The End Of Months Of Work: 2023 IHSA State Chess
Prologue
Hello chess people! Hi, welcome to my State Blog. Here I recap all the games, funny anecdotes, and stories in the IHSA State Chess Tournament.
Here I split the blog into multiple sections:
Information About State
Before State
Day 1
Day 2
Traveling Back
Results For The Team
The Future
Conclusions
Information About IHSA Chess Tournament
The IHSA chess state tournament is one of the largest team chess casual tournaments in the world/state. It is exactly like DVC format, where the top board gets 12 points, the second board gets 11 points, and so on, until at the end, the school with the highest amount of points wins (if it’s a tie, then usually there is a blitz playoff of some sort). IHSA State is a beautiful, grand tournament. It is a combination of multiple schools, the results of a single tournament (sectionals). Schools qualify for State only if they achieve a 2/4. This is easily achievable. All the schools below the 20th seed are horrible. This year, 129 teams qualified for State (Originally 128).
Before State
The day before State, I packed what I needed. A microphone, a phone, my two laptops, my DGT board, some clothes, some water, headphones, my gaming mouse, my gaming keyboard, toiletries, and boxing gloves. Obviously, I didn’t bring boxing gloves. However, somebody did last year, and they hosted a “casual boxing fight” between one on one.
School Day
The school day began like any other day in Naperville North. I did basic average things. I took a test, but in the middle of the day. We had a schoolwide parade, which was pretty fun, although awkward.
State Parade for Chess, Science Bowl, and Table Tennis! Congrats and Good Luck Huskies! #DrivenToWin pic.twitter.com/nUBdqTrPYJ
— Activities (@NNactivities) February 9, 2023
At about 2:15, we walked to the bus, packed up all the suits, materials, boards, etc onto the bus, and drove to State. I took a variety of pictures of us on the bus and organized them into a collage. It was a fun trip, albeit a 2-hour drive, but it was rather memorable. I mostly played video games on my phone, did chess puzzles, and played one game of blitz against @bigstinkymonkey.
I took a lot of photos of the team. Especially of @bigstinkymonkey, probably because he was sitting next to me. He has denied consent to letting me show photos of him online(as of writing a week ago, but now suddenly he has 
). However, here are some random photos of @road2nationalmaster, who is completely fine with me posting photos of him online. @fatchicken2006 is also fine with me using his face.)
Confirmation Photos
These first few photos were midway through the trip. Everybody was exhausted.
Hotel Experience
The hotel was splendorous. It was a good hotel. The team had been there before last year (as well as I, so it was a familiar sight to behold). During the drive, I got a headache, and for the rest of the night, I didn't feel so well. But, we had a lot of fun. I and the team went to Chick-fil-A and Taco Bell. I and @road2nationalmaster got some nice food, chicken burgers, fries, and galore.
At about 8:30, we got back to the hotels to rest and do whatever we wanted. I was rooming with @tylerduewel and @JSWoods5. We were immediate neighbors to @fatchicken2006 and @PaschalStorm588. Quite a fun experience, I actually streamed on https://www.twitch.tv/knowndisc. And I forgot to share my screen for about 30 minutes. Thankfully, my microphone was off, because everybody began making weird noises toward my Blue Yeti, @bigstinkymonkey tried eating the microphone, and @PaschalStorm588 made some "sus" noises(
). While streaming, I managed to beat an International Master. What luck! And in bullet too!
Luckily, the international master made a mouse slip, otherwise, I wouldn't be talking about this game. Afterward, I stopped streaming at around 10:00. I and @bigstinkymonkey played a game on the DGT board I brought, and then we went to bed after some showers.
First Day Of State
Bright and early morning, waking up to this.
Just like last year (unfortunately, I didn't blog about State last year, which is very unfortunate), we woke up and worked out in the underground gym that they have, which is essentially four treadmills, some weights in a rack, a pulling machine of some sort, and a pool that is adjacent to us. After working out, we had some breakfast, and then immediately drove to the Peoria Civic Center, where IHSA Chess State is held.
Before the round, I got a bit scared, but after about 3 hours of just playing chess and blitz, etc. I just got tired, and said to myself, "They'll have to be a pretty bad team right?". Well, I was right. We headed up the escalators and played chess against Brooks (91st or something similar in the seedings).
