The Niles North chess team recently returned from their trip to downstate Peoria, where they earned the title of state champions for the third time in the team’s history. The Vikings triumphed over 120 other high school chess teams.

In a tournament like the IHSA state chess championship, teams pit their best eight players against other teams’ best eight players. Each board is worth a different point value, all adding up to a possible team total of 68 points per match. In order to win a chess tournament, coach Harry Kyriazes explains, a team needs to accrue a total of 34 points or better in all of the seven matches. On each of the eight boards, there are three possible outcomes for the game. When a player wins their game, they get all the points the board is worth. If they lose, they get none. However, players also have the chance to tie, and when that situation occurs the two players evenly split the board’s points.

Tying is exactly what opponents aim to do when facing the famous FIDE Master Eric Rosen. “It’s unlikely that they’re going to beat him,” Kyriazes said of those challenging Rosen. “So what they do is play very defensively hoping to get a draw. If they can get a draw out of Rosen, it’s a major accomplishment.” Not surprisingly, Rosen won all of his games at state. “They are all amazing,” Kyriazes said of his team, “but Eric is in this ridiculous category that I will never see the likes of again.”

Despite Rosen’s epic chess skills, Kyriazes notes that a team must have capable players on all eight of their boards in order to take home a championship title. “If you have one good player at a school, he may get you in the top 20,” he said. “But the only way you can win a championship is if you’re very strong all the way down.”

Junior Emmett Barr, who played on board eight at the state tournament, agrees that his position on a lower board is key to winning the match. “Even though I only play board eight, it’s crucial for the lower boards to win [our games] because we put more pressure on the higher boards […] it let’s them know that all they have to do is draw or play solidly and win while their opponents now have to make riskier moves.”

The team came close to defeat in some of their matches, and Kyriazes admits that the tournament was a nail-biter for him. “We got 34.5 points. It can’t get closer than that.”

Barr thinks that the nerves of the last two rounds, which could have gone either way, is part of what makes the victory so much more gratifying. “It was such a great feeling,” he said. “We were all so excited to have won and to be the only school in Niles North’s history to have won two state tournaments in three years.”

From the state competition, the team moves on to nationals in April where they ranked third last year. “As a team I don’t expect we’ll do as well,” Kyriazes said. “We graduated six seniors last year and we’ll be graduating five more this year.”

Barr concurs that the team lost several strong players last year, but still believes this year’s team is “a true powerhouse.”

“I feel that I’ve improved the most this year, and I really hope the team can prove it at nationals,” he said. “We’ve never won before, but it’d be a nice addition to the trophy case!”

Their plans to prepare for nationals as well as celebrate their state victory?

Play more chess.