Spencer Lehmann, Alex Bian Finish 1-2 At '16 North American Open in Under 2300; Roger Li Ties For First in Under 1500

 

With 6.5/7, Spencer Lehmann has won the Under 2300 section of the 2016 North American Open. Alex Bian placed clear second with 6.0/7.

The pair of Illinois high schoolers drew head to head in the penultimate round, with Bian drawing Iowa high schooler Arshaq Saleem in the final round to finish a half-point back.

Three players, including Saleem, finished with 5.5 to tie for third place.

The Continental Chess Association event concluded December 30 in Las Vegas drawing almost 800 players in seven sections.

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ICA Elections Underway, E-Ballots Should Have Arrived

 

Now that the American people have undertaken their part in our democratic process -- and the electoral college has spoken -- it's time for yet another election!

No, Donald Trump is still slated to take office January 20, but starting yesterday Illinois Chess Association members should have received a ballot allowing them to vote for FIVE offices for the ICA Board of Directors.

President, Metro (Chicago) Vice President, Downstate Vice President, Secretary and Treasurer are all up for two-year terms.

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Fishman & Kokipparambil Bump Ratings 300+ As of Dec 1

 

69 Illinois players saw ratings increases of 100 points or more as of December. No one's rating increased more than Daniel Fishman who more than doubled his rating from 288 to 611, a difference of 323!

Fox Valley Chess Club's Advaith Kodipparambil enhanced his rating from 608 to 918, a difference of 310.

If you are one of the players listed below... or their parent... and would like to share with us the secret of the ratings growth... or any other information about chess progress, we'd love to acknowledge success at the chess board -- or in related activities!

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ICA Site Hacked Again, Articles Lost, No Further Content Forthcoming Pending Security Review

 

With days to go before the 2016 Illinois Class, the Joomla-based ICA site was hacked and shut down by the site's host due to suspicious activity. Prompt action by webmaster Bill Buklis and Joomla administrator Maret Thorpe got the site up and running within hours with minimal content loss.

Over the next few days additional updated content was restored and other mysteries were resolved. Life was back to normal.

Yesterday (December 5), the site was attacked again and in the process of getting it back up, many recent articles posted over the past two weeks were lost.

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ICA Website Maliciously Attacked, Service Restored

 

Good news, bad news.

Service has now been largely restored on this website thanks to the valiant efforts of webmaster Bill Buklis along with those Maret Thorpe, the site-designer and Joomla administrator.

Unusual activity had been detected by the internet service provider, provoking them to close down the site for a time on Friday (11/18). The site was restored to its pre-attack state using back ups and attempts are being made to restore updated content.

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