board - up two pawns and about 20 minutes time.  Isha on fourth has been taking her time, and it is clearly paying off -- she is up a piece and two pawns, so that looks.  Mohammed, on seven, is also up a piece and two pawns.
And, this round, Anna is playing eighth board.

Round 1 - Bartlett

Opening of the tournament -- handshake.  

Warming up before competition begins Day One

The team is installed in the skittles room prior to start of competition.  Everyone was up early today, well-rested from a good night's sleep.  That will be important twelve hours from now, as the final round winds up, and the team is likely to be facing its strongest competitor of the day.  Four rounds of play are coming today -- up to two hours over the board each round.

Here is the team, first in a portrait, when coach asked them to look up and smile; second, when they have returned to their natural state of intense concentration on tactical practice.

Pep Talk

I wish you could be here to get the feel of the team's preparation.  While we sit at Steak and Shake waiting for seven different flavors of milkshakes, Jonathan Lee is sizing up the competition from around the state in an authoritative survey.  He knows the competition out there, and he is assessing their strengths and vulnerabilities -- making the case that Northside has a good shot this year.  He is looking at match-ups for each of our players, and, largely, the match-ups look promising. Our players are strong, and the team has good chances.
That's what the players are up to on their own.

As soon as we return to the hotel, Florin is here.

First, it is time to hand out new uniforms (a.k.a. team T-shirts) to the squad.

OK, everyone is clad in maroon and silver.  Now, back to chess.

As I said, Florin is here.  That means it is time to get to work.  Knights and bishops begin to fly as pawns march and then get eaten up or make a stand.  New lines and old lines thread through the flitting pieces.  Preparing for competition, eagerly, avidly, hungrily.

The night before

The players are prepared and enthusiastic.  Over the next two days, they will be in competition for about 21 hours.  In their spare time, they will go over their games with coach Florin Felecan, spar with one another, play bughouse among themselves and other teams.  They will also joke around, socialize with players from Lincoln Park, Lane Tech, Whitney Young, Payton, Lakeview, and elsewhere.  They will undoubtedly find time to eat, play cards, solve rubik's cubes and play video games.  And, still, they will sleep at night.

2017 IHSA Chess Championship Tournament Weekend

Greetings, parents, siblings, Northside community and chess fans!
The team is cruising into Peoria soon, aboard a bus filled with most of Chicago's top high school chess players-- Northside, Lane Tech, and Lincoln Park all travel together.
Northside's squad this year is:
1st Board   George McCoy
2nd Board  Jonathan Lee
3rd Board  Mindren Lu
4th Board  Isha Gani
5th Board  Matthew Kosova
6th Board  Richard Lam
7th Board  Mohammed Lotfi
8th Board  Jonathan Liu
Alternate   Anna Alvarez