The enemy army marched through the fog. They took steps forward protecting the king, but soon they realized that their numbers were slowly dwindling. Then out of nowhere a rook checkmates the king, providing a strong win for one Jr. Bill chess player. 

The SLUH A team was able to clinch the No. 2 seed in the playoffs, just behind Ladue A. SLUH has managed to average 26 points per match (of 30 available). Wednesday night, the Jr. Bills took on No. 8 seed Clayton. The match was held online, and SLUH expected an easy win. The match however was not as one-sided as the bills expected it to be. 

Early on, senior Henry Narkiewicz (board five) went down a piece due to an opening trap (using an order of moves used to trick an opponent). 

“I wasn’t happy with how I played individually,” said Narkiewicz. “I should’ve played slower and paid more attention in the opening.” 

Junior CJ Elam (board 4) won his match soon after, using a tactic to sacrifice the bishop to win his opponent's queen. 

Robert Mize (board 3) won next after launching a massive attack involving sacrifices and pins (attacking a piece that is in front of the king). “Robert overwhelmed his opponent,” said junior Luke Conran. “It was a beautiful game.”

It was down to Luke Conran (board 1) and senior Brody Nester (board 2). One win was required to win the match. Luke Conran lost his “H” pawn (a flank pawn on the kingside) early on and it left Conran in an uncomfortable position. Conran went on to lose the match after two hours of grueling play.

 “I played the wrong move order,” said Conran. “That can’t happen on board one.” 

Nester ended up having a back and forth game with his opponent. Nester managed to get the upper hand, though, when he pushed his pawn forward, separating the knight from the bishop, resulting in the loss of a piece. After another 30 minutes of play, Nester had won his match. 

SLUH walked away winning the match 18-12 and moved on to the semifinals.

Last week, the SLUH B team delivered  two decisive wins. The B team was able to end its season with big wins against CBC (21-9) and Ladue B (16-14). The A team was able to finish with a clean 6-0 sweep in the eastern conference. Although the B team was unable to qualify for playoffs, they had an amazing end to their season and were able to improve a lot along the way.

“The B team had two opponents which were definitely going to be a challenge for them,” said head coach Rich Esswein. “We had excellent results out of the rising freshmen Max Delgado and Daniel Huynh.”

When the SLUH B team played Ladue B, a few players were out and Huynh was put to the task of playing Ladue’s board one. Although Huynh lost on board one, it was still very shocking for him to hold up against the best of the best. Ladue A is  SLUH’s toughest opponent, having a Women’s Fide Master (A chess title awarded to someone who reaches a FIDE rating of 2100 and has earned the necessary norms. Both are earned through tournaments where a said person must perform well) as their board one.

“For a freshmen to play so well on board one is really impressive,” said Esswein. “He was our board six that day, and he was almost able to force a draw.” (A draw results from a lack of suitable material to deliver a mate or the inability to move any of one side's pieces). 

Huynh was also able to beat the CBC board two in outstanding fashion. 

“It was a really solid game,” said Huynh. “I had no blunders and was able to deliver a clean checkmate in the center of the board.”

 Delgado was able to win against both CBC (board three) and Ladue B (board two). 

“Max made a brilliant queen sacrifice to force a checkmate,” said Esswein.

 For Max coming to SLUH offered a big opportunity in chess for him.
“At my (previous) school’s chess club there was only one other player who was close to my level,” said Delgado. “Here I was given the chance to play against a wide variety of good players.” 

Delgado was able to quickly improve and it translated in his matches. Against Ladue, he used tactics to outplay his senior adversary. 

“I sacrificed a rook to either win the queen or deliver mate,” said Delgado. “It was a really solid  game”. 

The B-team was also supported by sophomore Elliott Murray, playing board one which offered him great chances to learn. 

 “I figured out how they would move in the midgame and endgame” said Murray, “It is a great learning experience to play against better players”. 

The B team slowly realized that they could compete against these schools. 

“They (SLUH B) were in a tough conference this year,” said Conran. “They should be proud with how they played”. 

Senior Michael Urbanski attributes his success in chess to the community that the team has established over the course of the season.  

“Improvement in chess is really influenced by friendships you have created outside of chess,” said Urbanski. “You are spending time with your friends while also coming up with unique strategies to win.”

The chess team has high hopes as they head on to the semifinals. “We have to take it one step at a time,” said Mize. 

The reason why the team is so good this year is because of the depth SLUH has. 

“Instead of having one superstar player, we have a lot of depth” said Narkiewicz. “We have some of the strongest core of lower boards in the league.” 

“It is going to be very tough competition,” said Esswein. “But I am looking forward to it.” 

“This is going to be one of our greatest chances at winning state,” said Conran. “I think we can definitely win this year.”