Two members of Chesterton’s rising chess team competed in the 2025 Minnesota State Scholastic Championships. Nick Benson and Viggo Riedel provided strong representation for Chesterton Academy by finishing with 2 and 2.5 wins respectively. The seven-round tournament, which features the best K-12 chess players in the state, took place at St. Thomas University in St. Paul on March 8th and 9th. Over 300 school-age individuals played in the tournament, with 126 competing in the high school division.
Coach Mike Benson remarked, “This was a great opportunity for our team to compete in a live tournament, and the boys played very solid chess.”
Chesterton Academy is a member of the Minnesota State High School League (the MSHSL), which includes 29 teams from high schools across the metro area. From November to March, MSHSL teams compete in nine online, head-to-head matches. In each match, the four best players from each team go against each other. Each team’s top player is designated as “board 1”, with the second-best player being “board 2”, and so on. Teams are also grouped in terms of the average strength of their players, which allows them to be fairly assessed in terms of their results. A rating of 1000 denotes an average chess player, while a rating of 2000 denotes an expert player. In competitive chess, a win nets the winner one point, a draw (which is a tie) nets one half point, and a loss zero points.
This year the team finished its MSHSL season at .500 (4.5-4.5), which was its best result ever. “High school chess is incredibly competitive and each year our team climbs a bit higher in the standings,” said coach Jeff Campbell. The Knights took second place in the U1000 section, and Luke Armstrong took second place overall for board 3. The team trophy can be viewed in the school’s trophy cabinet.
Reflecting on the 2024-2025 campaign, coach Benson said, “the Chesterton chess team was a joy to coach. Each player improved his game, and we gelled as a team by finishing the MSHSL season with consecutive victories over strong Wayzata, Menominee, and Minnetonka teams.”
All of this bodes well for the future of chess at Chesterton Academy.