2024 National K-12 Grade Champonships

 

 2024 National K-12 Grade Champonships

 

 

The USCF expertly ran their 2024 National K-12 Grade Championship last week in National Harbor, Maryland from December 6-8, 2024

 

k12

The tournament had thirteen sections: Kindergarten and grades one to twelve and consisted of over 2700 players from 45 states. Of those 2700, Illinois sent 77 players across all age ranges. The following players participated in their first US Chess National event at this event:

 9th - SHANE ASBRA

11th - RAJINDER SINGH ATLURI

 9th - JAMES BEDNARZ

 9th - PIERCE BLANCHARD

10th - SOHAN CHAMARTHI

11th - ARITRA JANA

11th - LUCAS LAZARO

11th - GRIFFIN LEWIS

 2nd - ADHVIK MOHAN

 K  - ANVITHA MOHAN

 6th - ANISHA SAHA

 4th - MADHUVANTI SATHISH

11th - SAMUEL TAN

10th - ISHAAN TANNEERU

 K  - ALEXANDER WU

10th - YUXUAN XIE

12th - IMMANUEL ZEREGA

 

12th Grade Championship Section

Illinois was represented by 13 players including:

Avi Kaplan

Joseph Dai

Rebecca Cortez

Somil Bose

Evan Haddox

Immanuel Zerega

Daniel Dligach

Alexander Alvarez

William Zalmezak

Akshay Naik

Yinuo Huang

Lucia Scrimenti

Weijun Bao

 

Of whom, Avi Kaplan won the section with 6.0 points

avi.jpg

Picture courtesy of Avi’s parents

Illinois Swept the class prizes for 1000-1299

Immanuel Zerega won 1st place

    Note from coach: Manu (Immanuel) Zerega broke his right wrist the week before the tournament, so he had to notate using his left hand

Daniel Dligach won 2nd place

dan3

 Daniel Supplied last game postion and his medal

Lucia Scrimenti won 3rd place

 

Weijun Bao won the class prize for under 1000 in the 12 Grade Championship

Picture

Finally, Evanston Township High School came in 5th place as a team.

 evanston

Picture courtesy of the High School

Players left to right: Lucia Scrimenti, Wayra Sheridan, Sam Kemeny, Will Zalmezak, Ryan Cowan, Adam Elgat, Manu Zerega, Adam Sklar, Alastair Keely-Walker, Lucas Lazaro, Daniel Dligach, Asa Lieberman, Griffin Lewis, Shane Asbra, Somil Bose.

11th Grade Championship section

 

Illinois was represented by 11 players including:

David Chen

Adam Elgat

Dimitrios Deligiannis

Alastrir Keely-Walker

Lucas Lazaro

Nithin Ramasamy

Griffin Lewis

Samuel Tan

Ryan Cowan

Rajinder Atluri

Aritta Jana

Samuel Tan won 3rd place class for 1000-1299

Lucas Lazaro won 1st place class for under 1000

Ryan Cowan won 2nd place class for under 1000

Pictures

10th Grade Championship section

 

Illinois was represented by 13 players including:

 

Justin Zhang

Asa Lieberman

William Wang

Theodore Han

Micah Mostovoy

Andy Cao

Yuxuan Xie

Atharva Naik

Ishann Tanneeru

Sohan Chamarthi

Vincent Lan

Joanna Marsten

Adam SklarYuxuan

Theodore Han won 1st place class 1300-1599

theodore

Theodore-s picture courtesy of his parents

 

Micah Mostovoy won 1st place class 1100-1299

Sohan Chamarthi won 2nd place class under 1000.

sohan 

Sohan's picture courtesy of his parents

9th Grade Championship section

 

Illinois was represented by 5 players including:

 

Timur Turba

Shane Asbra

James Bednarz

Wayra Sheridan

Pierce Blanchard

8th Grade Championship section

 

There were not any Illinois players who represented at the tournament.

