On Labor Day weekend as always the 2009 IL State Championship took place at the Double Tree Hotel in Oak Brook, IL.
Over 100 people attended the event. The top section featured 2 GM’s Amanov and Gurevich, 2 IM’s Felecan and Young (Multiple times State Champion) as well as 2 FM’s Chow and Stamnov.
There were 2 schedules people could play in: the 3 day or the 2 day which had faster time control for the first few rounds. The standard time control was Game 120 with a 30-second increment.
The early leader was GM Amanov with 4/4; however he had to settle for draws in the last 2 rounds against Gurevich and Felecan. This meant that with a crunch win over IM Young in Round 5 IM Felecan was able to tie for first with GM Amanov, and both players are Illinois State Champion for 2009.
Tied for third place was GM Gurevich and non-titled player Gopal Menon, who doesn’t play very often but when he does watch out at the board. He defeated FM Chow, NM Murgescu and drew with NM Rosen while on his way to the great score of 4.5/6. GM Gurevich had a string of 3 draws in the last 3 rounds which kept him out of the top spot.
Matthew K. Wilber became an expert player at this tournament scoring 3.5/6. Wilber has improved his rating from 1600 in June 2009 to over 2000 now. That is proof that if you put your mind to something you can do it!
In the Reserve section Matthew Gruber Castillion ran way with the tournament scoring 5.5/6. Castillion drew his first game then won the last 5 games to take first place and gain 46 rating points. In second place with 5/6 was Siddarth S Datla
The Game 25 tournament in the evening sadly did not draw many players. Only 9 players took part and Tyler J Lerner scored 4/5 to take first place.
In the trophy tournament Michael Malis scored 5/5 to take clear first a point ahead of second place. His rating went up 205 points to 1177.
The next big tournament in Illinois is the Midwest Class in October; hopefully everyone can make it.