Game 1: "I feel sorry for my opponent 
"
.
We got back sort of early, at a certain strange time. Mr. Rowzee was talking to the other coaches, we were all having fun. Second Round started and I was playing White again! How fun! We were going against a horrible school.
Game 2: "She Missed Mate In One"
My opponent was a he, but this is what @PaschalStorm588 told me after his game (which was sort of ridiculous, because his opponent, literally missed a mate in one). In fact, it felt like my opponent had as well, with the ridiculousness that I pulled out of my pocket, he couldn't really develop against the onslaught of my pieces attacking his king. It was a relatively fast, ferocious game, with no blunders, and not many inaccuracies. My opponent was just, bad. Extremely, ridiculously bad.
After the game, I returned back to the table. I didn't prepare much for the third round, but I definitely knew that we were going against some good players. During this time, I got a cool-looking Magnetic Chessboard. This is it in action:
In the background, you can hear somebody talking about @vsiv56. I will talk about this later, as this is about the 5th round. @road2nationalmaster was playing against @JSWoods5, unfortunately, it looks like @JSWoods5 teleported his queen twice forcing @road2nationalmaster to resign.
I managed to take a while to rest, ready for the next round. I asked @fatchicken2006 what the pairings were. He said that we were going against Evanston.
Evanston consists of these people:
My opponent was Christopher von Hoff, 1805 USCF, and 1563 FIDE.
The problem with my opponent was that I disliked him extremely. I walked into the playing hall, set up the board, and my opponent was doing the griddy near us(He also did it when Evanston got second place). I am sure attitudes change when going to State, people said that he was definitely different outside of State, and in USCF matches. But his behavior toward me was really apparent in my game against him. He was wearing a wicked pair of shades, let his legs rest in my space, and would sometimes stare at me, lift down his shades, and shake his head at nearly every move I played. When I got a winning position, against him. He began sweating uncontrollably, shaking his head, slamming the clock, and being as loud as possible to distract me(which worked).
Every experience afterward was positive, and I would not stop thinking about how positive other teams were, but also how brutally Evanston defeated us.
After the pairings were announced, I walked upstairs with a board, no alternates, this was our full team playing. Last time, it was Tyler and Aayush in place of @road2nationalmaster and @dadinger. Jeff DiOrio pep-talked us, but I felt like we were somewhat unready. Elijah Platnick had beaten a GM before, he was really quite good, even having beaten Arthur(THE FM WHO PLAYS FOR CENTRAL) in one of the last rounds.
@road2nationalmaster is in the back, you can see him staring at the board, calculating very long and thoughtfully. Unfortunately, he was the first one to lose against Bo Lieberman.
Game 3: I suck at endgames
It was a disappointing sweep, @PaschalStorm588 somehow managed to win his game, and @vsiv56 managed to draw because his opponent somehow decided to drop(hang) his rook to troll him, but just blundered a draw in the process.
Find The Winning Sequence In This Tricky Endgame(That I Missed Under Pressure)
Idiot me, my new year's resolution should be to improve at endgames because I suck at endgames.
After that game, I felt kinda sorry for David. He was looking at the board, down by himself. He clearly disliked his opponent, they seemed to be almost mocking him, well only slightly. It was a kind of muddled perspective. So, the final score was something quite horrible. Anyway, next game .
We were going against a decent team, and the two coaches they had were nice enough to fistbump me and give kind words of encouragement. Glenbard South's boards 4 and 5 were also extremely nice, in a joking sense. They were probably 10x better than Evanston in terms of niceness.
Game 4: The Master Attacker Of Children Under 1800
Beautiful game, it's a shame that @PaschalStorm588 somehow lost to a patzer. He was very sad, he said that he had underestimated his opponent. But he just seemed tired. poor him.
End Of Day 1
Us Preparing To Leave
Everybody emptying out of the place
@bigstinkymonkey suddenly attacks me and steals everything I have.
Us walking outside in the cold
@road2nationalmaster covering his face before I throw my paper airplane at him
We headed to Olive Garden and ordered some delicious food.
@bigstinkymonkey trying to steal my phone
After Olive Garden, we drove home.
