On Friday February 10, 2017, the Kaneland Chess team earned a spot at the IHSA State Tournament. The Kaneland Chess team maintained a 4-3 record at the state finals. Out of 149 teams, Kaneland achieved 60th place.

“It was a great season. Despite losing nine players from last year, the team managed a 9-6-1 record going into state,” Kenneth Dentino said.

The ten representatives of Kaneland that competed in this year’s state championship were Kyle Wells, Ryan St. Peter, Isaac Brazee, Joe Fahnestock, Muize Rahman, Ben Manugas, Garrett Buerke, Dan Deboer, Mason Sampson and Edgar Villafuerte.

“I have been on the chess team for three years. I loved going to State, it was my first time actually competing this year,” junior Kyle Wells said.

The boys chess team had a shaky start in the beginning of their season. Getting more into their season, the Kaneland Chess team had obtained nine wins out of 16 games.

“I liked going to state, it was pretty fun. We had an interesting start to our season.” senior Ryan St. Peter said.

At state, the chess team had seven total games. Each score was out of 68 points. Kaneland took the win 4 out of 7 games, with a total of 57 points in the second game, 45 in the third, 46 in the fifth and 46.5 in the final match. Kaneland’s grand total throughout the whole match was 245.5 points.

Participating in state is pretty stressful, since you are going up against the best teams in the state. All representatives of the chess team that competed felt pressure. Some players went from making people cry, to making the other player so mad that he slammed his head on the table due to frustration.

“I’ve been on the chess team for 4 years. I felt a little pressure, I also made the other person I competed with cry because I won,” senior Isaac Brazee said.