7th Grade Championship section

 

Illinois was represented by 2 players including:

Ashvath Pittala

Arjun Kota

6th Grade Championship section

 

Illinois was represented by 1 player:

Anisha Saha

5th Grade Championship section

 

Illinois was represented by 1 player:

Anfad Saran

Anfad Saran won 2nd place class under 1100-1300.

Picture

4th Grade Championship section

 

Illinois was represented by 2 players including:

Avidhas Biswas

Maduvanti Sathish

3rd Grade Championship section

 

Illinois was represented by 2 players including:

Aiden Li

Bishrelt Munkshuld

Aiden Li won his section with 6.5 points.

 

aiden

Picture courtesy of his parents.

 

2nd Grade Championship section

 

Illinois was represented by 1 player

Adhvik Mohan

picture

Advik Mohan won 2nd place class 600-799

1st Grade Championship section

 

Illinois was not represented

Kindergarten Championship section

 

Illinois was represented by 2 players including:

Alexander Wu

Anvitha Mohan.

Picture

Alexander Wu won 3rd place class 400-599.

 

Linked here is a complete pre-tournament registration report for the event, courtesy of US Chess, and the US rating report. Following these links, you can view the full results across any sections instead of the abbreviated standings above.

Once again, we want to congratulate a remarkable turnout from our Illinois Chess Association players and the great assistance of Edwin Walker, head of our Warren Scholars program, for procuring much of the data used to report on. 

Finally, congratulations to all the players 

If anyone wants an article written or edited, please send an email to editot@il-chess.org

 

 

 

 

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2024 annual meeting;

On Tuesday December 17th   at 7pm we will be having our 2024 annual meeting, via zoom.

All members and afiliates will be getting a zoom link to their email.

 

ICA Board

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Late 2024 Ballots

The Illinois Chess Association would like to apologize about some late ballots.

We just had our latest board meeting and discussed whether we needed to extend the time to submit a ballot for the members of our executive board. After a lengthy discussion we noticed that not one member of the Illinois Chess Association reached out to anyone on the board to voice a concern asking for an extension for the time to vote. I personally called several members of the voting community of the association immediately after noticing a few ballots had technical issues getting delivered, none were more than a few days late that I am aware. We decided there was not a need to extend the time to vote.

A committee has been formed to investigate and look into the technical issues and will recommend solutions to avoid these issues moving forward. 

Once again, I apologize on behalf of the board, and we will do better next year.

Thanks

Stephen Plotnick – President of Illinois Chess Association

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2024 Illinois Class Championship

2024 Illinois Class Championship

 

The Illinois Chess Association is happy to congratulate Glenn Panner and Maret Thorpe from Chess Weekend for an impressive organization of our 2024 Illinois Class State Championship on November 24, 2024. This tournament was held in Schaumburg, Illinois.

The tournament had eight sections: the typical class sections which are Master/Expert, Class A, Class B, Class C, Class D and Class E, there was an additional two under sections, Under 1000 and Under 800. In total, there were over 250 participants, 19 of which were ICA members. The tournament consisted of four rounds of game 60 with a 5 second delay.

main class

Players preparing to play, courtesy of Zoren Bogdanovic

Master and Expert

We had a very exciting last round with Sam Schakel leading with leading with a perfect 3 points and three players tied with 2.5 points going into the final round. The three players were Ochirbat Lkhagvajamts, Aung Thant Zin and Sachit Srinivas Rajkumar. Aung and Sachit took a bye in the last round, leaving them a total of 3 points for the event. Meanwhile, Sam and Ochirbat drew giving the Master / Expert title to Sam with 3.5 points. Ochirbat ended in second place, tied with seven other players.

Here are the players that finished with at least three points:

expert.jpg

Class A

 

There was a three-way tie for first place. Two players, Aaron J Anderson and Gaofei Wang, went into the last round with a perfect 3 points and drew. At the same time, Hemanth Samayamantri  won their last game – causing a tie for first.

