NM Padilla Wins CCC February Plus Score Tournament

NM Hugo Padilla won the Chicago Chess Center's Pre-Opening Plus-Score #1, held February 13 at Conference Chicago at University Center. Padilla took home $200 for his perfect score of 4-0.

Thirty players participated: full crosstable is here.

My Chicago Industrial Chess League teammate Ulysses Acevedo (provisional 1203!) had the tournament of his life (so far!), finishing clear second with 3½-½, winning $100, and adding 252 points to his provisional US Chess rating. Acevedo's CICL rating of 1612 is more indicative of his current strength, but still a great result! 

Lauro Nava, Jon Winick, Ilan Meerovich, and Philip Staehrfeldt all scored 3-1 to tie for third, winning $50.

Jeff Britt, Amarjargal Ganbaatar, and Jim Abbott won $25 for plus scores in this strong field.

A notable performance among the non-prizewinners was Adam Hart (1186), who beat a Class A player on his way to an even score. 

Zubair Ahmed, Ernest Rionaula, and Umair Ahmed all posted perfect 4-0 scores in the Chicago Chess Center's Scholastic Invitational, held simultaneously with the Plus Score.

Leonard Rionaula scored 3½-½, and Layla Rodriguez & Andrey Novikov rounded out the top scores with 3-1. All six of the top players were from Bateman Elementary!

The scholastic prizes included two copies of Chandler's How to Beat Your Dad at Chess and one copy of Müller's Chess Endgames for Kids, Nunn's Learn Chess Tactics, and Van Der Sterren's Fundamental Chess Openings.

Thanks to generous earmarked donations, the Chicago Chess Center covered all costs: there was no entry fee for any player in the scholastic invitational. The CCC bought one-year US Chess memberships for eight students who couldn't otherwise have afforded to play, and provided $10 Panera cards for nine players with financial need. Eighteen players participated: full crosstable is here.

The Chicago Chess Center is committed to helping students in need. If you know of CPS students at Title I schools that we can help, please drop a line to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. If you'd like to support our efforts, ditto.

Thanks to Chicago Chess Center VP Keith Ammann for ably organizing and directing the event, and to CCC President Will Gane, GM Dmitry Gurevich, the friendly Conference Chicago staff, the Illinois Chess Association, and our anonymous donors for their support and assistance.