A four-way tie for first place in the Open Section hardly captures the full picture of the It's A Wonderful Life Classic. The four-round, dual-rated event was held May 18 in DeKalb, attracting 27 competitors.
Warren Junior Scholars Max Zinski and Vincent Do along with Bloomington-Normal area's Scott Schmidt all earned two victories while drawing each other. Naperville North High School Coach Jeff Di Orio lost to Vincent in the second round, but won his three other rounds to grab a spot in this 3.0/4 score group.
Freeport Chess Club's Zachary Kauffman won the Reserve Section with a 3.0/4 result, drawing two and winning two. Zach has raised his USCF rating 400 points over the past year to an impressive 1389.
Aurora Naperville Chess Club's Mike Flynn grabbed second in the section with a 2.5/4 tally. Suraj Ramanathan claimed the Under 1400 prize in that section, also with 2.5.
DeKalb Chess Club's Cliff Adams claimed the top spot of the Booster section with a 3.5/4 score. Danny Emge, Gene McPhail and John Werkheiser all split second place prize money with 2.5/4 points. Crosstables
The "It's A Wonderful Life Classic" honored what would have been the 116th birthday of film director Frank Capra. The Sicilian-born Capra left Italy before his sixth birthday and earned an engineering degree before making quite a name for himself in the motion picture industry.
The DeKalb Chess Club will next host the Third George Orwell Memorial on June 22nd. For the first time, the Orwell will be an Illinois Chess Tour event. It will feature four rounds of regular-rated chess.