Here are the players that ended up with at least 2.5 points:

                

a.jpg

Class B

 

There was a two-way tie with a perfect three points going into the last round – afterwards Bu Long  and Matthew Lucas Hough drew to end up alone in first with 3.5 points. Meanwhile, three other players won their last games to end up with 3 points.

 

Here are the players that finished with at least 2.5 points:

 

b.jpg

 

Class C

 

Junho Park and Akshay Naik went into round four with a perfect 3 points. Then, Junho defeated Akshay to finish as the standalone winner of Class C with a perfect score of 4 points. Amy Zhan and Ethan Chen came in a close second with 3.5 points and several players ended up with 3 points.

Here are the players that ended up with at least 3 points:

c.jpg

Class D

 

Benjamin Link was the only player they had a perfect three points going into the last round. Benjamin played Kevin Peter in the final round, which he won; finalizing his perfect four wins for the tournament. At the same time, Robert Jamar Polite III and Abir Palekar both went into the last round with 2.5 points. Shortly thereafter, Robert defeated Abir to get second place alone with 3.5 points.

Here are the players that ended up with at least 2.5 points:

d.jpg

Class E

 

Three players went into the last round with a perfect 3 points: Joshua Michael Gordon, Ayaan Todi, and Neil Aditya Joshi. Joshua defeated Pratheek Gajula, who had 2.5 points, and Ayaan defeated Neil. Sean Keiya ended up alone with 3.5 points after winning his final game in a similar manner.

Here are the players that ended up with at least 2.5 points:

1000.jpg

Under 1000

 

Nilan Velu won the Under 1000 with a perfect 4 points. Then, Ishaan Tanneeru and Danzan Dashdemberel came in a tie for second with 3.5 points.

nilan

Here is Nilan receiving his trophy courtesy of his parents

Below are the players that ended up with at least 2.5 point:

 

 

1000

Under 800

 

There were six players going into the final round with a perfect 3 points: Michael Cronin, Shrinath Hariharan, Sohan Chamarthi, Nirali Mohapatra, Alexander Panich, Larry Furnish, Evgenii Khanbutaev, Rayansh Prasad and Aadhya Adusumalli. After an exciting final round, there was three players with a perfect 4 points.  Michael won on tiebreaks, Shrinath came in second with tiebreaks and Sohan came in third via tiebreaks.

mike

Here is Michael Cronin receiving the first-place trophy courtesy of his parents.

Here are the players that ended up with at least 3 points:

 

u800

Linked here is a complete cross-table for the event, courtesy of Chess Weekend, and linked here is the US rating report. Following these links, you can view the full results across any sections instead of the abbreviated standings above.

Once again, we are happy to congratulate everybody who participated and gave it their best in this tournament and to congratulate Glenn Panner and Maret Thorpe along with Chess Weekend for running the tournament so smoothly on behalf of the Illinois Chess Association. We also want to thank the 19 Illinois Chess Association members that came out and supported our Illinois State Championship.

 

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FIDE WORLD CADET CHESS CHAMPIONSHIPS 2024

FIDE WORLD CADET CHESS CHAMPIONSHIPS 2024

In Montesilvano, Italy from November 15 to November 26 over 700 players, representing over 70 countires particpated in the FIDE World Cadet Championship 2024. The US sent 46 players to compete across the three Open (U-12, U-10, U-8) and three Girls (U-12, U-10, U-8) sections of the 11-round Swiss System event.

Three players were from Illinois Aiden Li, Stella Xin and Elizabeth Xia. 

Winning the bronze in the Girls U8 was Stella Xin. Scoring 8.5 out of 11 earning the WCM title. Stella2024WC

Photo courtesy of Huijun Feng

Elizabeth Xia scored 8.0 in the Girls U8, finishing tied for fourth (3 way)

ElizbethWC 

Photo courtesy of Elle Yang

Aiden Li scored 8.5 earning fourth, in the Open U8.  Aiden had an outstanding perforumance leading 6 out of 6 going into the 7th round. 

aidenliWC 

Photo courtesy of Elle Yang

 

All the players were at this year’s ICA youth invitational. Aiden won the Rockefeller (K-5), Elizabeth came in 8th place in the Harring (Girls) and Stella came in 4th in the Harring (Girls) sections

 

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2024 Illinois All Grade Championship

2024 Illinois All Grade Championship

 

The Illinois Chess Association is happy to congratulate Jeff Diorio from Elite Chess for brilliantly organizing our 2024 Illinois All Grade Championship in Naperville, Illinois on November 9, 2024.

