Sterling Nabs NICL Conference Tournament

Northern Illinois Chess League's 2013-14 tournament co-champions Sterling and Rockford Jefferson were back at it January 31 in Freeport. The two high schools were the lone undefeated teams heading into the final round of the 2014-15 NICL tournament.

Shortly after Board One's Logan Rodgers (Jefferson) and Dylan Kenney (Sterling) agreed to a draw, the teams were neck and neck with Sterling holding a slight edge. All Sterling needed was a draw in the final match on fifth board to secure the championship. Without consultation, Sterling's Jacob Kyritz-Dennis boldly declined Ozzy Flores' draw offer and played on.

When Kryitz-Dennis checkmated Flores there were team hugs all around as Sterling took the match and the tournament championship, with Jefferson placing second on tiebreaks. 

This also gave Kyritz-Dennis the NICL Board Five crown over Flores with McHenry's Vince DeAngelo taking third on tiebreaks.

Also with 3.0/4 were North Boone, Cary-Grove and Stillman Valley with North Boone taking third thanks to the all-mighty tiebreak. 

Freeport's Zach Kauffman managed to win his second conference tournament title in a row at Board One, going 3.5/4. Also finishing with 3.5 were Jefferson's Rodgers and Marengo's Logan Balabuszko. On tiebreaks, Balabuszko claimed second and Rodgers took third.

Two North Boone players posted the only other perfect 4.0's on the day, in addition to Kyritz-Dennis. Ryan Johnson was perfect on 2nd Board and Dakodah Mrkvicka was 4-for-4 on Board Seven. 

In addition to Kyritz-Dennis, Sterling's team result was bolstered by two other board champions:  Third Board Tyler Tichler's 3.5 gave him top honors ouright afer drawing Jefferson's John McDermott in the final round. McDermott took third on tiebreaks, edged out by Chris Oltmanns from Stillman Valley.

Also helping Sterling's cause was Board Eight Kristian Shipley's 3.5 score, identical to Jefferson's Nathaniel Blair. The two drew head-to-head in the final round, with Shipley earning the higher tiebreak for top honors individually. Zach Jones of McHenry (B) had the top tiebreak among five 3.0/4 scorers to earn third place.

Sterling's Sixth Board, Tyler Austin along with McHenry (A)'s David Rybicki both compiled 3.5's with Rybicki taking top honors on tiebreaks. Rockford Guilford's Calvin Nofsinger took third place honors with the top tiebreak among 3.0 scorers.

Jefferson's lone board champion was Kris Schrader at Board Four. She had the top tiebreak of three 3.5 scorers placing just ahead of McHenry (A)'s Julia Knight and Marengo's Peter Voller.

Sterling's Jakob McCormick won the 18-player Open competition conducted at the same time. McCormick went a perfect four-for-four. Harvard's Brandon Roberts took second with 3.5.

The event was directed by Erik Czerwin. Czerwin also coached Rockford Guilford's squad which competed in the NICL conference for the fist time in 2014-15.

Many of the teams will be heading down to Peoria to compete in the IHSA Championship February 13-14.

McHenry was the NICL regular season East Division winner with 11 points, including a perfect 7-0 within its own division. Jefferson was a perfect 13-0 in regular season match play, winning the West Division.

The NICL conference maintains a website which can be found here.