The Plainfield South Chess Team

is having an extraordinary season so far, with a record of 9 matches won and 5 matches lost.
The Chess club lead by Joe Vladika, science teacher, who meets up with his team after school in his classroom to teach and compete with each of the members. South’s chess team is lead by two seniors, Matthew Badali and Dritan Imeri, who both went to state during their 2017-2018 season.
“This year I’m very excited because I never had my top two boards return before, so Dritan and Matt had to play one and two as juniors which was very difficult.” Vladika said. “They did an awesome job both had a better 500 record at boards 1 and 2 which is really difficult because you are always playing the other schools best players. Our middle boards have been filled in nicely so I think we are going to have a solid team this year.”
Each chess player has their own goal this year, and the team also set goals to go above and beyond what they’ve done in the past and show what they want the team to be about.
“Our team is trying to crack the top 20, which is extremely difficult because you have to play against the best teams in state and get really big numbers against them,” said Imeri.
However, there are goals that will be more challenging than others. The chess team has overcome many strenuous obstacles in the game, some including learning how to play the game for the first time or trying to win against someone that is equally matched as the opponent.
“Some of the challenges that I had are playing a lot of really good players and trying to figure out little bit about my own game,” said Matthew Badali.
One of the great perks about any team activity like chess, according to the team, is getting to know more about the teammates and building new bonds with people they did not know before joining.
“They are all great people. Most people that do extracurricular activities are usually great people, so I really have respect for the people who actually care about the game,” says Jakub Mardula, a member of the chess club.
The team suggests advice for anyone wanting to join the Chess team at South.
“Just play; there are many resources you can have like LIS and chess.com. There are a lot of books and you can just come in randomly. It is always good just to play because the more you play, the more you practice,” said Mardula.