E. St. Louis recounts Chess History

I would have to say to my fellow chess team members that East Side chess players were always focused during their matches. This is in reference to James and Greg speaking on our 1976 team (I was a member from the 1974-1977)…I wouldn’t say that we weren’t focused, because any team finishing in the top 10 in the state has to be focused. We dominated the metro east and the St. Louis area and that may have made the team a little cocky, but it was something that we consistently backed up! What people don’t hear about are the teams of the early ’70s, because statistics weren’t being kept in Illinois until after the ’77 season (started in ’78), so you don’t hear about our earlier teams that paved the way for teams that followed. No one mentions the likes of Zachary Lee, Tyrone Gause, Fredric Scott, Michael Scott, Kellen Winslow, and myslef (LaDonald Scott)…these members of the ’74-’75 team were dominant when chess was just getting started at the high school…it was my first year of ever playing chess (’74-’75) and I went 4-0-1 at the state tournament, and the team finished 7th in the state. How many teams had three brothers in their top eight players…that was kind of unique…LOL! Every year after that, the team improved its state finish…that itself mean that there must have been some kind of focus going on. The person that should get most of the props for our team winning is our coach (Mr. William Grosball), who had enough knowledge of the game to assemble the team and know how to put his board order of players together. There were always good players and at times anyone could have played any board and we could flip flop anytime we wanted. Mr. Grosball went out of his way to ensure we played the best teans we could find, and get us into tournaments to better our game, so when our teams went to state, we were usually ready. We learned from each other because of the trash talking, so the trash talking did not hurt our game, it made those that were weak strong…determined to get better! I think the reason you never heard about any of us after high school is because we all moved on to other cities, jobs (I’m in the military), families, or whatever…then we just never got back into the tournament thing again and there just isn’t many people that has the passion to play wherever we are. All-in-all…East St. Louis Sr. High School was a power house of a chess team, and if I return back to the area when I retire from the military in 2012, I will make sure that I go to the school and try to bring chess back to the school, but I won’t know that until I retire and see where my next career takes me, but it needs to be back in the school!

This article brings back a lot of positive childhood memories (which makes for a horribly long post…sorry!). I played for this high school, as did my brother. Some of my best memories come from the trips we took to play chess throughout the Midwest. I’m especially glad to see “Groz” get some well-deserved recognition for his unflagging sponsorship of the chess program at East Side.

What most people never talk about, when discussing the long run that the Flyers had, was the absolute importance of their farm system. Lansdowne Junior High (now closed) had a team sponsored by Alan Magarian. This school fed almost exclusively into East Side, and the two schools together left a large imprint on the St. Louis scholastic tournament scene for about 20 years.

In fact, Lansdowne is where I really got my start. I didn’t attend Lansdowne (I went to George Rogers Clark JHS, now closed). Lansdowne was the only junior high in the city with a chess program. So, when I came down with the chess bug after my 6th grade year, I started going to Lansdowne to practice three days a week. This meant I had to run home after school (my house was maybe a 60-second walk from Clark’s front door), drop my bookbag on the porch, and double-time it to Lansdowne for practices. 🙂 When that wasn’t enough, I would then walk back from Lansdowne to East Side, and practice with the high school team for as long as they stayed. Then, I’d walk home…very tired, but very happy.

The strength of the Flyers was always in its depth, rather than at the very top of the team. This was a necessity for any team that had serious designs on winning, as the Metropolitan St. Louis Interscholastic Chess League had five-board teams – and the Illinois High School Association state tournament required eight-board teams. The best players could hold their own against the best in the St. Louis metro area and in Illinois…but what made the team so dangerous was that you could find 1500- or 1600-strength players as far down as board five or six.

The feeder system got diluted when the East St. Louis school district consolidated its gifted program at A. M. Jackson Academy (side note: named after my great-grandfather). Mr. Magarian moved there, and took chess with him. The students at A. M. Jackson got split between East Side and Lincoln Senior High (now closed), so some of the chess talent was wasted at Lincoln, which didn’t have a team.

Still, it was a great run for chess in East St. Louis. These two schools didn’t get much publicity, but continuously put out strong teams. Unfortunately, now that both Mr. Grosboll (who I still see whenever I visit East St. Louis) and Mr. Magarian are both retired, no one has taken up the slack.