February Chess Roundup

February has me thinking of love. Maybe it's because the Valentine's aisle is loaded with cards or it's my French heritage that enjoys dropping the word "amour" into as many sentences as possible this time of year and not being thought of as strange. Whatever the reason, I love (i.e. "amour") this game that I've played for most of my life. It started with me as a young Adonis believing I could both conquer the world and my dad at chess and it's been an infatuation ever since. It hasn't been all highs; there've been times when I've felt my love for the game has been unrequited. But overall, I enjoy tournament games or casual pick-up games in a coffee shop as well as the saccrarine-sweet rush of a blitz game.

Judging from all the players and tournaments around the state of Illinois, I expect I'm not alone in some of my feelings for the game. Here are highlights from Illinois tournaments.

December 1 to January 5: The Epiphany Tournament in Bloomington, IL had 18 players participating in this four round event with Ethan Catt coming out on top with 4 points. Crosstable.

January 7: The Winter Scholastic 2012 tournament saw 62 kids showing up to play in Oak Brook, IL. Jospeh Fennessey took the U1200 section and this month is seeing him shoot up a lot in his provisional rating. Ross Finished without losing a game in the U700 section. Crosstables.

January 7 to 8: The Winter Open/Reserve XXVIII in Oakbrook, IL had 99 players. In the Open Section there were over seven masters participating. Definitely a tough field, but Tenzing Shaw came out on top. In the Reserve section Jonathan Hrach and Adam Ford tied for first. Crosstables.

January 8: The 2012 Indian Trails Championship in Wheeling, IL had 24 players. In the Open section Nathan Holzmueller was the lone player to be undefeated and in the K-5 section, Shvetali Thatte finished with 4.0 points. Crosstables.

January 9: The Twin City Chess Club in Bloomington, IL put on their January 2012 G/20 Tournament and had 6 people participate. Jonathan Bonwell had bragging rights of being the only person to win all his games. Crosstable.

January 9 to 30: The TCCC Championship - Under 600 Tournament had 7 players participating with Vishnu Teja Anagani coming in first. When looking at the crosstable I wondered how someone rated 923 could get into an Under 600 tournament. But after looking at his history, I see he is going through a quick ratings growth phase within the past month. So I suspect this is not the last time that Illinois will see Vishnu at the top of a chess tournament. Crosstable.

January 13: The Naperville Youth Chess Club put on their Quad #4 tournament and had 12 players in this three section event. There was a clear winner in each section: Q1 (Jacob Zhou), Q2 (Bethany Simos), and Q3 (Jonathan Li). Crosstables.

January 14: The Orland Park January Tournament had 8 players participating and almost half of them tied for first. Mark Rimmer, James Calcagno, and Edward Dornbos tied with 3 points a piece. Crosstable.

January 15: Renaissance Knights put on their 73rd Knights Quest Tournament out in Northbrook, IL. 84 players participated in the event. Highlights include: Aung Zin taking first place in the Open Section, Joseph Fennessey going 4.0 in the U1400 section, Aayan Patel finishing with 3.5 points in the U1000 section and in the U600 section having a three way tie between Barry Vigil, Navaj Sivakumar, and Christian Turk. Crosstables.

January 16: The Naperville tournament drew 16 players to this five round event. And even though more rounds usually means it's more likely that one person will end up on the top. In this tournament there was a four way tie for first place. The same happened for second and third. Not typical that three-quarters of all participants place in the top three places. Crosstables.

January 16: The 25th annual Martin Luther King Tournament in Normal, IL drew 260 players to this 4 section event. In the UP section, there was a four way tie for first (Advaith Prabu, Vishal Chandrasekar, Nuha Mozumder, and Neil Sundaram) In the EL section, Cassie Parent won all five games. In the LP section, Matthew Alexander was the only person to win all five games. In the JH section, Samuel Heil and Andrew Fei tied for first with 4 points. Crosstables.