The tournament had nine sections: 2nd through 8th grade, while kindergarten was combined with 1st grade, likewise for high school(9th through 12th grade). In total, over 350 kids participated, of whom, we are pleased to see 50 new faces from last year. We had 10 ICA members play in the event. Further, we had better than expected representation from downstate, including the following four schools that won trophies:

Chiddix - Normal 7th Grade, 3rd Place

Grove - Normal 5th Grade, 2nd Place

Benjamin - Bloomington 4th Grade, 3rd Place

Thomas Metcalf - Normal 3rd Grade, 1st Place

trpphy

Trophies on display - courtesy of Elite Chess

 

Listed below are the results for the different sections:

High School

Nathaniel was the outright winner with a perfect four points. After Nathaniel, four players tied with 3 points, four players tied with 2 points and a further four tied with 1.5 points. Final order after tie-breaks for trophies are listed below.

nar

Nathaniel receiving his trophy; courtesy of his parents

 

HS

Eighth Grade

 

Gene Tcheng was the outright winner with a perfect 4 points. Avanish Ram Amarnath came in second alone with 3.5 points. Then, seven players finished with 3 points and two with 2.5 points. Final order after tie-breaks for trophies are listed below.

 

8

Seventh Grade

 

There was a two way tie for first place with a perfect 4 points, opposed to the previous outright winners. Artemii Khanbutaev won on tiebreaks, leaving Kavin Sivagnanam in second. There were ten players with 3 points. Final order after tie-breaks for trophies are listed below.

 artemi

Artemil receiving his trophy; courtesy of his parents

 

7

Sixth Grade

 

Alexander Pan was the outright winner with a perfect 4 points. Two players tied with 3.5 points, but Anisha came in second based on tiebreakers. There were a further 13 players tied with 3 points. The final standings after tie-breaks for trophies are listed below.

ALEX

Alexander with trophy; courtesy of his parents

6

Fifth Grade

 

There was a two-way tie for first place with 4.5 points. However, Lucas Silvestre won on tiebreaks and Sarang Athreya Sankrithi came in second. There were six players with 4 points and an additional four players with 3.5 points. Below you can find the final order after tie-breaks for trophies.

 

LUCAS

Lucas receiving his award; courtesy of his parents

 

5 

Fourth Grade

Krish Vignesh was the outright winner with 4.5 points. Four players had 4 points, of which Pradhyum came in second on tiebreaks. There were a further 6 players with 3.5 points. The final standings after tie-breaks for trophies are listed below.

KRIS

Kris with trophy courtesy of his parents

4

Third Grade

Bishrelt  Munkhsuld was the outright winner with a perfect 5 points. After him, six players had 4 points, two players had 3.5 points and twelve players had 3 points. The final standings after tie-breaks for trophies are listed below.

BIS

Bishrelt with trophy courtesy of his parents

3

Second Grade

Emily Jiaying Tang was the outright winner with a perfect 5 points. Following her, four players had 4 points, two players with 3.5 points and seven players had 3 points. Final order after tie-breaks for trophies (top ten only) are listed below.

EMILY
  

Emily – Courtesy of her parents

2 

 

Combined Kindergarten and First Grade

Shivakumaran Minor Vellapandi was the outright winner with a perfect 5 points. Afterwards, six players had 4 points, one player had 3.5 points and eight players had 3 points. Of which the final standings after tie-breaks for trophies are listed below.

 minor

 Shivakumaran Minor Vellapandi – Courtesy of his parents

 

k1

We are also proud to congratulate the following players across all sections for increasing their ratings by over 50 points and wish them the best of luck to perform as well in their next tournaments as they did in this one.

