On Feb. 13, the OH chess team made its way down to Peoria to compete at the IHSA Chess State Finals. The tournament hosted over 120 schools with around 10 students in a team.
OH collectively scored 27.5, which placed them 102nd overall in the tournament. Across 11 members representing OH, there were 22 wins and five draws.
“Personally I think I could’ve done better as a teammate, and gotten a few more wins for us,” said OH junior Jackson Felker. “But overall as a team I think we did really well.”
Felker played a total of six rounds, winning two against Batavia and Oak Lawn.
“It’s more fun to just hang out with people you know that also play chess, and it’s a good opportunity to try out in a tournament,” said OH senior Ian Hootkouper.
Houtkooper competed in all seven rounds of the tournament winning four and a draw in one. Those four wins came against Batavia, West Chicago, De La Salle, and Oak Lawn.
Three OH students also received a medal for their performance which was a great achievement for not only the individuals but also OH as a whole.
“Its really important to be together as a team because if one person loses, then the whole team could lose,” said Hootkouper.
Plenty of practice, teamwork, and hours spent studying moves went into the results that the chess team had.
“We always talk before we go play and just remind each other of the fundamentals of the game, stuff like that,” said Felker. “I played like 5 games a day and reviewed them… just like any other sport chess is really just fundamentals.”
Chess is a game all about focus and strategy, something that OH team members did their best to dial in.
“I too would play around five games a day, I just review all of them, make sure I don’t make any stupid mistakes, make sure I’m paying more attention,” said Hootkouper
Teammates would spend practices facing off against each other in preparation for state, playing round after round of chess until they felt confident in their abilities.
“We play each other a lot, Tuesdays and Thursdays we meet and just spend about an hour playing each other,” said Hootkouper.
As the season comes to a close, many players are looking back on the moves they made and the season as a whole.
“It didn’t matter to me where we ended up, even though we were happy where we did,” said Felker. “Our guys did really well, and I’m happy about that.”
I am a Senior at OHS and in my second year as a journalist. I am a podcast co-editor and a co-editor in chief and I am excited for my second year being a journalist for the school. You can contact me by emailing 42Fifty@sd308.org and putting my name in the subject line. We welcome comments on our articles and feedback on our publication!
