January Chess Roundup

Even during the holiday season, chess is happening.  A lot.  The 36th Zurich Christmas Open went on from the 26th to the 30th of December with Romanian GM Levente Vajda taking first place.  At the same time the Geneve Open was going on.  GM Bacrot Etienne and GM Malakhatko Vadim tied for first place.  The team from Hoogeveen, Netherlands won the World Cities Chess Championship.  Meanwhile, GM Sandro Mareco won the 5th Open Tournament "Norberto La Porta" 2012.  GM Magnus Carlsen won the 4th London Classic.

In Illinois there was just as much activity.  Here are the results from around the state:

December 1: The Washington District 52 Scholastic Tournament had 85 players in this four section event.  In the K1 Section, Nathan Lee finished with a perfect record against a 20 person pack.  Section 2 had 34 players and Devanshi Kothari finished in first with 4/4.  Section 3 had Alan Feng with the sole perfect score.  The toughest competition and least amount of players was in Section 4.  Maxwell Jong and Patrick Li were the two players to finish with a perfect score in this section of 4.0.  Crosstables.

December 1: The December Game 45 in Skokie, IL had 22 players.  A loss by Benedict Brady in the last round guaranteed a first place finish for Julien Bendelac who took a bye in the last round.  Crosstables.

December 1: The Benjamin Scholastic 2012 Tournament drew 123 players to West Chicago.  In the Junior High Section, which was G/45, there was a three way tie for first (Seth Wyma, William Fan, and Nicholas Salahi) from the 41 players.  In the G/35, Elementary Section, Alexander Hsia was the sole winner after five rounds.  Noah Horner, duplicated the undefeated record in the Primary Section, and gained a provisional rating of 920 after his first five rated games.  Crosstables.

December 2: Touch Move Chess Center had it's TMCC1 Tournament with 5 players.  Terrance Knox finished in first with 3.5/4.0.  Crosstable.

December 2: The Naperville Scholastic - 3 Tournament had 13 players for this two section event.  Section A had Aaron Kim and Harshvardhan Singh tying after five rounds.  Section B which had one less round had Brendan Kolar finishing first with a perfect 4/4.  Crosstables.

December 2: The 84th Knights Quest in Northbrook, IL drew 95 players to this four section event.  The winners were:  Zhaozhi Li (Open Section), David Wallach (U1400 Section), Kuilin Li (U100 Section), and Bailey Malis (U600 Section). Crosstables.

December 2: The December Game 24 in Skokie, IL had 7 players.  Christopher Girardo finished first with 4.5/5.0.  Crosstable.

December 6: AOIG K&Q Chess Challenge in Wheeling, IL had 54 players.  For the Open Section, Willie Grandberry Jr gained close to 200 points and tied for first with expert rated Steve Arlinsky.  In the Advanced section Alexander Pressman took first place, and in the Begining Section there was a three way tie for first between Eli Elterman, Anton Schuster, and Samuel Siethoff.  Crosstables.

December 7: NYCC 2012 1207 Tournament was held in Naperville and had 28 players.  With a lot of sections there were a lot of winners.  Here are the list of winners per section: Brian Gong (A), Jonathan Li (B), David He (C), Benjamin Leong (D), Michael Lu (E),  and Omkar Betsur (G).  Crosstables.

December 7: The Game 20 Championship in Oak Lawn had 15 participants.  Even though he was the third highest rated player, Dan Edeus finished first with a perfect 4.0. Crosstable.

December 8: The Iexcell December 2012 Tournament had 60 players in two sections.  Jai Mahajan in the Scholastic Under 1000 finished with a perfect 5.0.  In the Open Section, Joseph Alford finished with a perfect 4.0.  Crosstables.

December 8: The St. Matthew 8Dec 2012 Tournament had 64 players in this three section event.  In the Primary Section, Jake Drews took first.  In the Elementary Section, Christopher Vu finished with a perfect record.  For the Middle School, High School, and Adult Section Rodney Kinnaird took first with 4/4.  Crosstables.

December 9: The TMCC Tournament in Chicago drew 9 players.  Rene Ancheta finished with 3.5 points after 4 rounds.  Crosstables.

December 9: The 15th NA Amateur in Skokie, IL had 15 players.  Kent Cen edged out Christopher Girardo for first.  Crosstables.

December 15: Bloomington, IL was host to the Chesstronics December 2012 Scholastic Tournament which had 29 players and three sections.  In the Lower Primary Section, Herbert Lim went undefeated.  In the Upper Primary Section, Jacob Davis and Marcus Lee tied for first.  In the Elementary Section, Ishaar Ganesan was the sole finisher with a perfect 4.0.  Crosstables.

December 15: The Joliet Junior College December Quad had 20 players.  There were five sections which means a lot of winners per quad.  Here are the winners per section:  Daniel Sajkowski (A); Brian Harrigan (B); tie for first between Vladimir Djordjevic, Rudy Padilla, and David Middleton (C); Dennis Doyle (D); and Suraj Ramanathan (E).  Crosstables.

December 15: The Orland Park December '12 Tournament had 13 players.  This scholastic event had two sections.  In the U800 section Daniel Polski and Alexander Smirnov tied for first.  In the U1200 section, George Polski finished with a perfect 4/4.  Crosstables.

December 16: The TMCC event on the 16th drew 13 players.  Everett Watford finished with a perfect 5.0 and saw his rating jump 237 points to 1101.  Crosstable.

December 16: The Game 60 Tournament in Skokie had 14 players.  In the Open Section Dusan Tutush and Bill Smythe tied for first.  In the Day 2 Section, John Tellis III finished in first place.  Crosstables.

November 26 to December 17: The Winter Qualifier Tournament in Peoria, IL had 12 players participating.  Michael Leali finished first with 3.5 points.  Crosstable.

December 4 to 18: The Illowa December 2012 Tournament had 12 players participating.  Steve Killian from Iowa won it.  Crosstable.

December 22: The Game 45 Tournament in Skokie had 28 players.  At the end of the day, David Franklin had an unblemished record of 4/4.  Crosstables.

December 29: The Home for the Holidays Open in Dekalb, IL had 28 players and four sections.  The winners were: Howard Cohen (Anand Section), Kyle Mathews (Lasker Section), Gerald Crane (Nakamura Section), and Armel Peel (Rubinstein Section).  Crosstables.

December 30: The Dupage County Championship in Lisle, IL, had six sections and 72 players.  The championship section had Avinash Rajendra from Wisconsin taking first place and gaining 12 rating points.  The Under 1600 section had Mark Reed finishing first with 3.5/4.0.  Daniel Wilson finished first in the Under 1400 section and gained enough rating points to bump him up to over 1400 points.  Michael Ren finished first in the Under 1200 section and now has enough games under his belt that his rating is no longer provisional.  Armel Peel finished first in the Under 1000 section.  Aidan Carey finished first in the Under 800 Section and gained 165 points.  Crosstables.