With a slight bump in attendance, the 24th Midwest Class Championships saw clear winners in five of its seven sections. US Chess crosstables have posted.

When the dust settled after five rounds, seven of the 59 competitors in the Premier had tied with 4.0/5. In the fifth round, GM Boris Avrukh drew with GM Alexander Goldin, Missouri's Ashwin Jayaram drew Wisconsin's Erik Santarius. GM Vladimir Georgiev, Eric Rosen and Todd Freitag had to win their final matches to enter the top score group.

Jayaram received the $100 bonus with the top tiebreak, and another $400 for winning the Mixed Doubles.

The Continental Chess Association event was once again held at the Westin North Shore in Wheeling with Wayne Clark serving as the Chief TD for perhaps the last time. Wayne has announced his retirement from CCA events effective with November's King's Island Open.

Freitag actually collected $800 as the top score among Under 2300 entrants. The others in the score group received $633 and change. There was a four-way tie for second among U2300's which included Anshul Adve, Jacob Furfine, Vincent Do and Ionatan Giurgiu. Each nabbed $100 along with the bragging rights.

This marked the second year at which the Midwest Class has transitioned from Master and Expert top sections to "Premier". The event website posts complete results.

Aswath Bommannan was the lone perfect core in the 1700-2099 section. That meant a $1400 pay day for Bommannan. There was a five-way for second at 4.0 including Tennessee's Justin Arnold and Illinois players Greg Bungo, Mark Hamilton, Ricky Wang and Caleb Denby. Each earned $260.

Michigan's Adam Masek took the honors in 1500-1899 play, winning four and drawing in the second round. Shon Shtern finished a half-point back at 4.0, ahead of a field of seven 3.5 scorers. Masek earned $1400, Shtern $700.

Ryan Goebel forged a clear win with his 4.5 tally in the 1300-1699 section, taking a draw in the last round. A four-way tie for second included Indiana-registered Robert Lewis and Illinois' David Wallach, Shaurya Singhal and William Richards. Goebel claimed $1300, the second-placers each nabbed $325.

Goebel had defeated Wallch in the fourth round, Richards and Lewis had drawn each other in the second round. Lauro Nava drew both Goebel in the final round and Richards in the fourth round, but an earlier draw placed Nava in the uncompensated 3.5 score group.

In the 1100-1499 section, Dexter Dale, Jr. posted the lone 4.5, a half-point better than a four-pack at 4.0 which included Madison Loftis, Ezra Boldizsar, Cody Liu and Wisconsin's Shaunak Bhattacharyya. Dale collected $1200, the second place score group earned $300 a piece.

Krishna Appalaneni and Daniel Bartz, having drawn head-to-head in the third round, both finished 4.5 to take top honors in the Under 1300. Indiana-registered Kenjiro Nangin finished in third at 4.0, ahead of a six-way tie for fourth place. That field included Tim Sawyier, Jeremiah Davis, Aswin Chirukandath, Ryan Springer, Pawel Wisniowski and George Scott, all from Illinois.

Evan Liu earned $500 and the first place trophy for the Under 1100 section with a perfect 5.0. Liu also tied for second in the Mixed Doubles, see below.

Also in the U1100, Hui Wang, whose son Julian also competed in the section, placed second with a 4.5, earning $300 and a trophy. There was a four-way tie for third place which included Anjali Mirmira, David Sun, Thomas Gong and Leo Garkisch. On tiebreaks, Leo Garkisch earned the third place trophy.

Luke Buck earned the Top U900 trophy and Aren Emrikian claimed the top U700 trophy.

The Ashwin Jayaram (4.0) - Gauri Menon (3.5) team won the Mixed Doubles by half a point. IM Eric Rosen (4.0) and Shreya Mengalam (3.0) tied with Evan Liu (5.0) and Madeline Weber (2.0) with 7.0's, each player receiving $150.

All totalled, 292 entered the crosstables for the 24th Midwest Class, 23 players more than in 2014. 

The event is the 11th of twelve events of the ICA's Illinois Tour with only the Illinois Class remaining.

Accounting for the tournament, junior Jacob Furfine leads the Open section with 23.5, a point ahead of GM Georgiev.

Todd Freitag has been earning his Reserve points the hard way, playing up in the top section of this event. He leads Rudy Padilla 25.5 to 23.5. Because Freitag played in the U2100 section of the Chicago Class, he remains eligible for the Reserve according to Tour rules.

Aidan Carey and Jason Daniels are neck and neck in the Scholastic Reserve, both with 24.0 compilations. Aidan finished second last year and Jason was third.

Complete Tour information can be found here.