Herrin High School has formed its very own competitive chess team. HHS has had a chess club in the past, but it was only that — a club. This year the team is practicing being competitive and hopes to play in a few tournaments. 

The previous chess club ended three years ago when the club’s sponsor moved to a different school. This new team was formed because one of Herrin’s new teachers, Mr. Evilsizer, asked if he could coach a chess team here.  “I had coached a chess team at every school he has taught at,” Mr. Evilsizer said.  

Mr. Evilsizer, along with his son, has played at many chess tournaments in the past and has been playing the game of chess for about 30 years. The new chess team got a decent turnout of students who wished to participate. 

“The team has between 20 and 30 students who show up to the practices regularly,” according to Mr. Evilsizer. 

As of right now, the team has not participated in any chess tournaments, but they have been having weekly practices in order to prepare for when they do eventually play in a real tournament. The practices have been on Wednesdays during advisory in Mr. Evilsizer’s room. 

Mr. Evilsizer said, “We have had a few promising people, but I think our best one is probably Caden Green.”  Green (12) has been playing chess since he was about 15 years old, starting in eighth grade. “I started playing because one of my friends was learning how to play chess on this app and it sparked an interest in me, so I started playing.” 

While Green has never participated in an actual chess tournament, he has taken a chess course at John A Logan College where he would occasionally play against his professor there. “I try to play every day at home in order to keep getting better,” he said.

There are many other people on the team who show promise, such as CJ Robletto (10) or Elias Deming (9). Robletto has been playing since he was eight years old and he “plans to keep playing chess competitively in the future.” Deming, however, said: “I do not see myself doing chess competitively out of high school, but I still want to play it casually.”

Overall, the new chess team is off to a very strong start this year with hopes of being able to take the team to an actual tournament sometime in the near future.