Chess masters square off
By ERIN WOOD
Journal Star
Posted Feb 15, 2009 @ 12:03 AM
PEORIA —
He didn’t have a passion for the game at first, but Tim Larson admitted chess can be addictive.
“I make a wrong move and lose a match, and then I want to go back and play again to fix what I did wrong,” said the 17-year-old from Galva.
Larson admitted he attended his first chess team practice last school year because of a promise there would be cookies. But he was as into the game as any of the more seasoned players Saturday at the Illinois High School Association state tournament.
A hush fell over the Civic Center Grand Ballroom around noon as the sixth round of play began in this team event. The tension increased as more than 1,000 chess players focused on their boards and contemplated their next moves.
“When you get up to the front, it’s very intense,” Scott Johnson, the IHSA administrator in charge of the tournament, said as he pointed out the roped-off area where the top dozen teams competed against each other.
“They take the game very seriously,” Johnson said. “The stakes are high.”
The 35th annual IHSA state finals, the largest such event in the country, brought together 119 schools from across Illinois for almost 18 hours of competition Friday and Saturday.
Here is the full article.
This event is not USCF rated.