The Kaneland chess club competed in a meet with the Illinois Math and Science Academy’s team. IMSA was ranked 11th in the state, out of 140 teams apart of the Illinois High School Association’s tournament for this past year.

”It was good overall, with their standings [in the state],” junior Brenden Madziarczyk said.

Kaneland won three matches against IMSA players, even with IMSA’s past and current state rankings.

“I was worried at first but something clicked, and I was able to pull ahead,” freshman Kyle Wells said after winning his match against an IMSA player.

These matches achieved 12 points for Kaneland, and although Kaneland did not beat IMSA, simply scoring those points were an achievement against a team who has only lost 16 matches out of 70 in the past decade.

“There were comments that we’re very strong this year,” junior Spencer Serwin said.

Although the team did not win the meet, many chess club members are fairly happy about the outcome.

“[I’m] very happy, I managed to stay with him [his opponent, a senior IMSA student],” Serwin said about his match against an IMSA student.