Herrin (IL) HS and Belleville East HS tie for 1st Place in the 2026 Gateway Team Tournament

Yesterday, Gateway Chess organized the 2026 Gateway Team Tournament, hosted by Belleville West HS, with 160 players participating.

In the Team Section, Herrin HS and the B team from Belleville East HS tied with a perfect 4.0 points, with Herrin winning the tiebreaker to take home the first place trophy.

Belleville East has still tied of first or won outright every tournament this year, but that streak only continued due to the heroics of their B team, who managed to keep their own perfect record while the Belleville East A team fell to Herrin 20-10 in the final round.

In the younger team divisions, Forsyth ES won the 8th and Under Division and Meramec ES won the 5th and Under Division, both with 3.0 pointsout of 4.

The Team Section board champions were:

• Board 1: Charlotte Wang from Meramec ES (on tiebreaks)

• Board 2: Chris Banks from Herrin HS (clear win)

• Board 3: Jaxson Kelly from Belleville East HS (on tiebreaks)

• Board 4: James Cauthon from Mt. Vernon HS (clear win)

• Board 5: L C Peterson from Belleville East HS (on tiebreaks)

There was a three-way tie for 1st place in the Individual Section. Sritanvi Suddala from Stanton ES won the 1st place trophy due to the best tiebreaks.

The tournament results have been posted on the Results page.