Name

Grade

PreRating

PostRating

Minor Vellapandi, Shivakumaran

0

666

914

Amouei Torkmahalleh, Raymand

1

422

543

Biswal, Shrinika

1

146

279

Garetto, Lucca

1

108

164

Kobe, James

1

104

208

NORA MAXFIELD

1

156

278

Wang, Mason

1

198

382

Yang, Miesen

1

504

585

ADLER AKHMETOV

2

118

341

Geht, Charles

2

413

508

Gerelt Od, Robert

2

141

221

Kirkman, Frankie

2

262

345

Mehta, Ness

2

340

410

Mohan, Adhvik

2

732

782

Tata, Ayansh

2

605

698

Athira Ajeesh, Adharv

3

466

598

Banoth, Shanaya

3

840

900

Bian, Brandon

3

316

479

De Zoysa, Ryan

3

117

234

EZRA POFFENBARGER

3

672

819

Gray, Nathan

3

243

439

Lakshmi Narayanan, Vidyut

3

731

820

Munkhsuld, Bishrelt

3

1294

1363

PHILLIP WHITT

3

105

242

Raina, Ansh

3

379

555

TANISH SEN

3

816

908

Wolkowitz, Ryan

3

190

244

YASH GAWAS

3

515

644

ANDREW LEE

4

512

592

Fee, Leo

4

829

923

PEARL INFANTE

4

101

164

Vignesh, Krish

4

1050

1107

Yun, Jaden

4

363

414

Zhang, Albert

4

637

818

ERKHEMBAYAR ERDENEOCHIR

5

480

554

Huang, Sam

5

280

336

LUCAS MILLARD

5

714

771

Midha, Shivansh

5

720

773

Shikhare, Aayush

5

428

543

Vepari, Kaarthisha

5

241

300

Wiseman, Zachary

5

137

193

Wu, Isalinda

5

297

480

Bayartamir, Bill

6

855

980

Herbert, Maddox

6

149

284

Jadhav, Sameehan Nikhil

6

859

928

LOHITH REDDY GONGATI

6

727

808

Zhou, Wellington

6

239

314

Boppudi, Sahasra

7

734

926

Brown, Noah G

7

543

665

ESEN MUNKHTUR

7

952

1022

Kim, Shiloh

7

475

682

Murugan, Yugan

7

202

414

Polenska, Micah

7

283

405

Prasanna Venkatesh, Mukund Vasudev

7

664

738

SAMUEL KELLY

7

981

1055

Sienkiewicz, Luke

7

706

771

Wu, Ethan

7

488

560

Zhou, Louis

7

333

412

Amarnath, Avanish Ram

8

915

1197

Ingrum, Rylan

8

643

694

Itagi, Anish

8

963

1087

JOSIAH BOVEY

8

1154

1243

Larson, Andrew

8

344

415

VIKHYATH CHATRATHI

8

929

1036

Kane, Jack Aidan

9

706

774

GANNON BATES

11

932

1114

Borne, Gavin

12

964

1136

Jaynes, Logan

12

748

884

 

The following players are members of the Illinois Chess Association who participated. Thank you for your support.

icamem 

Linked here is a complete cross-table for the event, courtesy of King Registration, and the US rating report. Following these links, you can view the full results across any sections instead of the abbreviated standings above.

Once again, we want to congratulate everybody who participated and gave it their best in the tournament and to congratulate Jeff Diorio and Elite Chess for running the tournament so smoothly on behalf of the Illinois Chess Association.

 

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Illinois Chess Association Update

The Illinois Chess Association is pleased to provide an update on our latest developments and
introduce our forthcoming enhanced website. Earlier this year, we successfully launched the
updated ICA tour, which stands out as one of the premier program among all US Chess affiliate
associations, featuring an exceptional prize fund. We invite you to visit our website to explore
our exciting updated program.

