Central’s Chess team took sixth place at the IHSA Chess State Finals on Feb. 10 in Peoria.
Central advanced to state after winning their sectional, despite losing a large number of seniors from the previous year.
“It went much better than expected,” said junior Arthur Xu, who plays on board one for the team.“ We placed 6, which is two [places higher] than last year. I’m very happy with how much our team practiced and came out.”
In the seven rounds they played, the Redhawks only suffered one loss. They fought hard but lost against Fremd during round 5, who would eventually go on to finish in fourth place.
“We were four-for-four and going to the fifth round, we knew that was gonna be a tough match,” Xu said. “We had some team prep, everyone was analyzing their opponents’ games, and we were all trying to see how it could be done. We came really close, it was obviously an unlucky ending there, but we bounced back after that as well.”
The team was led by Xu, who won all seven of his games, followed by senior Jacob Ang who won 6 of his.
“Our board four was Jacob,” Xu said. “He was really popping off. He went out six out of seven and as a board four, considering he wasn’t even on the team last year, there was huge improvement there.”
