IL Open Starts Saturday; Five GMs Registered

The ninth event of the '15 Illinois Tour will feature two sections this Labor Day weekend in Northbrook. $8500 in total prize money is guaranteed at the Illinois Open State Championship.

Editor's Note: as of 9/4 5:00am, 152 are registered in both sections which is the total number who played in the 2014 Illinois Open.

Discounted entry is available for ICA members, but membership is not required to participate. Certain titled players receive free entry.

The six-round tournament features two- and three-day options. Once again the Crowne Plaze Hotel in Northbrook will be the host site. Details here; Registration here.

This year, the Ray Doyle Satterlee Memorial Upset Prize will be awarded in both sections.

The Open section will be FIDE-rated. $1375 would be the take home award for an outright winner in the Open Section with $800 going to clear second place, and three additional overall prizes. Under prizes will go three-deep in U2400, U2200 and U2000.

The Reserve Section for Under 1800's will award $750 as a first place stipend and four more overall prizes. Three additional cash prizes will be awarded in each section for top U1600, U1400 and U1200 scorers.

There is also a one-afternoon, five-round Scholastic event which is profiled elsewhere on this site. The ICA Calendar posting is available here.

A Saturday night Illinois Blitz Championship will award an official state title. The ICA Calendar posting is here. The event will be FIDE-rated.

Heading into this event, 2015 Iowa Open Co-Champion Pete Karagianis is leading the Illinois Tour, a half-point better than Jacob Furfine (14.0-13.5). Rudy Padilla leads the Reserve, with three points more than Todd Freitag. 

In the Reserve Scholastic, Aidan Carey and Jason Daniels are neck and neck at 17.0 points.

With seven points at stake (six rounds plus a participation bonus point) and three events to follow, all three awards are too close to call.