The South chess team won their conference tournament this season, which took place at Plainfield Central on Jan. 21.

“We came in first for conference, and this is our fourth year in a row [winning it]. That made it a great season,” said Oliver Juarez, senior.

The team’s record this year totals 15 wins and four losses. South’s chess team is known as one of the better teams in their conference and has come a long way since 2001.

“I’ve been coaching chess since the school first opened in 2001. When they opened up the building here, Plainfield had never had a competitive chess program of any kind, and so I decided to start one,” Joe Vladika, science teacher, said.

Over the years, the chess team evolved into an atmosphere where chess players can compete against each other to play tougher opponents in their conferences. Each student challenges the student above him to take his spot on the roster, which gets more difficult the higher they go.

Chess players are ranked by what they call “boards.” The player who has first board is the player who is ranked number one on the team. The player who has second board is ranked second on the team and so on.

“If you put the work in, then no [it is not difficult], but if you expect it to be given to you, then yes,” senior Gavon Antoine said.

Antoine is the number one player on the team, or first board. He started playing chess seriously about a year ago, and has already reached first place among the South chess team. He even finished number one in the entire conference this year.

The game of chess, while being competitive for these players, teaches them valuable life lessons.

“I’ve learned to never underestimate my opponents because even if you’re completely winning and you know you’re better, you can still end up throwing it all away just with one mistake. I’ve learned never to be overconfident,” Fourth Board, sophomore Matt Badali, said.

Badali quickly rose through the ranks during his time on the chess team, making it all the way to fourth board. During his freshman year, he won a medal at a competition for placing 5th out of 255 players who were ranked eighth board.