Lane Tech Stories

May 15, 2007

Lane Tech Chess Team 1988, State Runner-Up

1988 was a magical year in Lane Tech chess team history. The chess team finished 2^nd in the state that year. That is the highest state finish any Lane Tech team has finished since then for ANY sport or activity.

I don’t remember all the names of the players but 1^st board was a guy named Eddie  Ortiz 2^nd board was Brent Yurchak, third was Chris Carpenter (I think), and then we had the other guys. That year, our biggest adversary was Kenwood Academy of the Chicago Public League. They had one of the best chess player’s in the state playing first board by a guy named Rodenberg. Lane Tech ended up playing Kenwood Academy in the final game of the state tournament for the state championship. However,  Kenwood was just too much for Lane and Lane lost despite our best efforts. I remember our coach Ken Carpenter, who had previously coached a state championship team for Lane Tech said that 9 out of 10 years we had enough talent on that 1988 team to win the state championship. It’s just that year there happen to be another team (Kenwood Academy) to have just a little bit more. It was a great effort by everyone that year and I’m very proud to be part of a team that took second in the state for Lane Tech.

Kenwood Academy defeated Lane Tech for the 1988 state championship in chess. The 1988 chess team was last time Lane Tech has finished in the top 2 in the state for any sport. The Publisher of www.LaneTechFan.com was a state alternate on the 1988 chess team.