NT_041119

16 | April 11, 2019 | The Northbrook tower news
northbrooktower.com
Glenbrook North chess team wins national tournament
Chris Pullam
Freelance Reporter
Glenbrook North’s
chess team is one-for-one
in the “winning national
tournaments” department.
The Spartans competed
in the U.S. National Tournament,
their first such
tournament in the chess
team’s six-year history, in
Schaumburg from March
15-17, and won the U1600
National Championship
after seven four-hour
matches.
Siva Muthupalaniappan
tied as the individual national
champion and Zach
Malen took sixth place.
Jeremy Livshots, Gil Axelrod
and Henry Ding rounded
out GBN’s U1600 team.
In the unrated section,
Benson Misevich took
second and Enrique Villalon
tied for eighth while
leading the Spartans to
a third-place finish, with
Daniel Kim, Isaac Cho,
Jennine Eng and DeeDee
Van Treek also competing.
Diego Morales also
took 15th in the U1800
division.
“I think this really
showed the kids who
we are, who they are,”
said head coach Michael
Campbell, a math teacher
at GBN. “We aren’t necessarily
a win-at-all costs
program, but they all love
being together and supporting
each other and
winning for each other. To
me, these kids are all offthe-charts
smart and fun
and social, but this shows
them that it’s okay to still
laugh and enjoy yourself,
and that you can do those
things and still excel.”
Campbell and assistant
coach Adam Levy have
run the program since its
inception six years ago,
when a group of thenstudents
asked the pair
Glenbrook North’s chess team poses for a group photo after winning the U1600 National Championship at the U.S.
National Tournament. Photos Submitted
GBN’s (left to right) Gil Axelrod, Jeremy Livshots, Siva
Muthupalaniappan and Zach Malen celebrate.
to sponsor the first team.
Since then, the Spartans
have traveled as far south
as Peoria and Champaign
to compete with their peers
from across Illinois.
Former Spartans are currently
playing chess at colleges
like the University of
Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
and Berkley, and others,
according to Campbell,
have won thousands of
dollars in tournaments.
This year, the Spartans
couldn’t resist a shot at
the national stage once the
tournament was scheduled
so close to home; usually,
the national championship
is hosted in cities
like Orland, Nashville or
Columbus.
“The main difference
was in the overall setup,”
Campbell said. “State is
a more team-orientated
event where it’s basically
just eight vs. eight, but at
the national tournament,
the coaches and parents
weren’t even allowed in
the room where they were
playing, so it’s just a bunch
of individual matches that
are then added together for
an accumulative score.”
At the high school level,
all sanctioned matches are
timed, and they can last
anywhere from 15 minutes
to almost five hours.
But each player’s rating
– which determines if
they compete in U1600,
U1800 or any of the other
divisions – begins accumulating
whenever they
play their first sanctioned
match, whether that happens
in high school or
middle school.
According to Campbell,
the high school chess season
starts around the beginning
of the school year
and usually ends with the
State Tournament in February,
but he expects his
players to continue practicing,
and competing,
between now and then.
“They would play every
day [during practice] if I
would let them, but even
after we slow down, they’ll
meet up at one of their
houses and play amongst
themselves or they’ll go to
the library and practice on
their own,” Campbell said.
“It’s not just about getting
better for them, it’s a social
opportunity, as well. They
just enjoy playing and
being around each other.”
During school-sanctioned
practice, Campbell
and Levy like to challenge
the students with various
chess “puzzles,” such
as setting up a mid-game
board and asking them
to checkmate their opponent
in three moves, or by
going over opening and
GBN senior Siva Muthupalaniappan tied as the
individual national champion.
closing moves.
While fewer seniors
competed in the 2019 State
Tournament than in years
past, according to Campbell,
the team was relatively
young, and he’s looking
forward to an experienced
group of sophomores and
juniors returning in the fall.
“Chess is really an outlet
for a lot of kids that
maybe sports isn’t their
thing but they’re still competitive,”
Campbell said.
“You’ll see some of the
most competitive kids in
the world at these chess
tournament. But what’s
neat is the sportsmanship
at the end, when they’ll go
into the hall afterward and
chat about their match and
discuss what they were
thinking at different points
to help each other grow.”