PEORIA, Ill. – There’s a competition this weekend at the Peoria Civic Center that’s a little quieter than what you would typically expect from a Bradley Braves or Peoria Rivermen game.
The Illinois High School Association is staging the 50th State Chess Finals in the Civic Center’s Ballroom Friday and Saturday. The competition features nearly 1500 students from 128 teams across Illinois.
The state final format will see two teams of eight playing paired off matches to earn points, with the winner being the team who earns the most points. Winners face off against each other, until two undefeated teams play in the 7th round on Saturday afternoon for the state championship.
IHSA Assistant Executive Director Dan Le says the event would not be what it is today without one man leading the charge, and the coaches and officials who have been part of the tournament for many years .
“A lot of credit goes to Mike Zacate, he’s considered as the father of Illinois high school chess. It was his brainchild back in the late-60’s, and he did create kind of a tournament on his own. And then the IHSA took it over, starting in the 1974-75 school year,” says Le.
Zacate created the state chess tournament while he was a science teacher at Evergreen Park. He passed away on November 12th, 2023 at the age of 83, and is being honored at the state finals this weekend.
The state finals first came to Peoria in 2001, with previous locations at Rantoul High School and Illinois State University’s Bone Center. Le says Peoria is a good fit for the state finals because it’s in a centralized location in the state, and the Civic Center is a large enough space needed for the competition area, as well as a secondary area in between matches.
One of the students competing this weekend is freshman Ryan Morgan of Arlingtion Heights Hersey, who had two wins and two draws in four matches Friday. He says competing at the state finals is a fun, but stressful experience.
“I think of our team is pretty good, and so there’s a lot of pressure on me to compete well, to do well, so we really want to place high, and we have high hopes,” Morgan said.
Peoria-area teams competing at the state finals include Limestone, Brimfield, Dunlap, East Peoria, Morton, Peoria Notre Dame, and Peoria Richwoods.
Brimfield is competing for the 11th time at the state finals this year. Head coach Robert Bernales says while success on the chessboard is great, he gets as much joy out of his team learning life lessons during competition.
“It’s not about the success, although it’s nice to be successful in chess, I just like to see the kids apply what they learn in chess to everyday life situations, get them to think ahead, problem solve, those skills,” Bernales said.
The competition is free for fans who want to attend, but Le asks fans to “cheer silently.”
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