Start Of Day 2
The last and final day at State. We packed up our bags, and then headed out to the Skittles Room:
After playing some casual games, and getting EXTREMELY, stressed out. I went upstairs. Most likely due to the heavy amounts of coffee that I had drank prior to the round. I went upstairs, all jittery and sort of nervous. Ready to destroy my next-round opponent. My first-round opponent was EXTREMELY NICE, I'm pretty sure, their coach was fist-bumping everybody as well. Or, it was the opposite.
Game 5: why am I playing fourth board again?
. . I looked around, talked with other chess people, and met a lot of Waubonsie, Neuqua, New Trier, and other school thingies. Quite a lot of memorable meetups.
It's okay though @road2nationalmaster. It was not his fault. He still gets very depressed when I mention this moment to him. . We went upstairs
She gave up, because she didn't know how to play it. But I decided to do something funnier. , and that didn't happen. 
#5 Glenbrook South
. @fatchicken2006 got a silver medal for 6/7 performance and @PaschalStorm588 got a bronze medal for a 5.5/7 performance, so pretty solid overall ... So good for him. Their board roster was all mixed up, and he told me that board 3,4,5 were all strangely equal in strength.Traveling Back Home
The journey back home was a fun one. We passed by Hinsdale South, and we commented on how slow they were, and how we place just one place higher than them (We were rivals to them, due to the sweep in the Bolingbrook tournament). So L hinsdale south .
On the way home, we had various mishaps. @dadinger started eating a bunch of food at Portillos, John got so mad that he said that if he saw them eating more food, he would kill them. Jack ordered 3 burritos and proceeded to snarf them in front of John.
In Portillos, I met my USAT Team and we decided on the name, She Said She Was 1800, Joel suggested the name She Said She Was 1400, which I told everybody we should do, and then they were all saying, "Paul Stop Saying Sus Things".
I proceeded to write this blog during the bus ride home, and Aayush got mad at me for blogging, so here is a goofy photo of him:
We finally got home at 9:30 PM, and I fell asleep early. The end.
The Future
We definitely have a chance at winning sectionals next year: There are five total schools
Waubonsie Valley High School
Neuqua Valley High School
Naperville Central High School
Metea Valley Central
Naperville North High School
Waubonsie is going to be down 3 main boards (2nd, 3rd, 6th)
Neuqua is going to be down 3 main boards (1st, 6th, and 8th)
Naperville Central is going to down 3 main boards (2nd, 3rd, and 4th)
Metea Valley is going to be down 5 boards
Naperville North is going to be down 2 boards (2nd and 5th)
Naperville North is going to WIN . We have the youngest, the best, and are losing the least boards. Sure, Neuqua is getting a 2000 USCF next year, but for sure,(and we should) we are definitely getting better players this year, and we will sweep DVC.
Conclusion
Thank you for reading this blog
@road2nationalmaster
Conclusion
As the chess season draws to a close, it's natural to reflect on the highs and lows of the past few months. Whether you're a seasoned veteran or a newcomer to the game, each season brings new challenges, new opponents, and new opportunities to improve your skills and test your mettle on the board.
For many chess players, the season culminates in a national tournament, where the best of the best from around the country gather to compete for glory and bragging rights. While the prospect of Nationals can be both exciting and daunting, the journey to get there is often the most rewarding part of the season.
Along the way, there are countless games to be played, lessons to be learned, and friendships to be forged. Some games may be memorable for their beauty, with intricate combinations and stunning sacrifices that leave your opponent reeling. Other games may be less glamorous, but no less important, as you grind out a victory in a tense endgame or hold a draw against a stronger opponent.
Through it all, the love of the game remains constant. Whether you win or lose, whether you qualify for Nationals or not, the thrill of competition and the joy of chess is always there to be savored. And even if you fall short of your goals, there is always another season, another chance to improve and come back stronger.
So as this season comes to a close, take a moment to reflect on all that you have accomplished and all that you have learned. Whether you are a beginner or a master, there is always more to discover in the world of chess, and the journey never truly ends. So keep playing, keep learning, and above all, keep enjoying the game that we all love.
Thank you, I'll see you next week when I blog about the USATN (With GM Awonder Liang, IM Kostya, and more )
Comments
Post a Comment