Uni High

Uni High chess team takes top honors
By Paul Wood
Friday, April 10, 2009 8:00 AM CDT
Urbana/Champaign News-Gazette – Champaign, IL, USA

URBANA – They liked winning state so much, Uni chess players decided to go to the nationals.

And University Laboratory High School won that competition, too, besting 26 teams.

The four team members who went to Nashville last weekend are senior Greg Atherton, junior Danny Ge, sophomore John Vaughen and senior Richard Wang.

Five other Uni students played as individuals. Senior Gordon Ruan placed 19th in the K-12 championships; in the K-8 Championship, subfreshman George Ruan placed 149; in the K-12 rated under 1,600 section, subfreshman Max Sigalov placed 15; and in the K-12 rated under 1,200 section, senior Alan Liang placed 11th out of 350. Sophomore Michael Meyer’s place has yet to be determined.

United States Chess Federation ratings range from 100 to 2700, the highest numbers going to masters.

Team members traveled to Nashville in three cars, a trip organized by Gordon Ruan. “It seemed like a good idea after we won state,” he said.

They played chess “pretty much all day long for three days,” said Chris Merli, who coaches the team.

Here is the full article.