Alex Ursu of Whitney Young won the Advanced Section of the January YCFC tournament with four wins and a second-round draw.

The free event attracted 319 from 39 teams competing in five sections at Gwendolyn Brooks school in Chicago on January 16. It was co-sponsored by Youth Chess Foundation of Chicago and the Chicago Chess Foundation.

Chris Gora of Ogden International had the top tiebreak in a five-way tie for second place at 4.0. Rahul Ravisundar (Clarendon Hills), Avi Kaplan (Decatur), Leonard Rionaula (Bateman) and Matthew Li (Skinner North) were all in that scoregroup.

Ursu defeated Gora in the final round and Ravisundar in the penultimate round to secure the championship.

Bateman was the team winner with 11.0, just ahead of Skinner North (10.5) and Whitney Young (10.0).

John Seward of Decatur won the Novice K-2 section with a perfect 5-for-5 effort.

William Wang of Edgebrook was second with four wins and a draw.

Decatur also won the K-2 team competition with 14.0, Edgebrook was second with 11.5, and Skinner North third at 10.0.

Three perfect scores were posted in the Grades 3-4, including Luke Roasado of Bateman, Nathan Caropreso of Wildwood and Collin Jung of Edison.

Skinner North was the top team with 16.0, ahead of Bateman (14.5) and Newberry (12.5).

In Grades 5-6, Diego Bolanos of Gallistel was 5-for-5 while Declan Rodgers was a close second with four wins and a third-round draw.

Edgebrook won the team championship with 16.0, outpointing Lenart (14.5) and Waters (14.0).

In Novice 7-8, Liam Jackson of Coonley posted the lone perfect 5.0 score, defeating Lane Tech's Harry Heller in the final round. On tiebreaks, Harry took the second place trophy with a 4.0 score, a result shared by several others including Davione Thrower (Cook), Traolach O'Sullivan (Ogden International), Erik Tolbert (Earle STEM), Adam Chaparro (Waters), and Cristian Tovar (Beaubian).

Earle STEM narrowly won the team competition with 13.0, a half-point better than Cook (12.5) and Kinzie (12.5).

The next YCFC event is February 20 at Rickover Academy on the northside of Chicago.

 

Grades K-2 Novice Grades 3-4 Novice Grades 5-6 Novice
Place Name School Score   Place Name School Score   Place Name School Score
1 John Seward DEC 5.0   T-1 Luke Rosado BAT 5.0   1 Diego Bolanos GAL 5.0
2 William Wang EDG 4.5   T-1 Nathan Caropreso WLD 5.0   2 Declan Rodgers EDG 4.5
T-3 Grant Poorman SAC 4.0   T-1 Colin Jung EDS 5.0   T-3 Tamaria Reasnover COO 4.0
T-3 Noah Shankman SKN 4.0   T-4 Joshua Liu LEN 4.0   T-3 Charlie Wade-Schroeder WAT 4.0
T-3 Joaquin Hong DEC 4.0   T-4 Matei Cotefrea PKV 4.0   T-3  Jana Zivanovic BAT 4.0
T-6 Evan Lee SKW 3.5   T-4 Anisha Oberai AUR 4.0   T-3 Charlotte Prus EDG 4.0
T-6 Collin Nunez JEF 3.5   T-4 Boaz Lee SKN 4.0   T-3 Kevin Cordoba BAT 4.0
T-6 Aya Bareket HOM 3.5   T-4 Aaron Nunez JEF 4.0   T-3  Armando Besa EDG 4.0
T-6 Alex Ivascu BAT 3.5   T-4 Preston Ellis SKN 4.0   T-3 Jack Edwards LEN 4.0
          T-4 Theo Mairoca WAT 4.0   T-3  Philip Kujawa LEN 4.0
          T-4 Paul Stiles SKN 4.0   T-3 Harry Dobrow SKN 4.0
          T-4 Daniel Lim SKN 4.0   T-3  Hunter Fleming WAT 4.0
                           
Grades K-2 Novice Team Results Grades 3-4 Novice Team Results Grades 5-6 Novice Team Results
Place Team (Players) Code Score   Place Team (Players) Code Score   Place Team (Players) Code Score
1 Decatur (7) DEC 14.0   1 Skinner North (9) SKN 16.0   1 Edgebrook (12) EDG 16.0
2 Edgebrook (4) EDG 11.5   2 Bateman (9) BAT 14.5   2 Lenart (4) LEN 14.5
3 Skinner North (3) SKN 10.0   3 Newberry (11) NEW 12.5   3 Waters (5) WAT 14.0
                           
Grades 7-8 Novice Advanced Section
Place Name School Score   Place Name School Score
1 Liam Jackson CON 5.0   1 Alex Ursu WTY 4.5
T-2 Harry Heller LAN 4.0   T-2 Chris Gora OGD 4.0
T-2 Davione Thrower COO 4.0   T-2 Rahul Ravisundar CLH 4.0
T-2 Traolach O'Sullivan OGD 4.0   T-2 Avi Kaplan DEC 4.0
T-2 Erik Tolbert ERL 4.0   T-2 Leonard Rionaula BAT 4.0
T-2 Adam Chaparro WAT 4.0   T-2 Matthew Li SKN 4.0
T-2 Cristian Tovar BEU 4.0   T-7 Umair Ahmed BAT 3.5
T-2 Gabby Cisneros KIN 4.0   T-7 Jack Heller SKN 3.5
T-2 Will Kiely BEL 4.0   T-7 Ernest Rionaula BAT 3.5
T-2 Elijah Williams STE 4.0   T-7 Vikram Oberai AUR 3.5
                 
Grades 7-8 Novice Team Results Advanced Team Results
Place Team (Players) Code Score   Place Team (Players) Code Score
1 Earle STEM (10) ERL 13.0   1 Bateman (8) BAT 11.0
T-2 Cook (6) COO 12.5   2 Skinner North (4) SKN 10.5
T-2 Kinzie (5) KIN 12.5   3 Whitney Young (4) WTY 10.0