At the beginning of the year, we approached Jacob Plotnick to assume the role of our editor,
which had been vacant for several years. He graciously accepted the position and has since
produced a commendable body of work, authoring numerous articles on tournaments and
publishing interviews to recognize notable individuals within the Illinois Chess community. If you
wish to have an article written, please contact editor@il-chess.org.


Our Warren Junior Scholar director, Edwin Walker, has been diligently overseeing the program,
ensuring the success of the youth tournament, and is currently in the process of revamping the
program. Collaborating with several board members, he will soon present his innovative ideas,
which we hope to share with you in the near future.


Our new website is currently undergoing testing and is being developed from scratch. It will
retain all the categories featured on the previous site. As a frequently asked question from both
affiliates and members revolves around the value of joining the ICA, we aim for the new website
to provide an array of compelling reasons beyond the mere benefit of a five-dollar discount on
select tournaments or participation in the ICA tour.


The upcoming tournaments will showcase a fresh and modern look. The events page will
remain the same, with the Open and Scholastic categories intact. Additionally, we will introduce
new categories for the ICA tour and ICA Championship events. Notably, each category will
feature a carousel with prominent buttons, displaying the next ten tournaments in each
respective category. Simply click on a button to access the event details, conveniently located
on the main page.


In addition, we will implement an email blast system to inform you of upcoming tournaments,
similar to the approach used by US Chess. Weekly, a single email will be sent, encompassing
all upcoming tournaments organized by our affiliates. Rest assured, you will receive only one
email per week, preventing an influx of multiple messages.


We are also excited to introduce a free section on our website, where the ICA will post videos,
PGN games, and other related content. This section will provide a glimpse of the resources
available to our members, albeit on a limited scale.


Membership benefits will include access to an exclusive member area, offering PGN games for
analysis, PGN endgames for study, PGN puzzles, training videos, and the revival of the Illinois
Chess Bulletins (ICB). Furthermore, members will enjoy a five-dollar discount on select events.
For affiliates, the dedicated area will grant the ability to create and publish their own events on
our website, upload PGN games for publication, have their tournaments highlighted on the
home page, and advertise their tournaments in our weekly email sent to members. Additionally,
affiliates will have the option to have articles published about their tournaments.


National and state events will continue to receive prominent exposure, while the ICA Club Tour,
designed to support membership and affiliates, will reward members who participate in
tournaments organized by ICA affiliates. Points will be awarded for wins, losses, or draws, and

prizes, including trophies for Scholastic players, are currently being determined. Although no
monetary rewards will be provided, the prizes will hold significant value. A progress tracker will
also be available on our website.
We look forward to unveiling the new website and its enhanced features, providing our
members and affiliates with an improved online experience.

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Jonathan Kogen crowned state champion at 2024 Illinois Open State Championship

The Illinois Chess Association is proud to congratulate Danial Wilson from Wilson Chess and Bill Buklis from King Registration for their amazing job at organizing our 2024 Illinois Open State Championship, at the Doubletree Hotel in Lisle, from August 30, 2024 to September 2, 2024. 

 

The tournament consisted of six sections: Major, Under 2100, Under 1900, Under 1700, Under 1500 and Under 1300. This tournament exceeded previous years with a record of over 250 participants playing, as well as additional players in the scholastic tournament, of which there is a separate article. From there, the Illinois Chess Association wants to thank all the players for playing in the tournament and supporting our organization.

 

illopen

 Image of the main playing hall (Regency Ballroom) during the final round. By Abdallah Aldweik

 

The State Champion title goes to the Illinois resident with the highest point total. The player with the highest point total was Awonder Liang with 6.5 out of 7. Alexander Velikanov tied for second with Jonathan Kogen with 5.5 points. But, because Awonder and Alexander are both not Illinois residents they are not eligible to be the State Champion, therefore Jonathan Kogen is this year's state champion.