January 18: Downer's Grove Chess Club had their Wednesday #1 Tournament and the final round had two experts battling it out to see who would come out on top. In the end, Steffen Klug was the man of the night. Crosstable.

January 21: The Chicago Senior Tournament in Orland Park had four people participating. Mikhail Korenman, the tournament director (and highest rated player), ending up winning the three round event. Crosstable.

January 21: Evanston was host to another three x three tournament. This three section event had 38 players showing up. In the Gold section, top rated Albert Chow took the section winning all three of his games. In the Silver section, there were no perfect wins by an individual so three people tied for first place: Hanson Hao, Sritej Vontikommu, and Tae Moon. In the Bronze section, Matthew Ward swept the section and increased his provisional rating to 835. Crosstables.

January 21: Kumbaya 48th Scholastic Tournament drew 71 players to Skokie, IL. The winners in each section were: U600 (Alex Yasumoto and Emmanuel Anthony), U1000 (Brian Gong), U1400 (Jongmin Choi), and +1400 (Miranda Liu). Crosstables.

January 22: The DTS #4 2012 Tournament put on by Dynamic Chess took place in Chicago and had three sections and 33 players in this four round event. In the K-2 section there was a three-way tie for first between Daniel Kozintsev, Sergey Lakhno, and Ignace Bielobradek. In the K-8 Open only one person finished at the top and that was Jay Magiera, and in the K-8 U800 section, Samuel Andrews was the only person to win all his games. Crosstables.

January 22: The G/45 January Tournament in Skokie, IL had 30 players. But only one winner. Dusan Tutsh. Crosstable.

January 23: Not surprisingly, the Freeport, IL, Route 20 Chess Club played host to the Freeport RBO-Open. This two section event had 19 players. In the open section William Engel and Joseph Willett drew each other in the final round to tie for first. In the RBO section, where the control time was a little faster, Randall Kint won all five of his games to come in first. Crosstables.

January 27: The Lantern Light #1 Tournament was held in Skokie, IL. It seems there's starting to be a pattern. For the second time in a month, the tournament director (and highest rated player) won the tournament. Crosstable.

January 28: The Knights of the Forest 2012 Tournament had 102 kids come out for this scholastic event. In the Primary section Siddhartha Kyaw won all five of her games. In the Elementary Section Shashank Bala had a perfect 5.0, and in the Jr. High Section, Nicholas Bartochowski won all four of his games. Crosstables.

January 28: The 2012 Tri-Valley Scholastic Tournament had 167 players show up for this four section event. In the Lower Prim section Pierce Mdade finished with 5.0 points, and in the Upper Prim, Advaith Prabu and Alexander Hsia tied for first and may be sighing a little bit of a relief that they didn't have to play each other. In the Elementary Section Michael Maxfield finished with 5.0 points and in the Junior High section, Nathaniel Sobery was the first place winner. Crosstables.

January 28: Glenwood January Open tournament drew 11 players to this event. With a perfect 4.0 Torriente Toliver beat out three slightly higher rated opponents to win the tournament. Crosstable.

January 28: The Peoria Winter Tornado Tournament in Peoria, IL had 43 players in this two section event. Maxwell Jong finished with 4.0 point int the scholastic section, and Nikhilesh Kunche finished first in the Open section. Crosstables.

January 28: The NSCC G/60 Tournament had twenty-nine players participating. At the end of the day, Alex Bian went undefeated. Crosstable.

January 29: The U1200 Tournament in Skokie had 18 players and Ezra Boldizsar won it by winning all four rounds. Crosstable.

January 3 to 31: Illowa Reserve Championship in Moline had 9 players in this event. Mike Balwin, turned the tide on the recent trend of an Iowa player finishing at the top. Way to go Illinois! Crosstable.

January 3 to 31: The Illowa Chess Club had their Club Championship and maybe fitting for this political year, there was a tie for first place with an Illinois and an Iowa player at the top of the heap. Congraduations to Luis Peralta (IL) and Mark Flowers (IA). Crosstable.