With a fourth round victory over GM Vlad Georgiev, Jacob Furfine claimed a share of the 2015 Illinois Class Championship alongside GM Dmitry Gurevich. Both finished with 3.5/4.

Earlier Gurevich had drawn Georgiev while Furfine had drawn fellow junior Nicholas Bartochowski. Wisconsin's Alexander Velikanov, Dritan Zekaj and Bartochowski tied for third in the section.

The event was held at the Hilton Lisle / Naperville November 22 with six sections. US Chess crosstables have been published. Results for all sections are now posted on the ICA site.

Modestly, Jacob claimed he didn't win as much as he was the recipient of a blunder, but he'll take it nonetheless. With the event, Furfine also earned the $500 first prize for the the Open section of the ICA's Illinois Chess Tour. He finished with 28 points from six events, 1.5 better than GM Georgiev. The two played in exactly the same events with the exception of the Chicago Class -- Furfine earned 4.0 in July's tournament, Georgiev sat that one out.

Jacob recently represented the US and Illinois at the World Youth in Greece. He was the seventh-rated 14 year old in the country as of the November listings. GM Gurevich was also on the World Youth trip, serving as coach to many of the USA contingent.

Also returning from Greece, Jason Daniels swept all four rounds in the Class A competition, closing out the tournament with a victory over top-rated Jeff Dixon who finished in a four-way tie for third. James Condron took second at 3.5.

Daniels did not have an easy route, prevailing over three of the four third-placers: Mohammad Khan, Robert Hill and and Dixon. Matthew Barbian was also in the 3.0 score group, losing to Khan in the second round.

According to initial US Chess ratings (subject to re-rate) Daniels smashed past the elusive 2000-barrier to 2051, unofficially placing Jason in the top 20 12-year olds in the country. (This performance will first be factored into January 2016 official ratings.)

Jason's championship effort also broke a 24.0-all tie in the Reserve Scholastic section of the Illinois Tour, earning him an extra $200 and a fancy plaque. Aidan Carey finished second, 1.5 points back. Jason's 29.0 points was the highest total of the three Tour sections. He has won a plaque (top five) in each of the four years since the ICA Tour was revived, but this was Jason's first year as a section winner. (Aidan was also the runner up in 2014, edged out by two-time Tour champ Andrew Fei).

Class B competition created a three-way tie for the championship at 3.5 featuring Daumants Hazners and two Wisconsin entrants: Swain Prasad and Divya Pandey. The two cheeseheads drew in the second round, while Hazners began the tournament with a half-point bye.

Bethany Simos and Daniel Margulis claimed the Class C Championship with 3.5's. Toby Yang and Nicholas Bruha were a half-point back, tying for third place. Toby finished third in the Reserve Scholastic section of the tour with 24 points.

Among Class D players, Krishna Appalaneni was perfect at 4.0. Benjamin Pirogovsky took second with 3.5. A three-way for third included Trung To, Patrick McCluskey and Evan Liu. Both To and McCluskey fell victim to Appalaneni while To defeated Liu in the second round.

In Under 1200 competition, Kevin Boskey and Mike Snedeker both posted perfect 4.0's with Boskey grabbing the first place trophy on higher tiebreaks. Peter Ranchero won the U1000 trophy and Jimmy Nguyen earned the U800 top award, both with 3.0 scores.

Emmanuel Antony took second for U1000's (also with 3.0) and Pranay Prabhaker took second among U800 competitors with 2.5.

On tiebreaks, Derrick Red won the third place medal for Under 1200's atop a seven-way tie at 3.0.

Also on tiebreaks, Perry Zhao nabbed the third place medal for Under 1000's and Sriram Tipirneni earned the third place medal for Under 800's. 

At 2.0, Sailesh Jiandani had the top score among first-time US Chess competitors (unrateds).

Todd Freitag claimed the Reserve Adult section of the 2015 Illinois Tour, the plaque and $200. Todd didn't join the tour until the fifth of the 12 events, the Chicago Open. Because he avoided the top two sections of the Chicago Open, he was eligible for the Reserve division according to Tour rules. Freitag finished with 28.0 points for the year, two points ahead of Rudy Padilla and 3.5 ahead of Slawomir Borkowski. Both Padilla and Borkowski competed in Class C at the Class Championships while Freitag was facing Master/Expert section competition. 

Padilla was the 2014 Tour's Reserve Adult winner, ahead of Borkoswki who finished second. Freitag had placed fifth. Borkowski also earned the fourth place plaque in 2013.