 

Major

 

Awonder Liang won the section with 6.5 points out of 7. Then, as previously mentioned, Alexander Velikanov and Jonathan Kogen tied for second with 5.5 points. After that, Ochirbat Lkhagvajamts  and Spencer Lahmann tied for fourth with 5 points.

 

Linked here are the top games from the 6th round.

illopen games

Under 2100

 

Andrei Skorobogatykh and Aradh Kaur tied for first place with 5.5 points. For third place, four players, Rebecca Cortez, Dario Pjevic, Gurugrahan Gurumoorthi and Gaofei Wang, tied with 5 points.

 

Under 1900

 

Adam Walker was the outwrite winner with 6.5/7 points. His only draw came in the last round against Elizabeth Xia who finished uncontested in second with 5.5 points. After that, Amarjargal Ganbaatar and Shivani Manimaran tied for third with 5 points.

 

Under 1700

 

In an exciting finish in the U1700 there were two players, Joshua Flores and Nomay Piparia played each other in a tie for first place with 5 points out of 6. They drew and ended up tied for first place with 5.5 out of 7 points. Four other players tied for third with 5 points: Lucas Silverstre, Alex Giris, Christian Walls and Sanjay Advani

 

Under 1500

 

Four players tied for first place with 5.5 points: Amy Zhan, Patrick McDonnell, Sean Gao and Jack Witman.

 

Under 1300

 

Joseph Rozenblat won outright with 6.5/7 points. Aarnav Sheth finished uncontested in second with 6/7 points. Jim Alop and Anthony Dimonte tied for third place with 5.5 points.

 

Linked here is a complete cross-table for the event, courtesy of King Registration, and the US rating report.

 

Once again, we want to congratulate everybody who participated and gave their best in the tournament and to congratulate Wilson Chess and King Registration for running the tournament so smoothly on behalf of the Illinois Chess Association.

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2024 Illinois Scholastic Tournament

 

The Illinois Chess Association is happy to congratulate Danial Wilson from Wilson Chess and Bill Buklis from King Registration for their amazing job at organizing our Illinois Scholastic Tournament, at the Doubletree Hotel in Lisle last week, on August 31, 2024.

 

The tournament had three sections: Under 1200, Under 800 and Under 500. Across the entire tournament, there were over 150 players.

 

With that, the Illinois Chess Association wants to thank all the scholastic players for playing in the tournament and supporting us. Keep up the good work and we hope to see many of you being part of our Warren Scholars program in the future.

 

Under 1200

 

Rishik Abbaraju finished as the outright winner in the U1200 section with a perfect 5 out of 5 wins. Coming in a close second, Pranv Prabhu finished outright in second with 4.5/5 points. However, four players tied for third with 4/5 points: Krithin Arunkumar, Paul Hogan, Shravan Sabarish and Tate Daniels.

 

A child holding a trophyDescription automatically generated

Rishik proudly holding his first-place trophy



The top seven players received trophies:

 

1 Abbaraju, Rishik

2 Prabhu, Pranav

3 Sabarish, Shravan

4 Arunkumar, Krithin

5 Hogan, Paul Joseph

6 Daniels, Tate                           

7 Senthilkumar, Eyal 

 

Several other players tied for seventh, but did not receive a trophy due to tiebreakers, instead they received a medal for their amazing performance:

 

8 Senthilkumar, Vidyut

9 Blanka, Daniel 

10 Kumar, Eesha 

11 Vijayaraghavan, Pradhyum 

12 Li, Ethan 

 

Under 800

Sean Pepper was an outright winner with a perfect 5 points. An additional seven players tied for second with 4 points, which are listed below,

sean

Sean proudly holding his first-place trophy

 

There were trophies awarded to the top seven players:

 

1 Pepper, Sean

2 Ruhullah, Yaqub Uzair

3 Khanbutaev, Evgenii 

4 Jain, Shourya Nirmal

5 Behl, Nina 

6 Memon, Essa Ahmed

7 Divekar, Viraj 

 

