March, besides being the birth month for Bobby Fisher, is known for many things, including St. Patick’s Day and March Madness. I’ve found at times that chess can leave me green with envy or feeling like I have the luck of the Irish in a blitz game. This month, like all months, we pay tribute to those who have gone past the final four in a tournament to go on to the championship game to win it all. Here’s some highlights from around the state:
January 6 to February 3: The John Montwid Memorial Tournament had some bumps along the way for a couple of the masters playing in the tournament by each of them drawing a game to one lower rated player. In the end Steven Tennant took first with 3.5 points. Crosstables.
February 3: The Naperville Youth Chess Club put on their Quad 5 tournament and had 13 players and three sections. Winners for each section were: Q1 (Jacob Zhou), Q2 (David Wang, Matthew Tang, and Allen Shi), and Q3 (Christopher Xu). Crosstables.
February 4: The University of Chicago Chess Club put on a Groundhog Day Tournament and with 24 had three people tieing for first. Unfortunately, none were from IL. The first place winners were Wesley Clark (LA), Michael Francus (PA), and Daniel Friesen (OR). Crosstable.
February 4: Elgin Academy 2012 Scholastic Tournament had 81 players participating. In the Primary Section, Edward Zhang and Fredrich Yuan drew with each other to tie at the top of the pack with 4.5 points. In the Elementary Section, Alan Hentrich had a clear 1st place with 4.5 points, and in the Middle School Section, three players tied with 4.0 points (Kabirul Kazi, Sean Burnette, and Christopher Madsen). Crosstables.
February 4: The Benjamin-Grove Tournament in Bloomington, IL had 227 kids participating in it. (If you don’t think that’s a lot of kids then just scroll slowly down the crosstables.) In each section there was only one winner: Pierce McDade (Lower Primary), Advaith Prabu (Upper Primary), Ethan Catt (Elementary), and Colton Longstreth (Junior High). Crosstables.
February 4: The Feb 2012 G/30 Tournament out in Skokie drew a lot of competition around the 2000 rated range. In the end Class A player Kent Cen saw his rating go up to Expert when he beat out Christopher Girardo to win the tournament. Crosstable.
February 4 to 5: The Greater Chicago K-12 Champions Tournament had 132 players in Northbrook, IL. There was ten sections and here is the winners for each: K9 Varsity (Yue Xu, Jack Curcio, and Ryan Toepfer), K9 JV (Minkee Lee and Palmer Corbett), K9 Novice (Georgia Wolf), K3 Var/JV (Huaye Lin), K3 Novice (Navaj Sivakumar), K12Varsity (Christian Kavouras), K12 JV/Nov (Joseph Fennessey), K6 Varsity (Leo Ma), K6 JV (Aayan Patel, Tej Rai, and Ellison Scoy), K6 Novice (Kevin Ho). Crosstables.
February 11: Peoria Academy Sweetest Tournament drew 20 players to this two section event. Patrick Li finished 4.0 in Section 1 and four players (Jonathan Xu, Connor Cai, Thomas Anuroop, and Nicholas Kolettis) tied with 3.0 points in Section 2. Crosstables.
February 11: The Glenn Snowbird 2012 Tournament a scholastic event in Normal IL had 208 kids and four sections. The winners in each section were: Lower Primary (Anesh Konagalla), Upper Primary (Vishal Chandrasekar), Elementary (Cassie Parent), and Junior High (Nathaniel Sobery). Crosstables.
February 11: The 3rd Geralds Anderson Memorial Tournament in Decatur, IL had 26 players. It was an incredible strong field with all three people who tied for first were Expert Strength and above. Winners were Nikhilesh Kunche, Petros Karagianis, and David Long. Crosstable.
February 12: Renassance Knights once again put on one of their events. This time it was the 74th Knights Quest in Northbrook, IL. Four Sections. Only one winner in each section. Here is the breakdown: Kent Cen (Open), Ritesh Sivakumar (U1400), Jonah Karafiol (U1000), Kevin Ho (U600). Crosstables.
January 23 to February 13: The Last Chance Tournament in Peoria had 12 players participating. Ronald Suarez took the four round event losing only to higher rated Peter Mc Conaghie. Crosstable.
February 15: The Downers Grove Chess Club put on their Wed. #2 Tournament. Even though there was 7 players, they had a strong field with two experts. In the end, Gregory Bungo beat out Steffen Klug in the second round and won the event. Crosstable.
