Niles North’s chess team came home with a fifth place finish at IHSA’s state championship competition in Peoria. Although not as monumental as last year’s first place finish, the team is still proud of their accomplishment.

Even though Niles North’s squad was the incumbent state champion, it entered the tournament seeded 11th. Last year North lost several strong seniors, including National Champion Eric Rosen. The team wasn’t expecting a similar finish. “We’ve graduated a great deal of seniors in the past two years,” head coach Harry Kyriazes said. “The top teams in the state all knew we were in a rebuilding phase.”

And while they didn’t place in the top three, they finished in fifth place. “I was hoping to get top 30, and maybe by some miracle to place top 10.  I was incredibly impressed and surprised that we took top five because it seemed out of the question,” Kyriazes said.

Round one started with North winning convincingly against Morton Grove. However, they suffered a disappointing and close (33.5-34.5) loss to Richards High School (which eventually finished in 16th place).

The team recovered and went on to win their next five games, ending in a dramatic finish against a formidable Urbana High School team. “You can’t rest on your laurels,” senior Emmet Barr said. “We had a fantastic pep talk by Eric Rosen, and we got back up.”

In the end it all came down to board one, where senior David Paykin had to draw his game in order to win the match. In a stroke of luck, Paykin’s opponent blundered due to being in time trouble. Paykin quickly took advantage of his opponent’s mistake and went on to draw, putting Niles North ahead of Urbana, and earning them their fifth place finish.

In addition to their team finish, two players medaled individually. Barr scored an impressive 7/7 points, winning all of his games and finishing in first place for board four.

Junior Ethan Brown finished with six wins and a loss, and medaled tenth for board two.

In April, the team heads to Nashville to compete at Nationals.