The following player got a medal instead of a trophy based on tiebreakers:

 

8 Sendhilkumar, Shivasanjith 

 

Under 500

 

Similarly to the other sections, George Baron won outright with 5 points. After that, there was a nine-way tie with 4 points, all of whom are listed below,

george

George proudly holding his first-place trophy

 

These seven players were awarded trophies:

 

1 Baron, George 

2 Divekar, Vihan 

3 Brown, Noah G 

4 Wu, Alexander 

5 Jiao, Yumu 

6 Xie, Vincent 

7 Patel, Shoobh 

 

The following players were tied for second place and did not receive a trophy due to tiebreakers.  Still, they were all awarded with a medal for their triumphs.

 

8 Agarwal, Vedansh 

9 Lal, Aariyana 

10 Dimasacat, Princess Euniece Cabales 

 

We are also proud to congratulate the following players across all sections for increasing their ratings by over 50 points and wish them the best of luck to perform as well in their next tournaments as they did in this one:

U1200:

George Baron

Noah Brown

Vihan Divekar

Yumu Jiao

Vincent Xie

Shoobh Patel

Vedansh Agarwal

Vilok Puppala

Yash Gawas

Shreya Gawas

Joseph Chiang

Mia Chiang

Darren Pinto

Frankie Kirkman

Emilio Villegas

 

U800:

Rishik Abbaraju

Pranav Prabhu

Daniel Blanka

Vidyut Senthilkumar

Eesha Kumar

Kaiden Gomez

Ansh Jiandani

Arnav Shah

Sahasvath Indla

Akhil Nandakumar

Anya Chakida

 

U500:

Sean Pepper

Shivasanjith Sendhilkumar

Shourya Jain

Yaqub Ruhullah

Essa Memon

Nina Behl

Evgenii Khanbutaev

Viraj Divdkar

Vedant Sharma

Phani Surikuchi

Angela Rivas

Kellen Shibayama

Krishiv Singh

Ayansh Tata

Suveer Reddivari

Nicole Wishniowski

Lohith Gongati

Aadya Adusumalli

Issac Mendoza

Jaden Livingstone

Aniket Panicker





Linked here is a complete cross-table for the event, courtesy of Wilson Chess, and the US rating report.

 

Once again,  we want to congratulate everybody who participated and gave it their best in the tournament and to congratulate Wilson Chess and King Registration for running the tournament so smoothly on behalf of the Illinois Chess Association.






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ICA Elections - Nomination Period for 2024 Is Now Open!

The ICA is pleased to announce the call for nominations for the five Executive Board members of the Board of Directors. The President, Upstate Vice-President, Downstate Vice-President, Secretary and Treasurer will take office on January 1, 2025 and serve a two-year term.

Who Is Eligible to Be Nominated?

Under the ICA Bylaws, directors must be residents of Illinois and members of the ICA. At least two at-large directors must reside in Cook County or the Collar Counties (DuPage, Kane, Lake, McHenry, and Will), and at least two must reside outside these counties.

Submitting Your Nomination

Any ICA member may submit a nomination. Self-nominations are also permitted and encouraged.
Nominations may be submitted by email to secretary@il-chess.org. Nominations must be seconded by 10 voting ICA members and the nominee must agree to serve. The deadline for submitting nominations is October 10, 2024.

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 1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9  10 
 
On January 14,  the Glenwood Chess Club hosted Chess Wars XIX.
The Under 1650 and Open Sections were combined at the event. The always dangerous Sam Henderson took first place as the Open section winner.
The lucky tournament organizer seemed to be on fire and took first place in the U1650 section. The other winners taking second through fifth place respectively were: Richard Lewis, Yashom Kapoor, Joseph “The Great” Hooks and Megan Chen.
 
In the Under 1250 Division, the first through third place winners were: Paul Fritz, Yana Kapoor, and Avichal Josi. 
For more information about Glenwood Chess Club, activities and events, please visit us at glenwoodchessclub.com.