February 17 to 19: The United States Amateur Team – North 2012 Tournament in Northbrook IL had 171 players in it. Team Names don’t show up in the official crosstables but they can be found here. Chess X-men ( from IL won the tourament. Individual game results are found in the crosstables.
February 18: The Huck Finn Classic in Dekalb, IL had 25 players and the most original names for sections that I’ve seen – Mark and Twain. In the Mark Section Anuj Dahiya was the sole person with 3.0 points. In the Twain Section – Erik Czerwin and Jacob Patterson tied by both bein the only players to win all their games. Crosstables.
February 18: The 2012 Illinois Blitz Tournament had 38 players in Northbrook, IL. If you guessed that the lone GM entry into the tournament would win it then in this instance you were correct. Dmitry Gurevich went 9/10 to come out on top. Not that he didn’t have a lot of tough competition. Check out the full crosstable.
February 18: The Orland Park – February ’12 Tournament drew 12 players to this scholastic event. Kyle Kras and Christian Diaz tied for first. Christian kept chances alive for first place by beating Kyle in the fourth round. Crosstable.
February 19: Dynamic Chess put on their DTS#5 Tournament and had 40 children participating in this three section event. In the K-2 Section Ignance Bielobradek took a clear first place win. In the K-8 Open section there was a tie for first between Abdel Raoul and Adam Pastor. In the K-8 U800 section Maansey Rishi won all his games. Crosstables.
February 20: The Naperville – February Tournament had 22 players and one person who won all five of his games. Jacob Zhou. Crosstable.
February 20: Maximillian Zinski took first place in the Benet Invitation 1 Tournament in Lisle, IL. Crosstable.
February 24: The Naperville Youth Chess Club Quad #6 tournament drew 15 players. The winners in each section were very similar to the players from earlier in the month: Q1 (Jacob Zhou), Q2 (Allen Shi, Matthew Tang, Anshu Indusekar, and Alan Zhang), and Q3 (Christopher Xu). Crosstables.
February 25: The Chicago Amateur 4 Tournament in Chicago had twelve players and two sections. In Section A, Mark Korin and Vytautas Vitkauskas drew each other in the third round which meant they ended up tieing for first place. In Section B almost everyone tied for first. Finishing with 2.5 points a piece were Rudy Padilla, James Wang, Darin Link, and Jimmy Hamera. Crosstables.
February 25: The Prairieland Tournament in Bloomington, IL had 209 players. With a lot of tournaments with a lot of players and more rounds it usually ends up with one clear winner in each section, but there was one tie. Here are the results for each section: Lower Primary (Pierce Mcdade), Upper Primary (Jacob Davis), Elementary (Cassie Parent and Thomas Moh), and Junior High (Thomas Anderson). Crosstables.
February 25: Hough 2012 Tournament had 78 children for the scholastic event in Barrington, IL. In the Primary Section Jack Bradley won all his games to finish with 5 points. In the Elementary section there was five players who all lost one game and so they tied for first (Alan Hentrich, Alex Menikoff, Nathan Nguyen, Sameer Bhagi, and Jason Yuan). In the Middle School Section Nicholas Bartochowski drew only one game finishing at the top of the pack with 4.5 points. Crosstables.
February 25: The Village of Park Forest Chess Challenge Tournament had 26 players. Len Weber took it all by winning all four of the rounds. Crosstable.
February 25: The 49th Kumbaya Scholastic Tournament was held in Skokie, IL. It was put on by Chess-Ed and there were 96 players in this four section event. Winners included: U600 (Mason Robbins, Jonas Vriend, Diana Shklover, Russell Mcgrath, and Thomas Dean), U1000 (Alex Yasumoto and Maxim Arzumanov), U1400 (Jay Magiera, Shreya Mangalam, and Oliver Brady), and +1400 (Rafeh Qazi). Crosstables.
February 25: The February Game-60 Tournament in Skokie, IL drew 24 players. It was a close event with the final result coming down to the last game of the last round. When the dust settled Kent Cen won and Robert Moskwa tied for second with Janyl Tilenbaeva, Dimitri Kosteris, and Jack Curcio. Crosstables.
February 7 to 28: The Illowa Feb. 2012 Club Tournament in Moline, IL had 26 players participating and is always a close tournament to see which state will finish on top. This month it was IL with Luis Peralta winning all four of his games. Crosstable.
February 29: Johan Widmann took first place in the scholastic section of the Benet Inviational 2 Tournament. Crosstable.