May flowers bring April Showers. Or something like that. Chess can be topsy-turvy. Masters suggest learning the endgame first. Higer rated players don’t always end up on top. Provisional players beat more tournament savy players. This month had it all.
April 1: The Illini Chess Club had it’s April Fools Open. No really. 8 people participated in this dual section event. Michael Auger won the UR Section and Joe Mcgee won the LR section. Crosstables.
March 31 to April 1: The International Youth Team event took place in Oak Brook IL. One person shy of having 100 participants. This 99 strong event had two sections. In the Under 10 section Anastasia Golovkina and Nikita Styazhkin tied for first with 7 points out of 7 points. In the Combined section the top four highest rated players tied for first with 6.5 points: Maksim Mokshin, Mark Emdin, Anna Styazhkina, and Vladislav Dyakov. Crosstables.
March 30 to April 1: The Illinois Youth Invitationals was in Skokie, IL and had 24 players for this 3 section event. The Denker Section had Expert rated Robert Moskwa denting Sam Schmakel’s near perfect win record by a draw in the third round. The Girls Section had Yue Xu and Miranda Liu drawing each other and one other person but beating the same amount of people to tie for first. In the Barber Section, Zhaozhi Li took first with 4.5 points. Crosstables.
April 3: The Quad City Quads had three sections and 12 players. Each section was named for the person who won. So either they were named after the fact, or the Chief TD is pretty good at picking who will come out on top. The three first place winnners were John Beydler, Kevin Hyde, and Roger Kromphardt. Crosstables.
April 7: The UChicago G60 tournament drew 26 players. Steven Rand, the highest rated player and one of the few “out-of-towners”, won all four rounds. He also saw his rating break the 2000 mark. Crosstable.
April 7: New Lenox was the place for the Warriors Open and Reserve Tournament. 20 players participated in this dual section event. Adrian Zolkos won the open section and picked up over a 100 points. Carl Widmann won the Reserve Section. Crosstables.
April 7: The Quest 2012 Scholastic Tournament took place in Palatine and had 84 players. There were three sections and the winner was Edward Zhang in the Primary Section. The Elementary Section had five players tying for first: Tej Rai, Mariss Li, Christopher Vu Jeffrey Zhang, and Jason Yuan. In the Middle School Section, Tenzing Shaw was the clear winner. Crosstables.
April 7: April Game 30 Tournament in Skokie drew 26 players. Two of the three experts finished first – Kent Cen and Alex Bian. Crosstables.
March 26 to April 9: The DualDuel tournament had 12 players participating. Even though playing all rounds didn’t clinch winning the tournament. It also didn’t hurt for Adam Lonn. Crosstables.
April 14: The CP April Tournament had 7 players in Chicago, IL. The lone player with 4 points was Joseph Guth, Jr. Crosstable.
April 15: 76th Knights Quest took place in Northbrook, IL. 92 players showed up for this 4 section event. Aung Zin once again won the Open Section. Edgar Talayko and Ricky Roman finished first with 3.5 points in the U1400 section. Bashkim Useni was only person to win all games in the U1000 section, and both Ethan Soifer and Timmy Boush won all their games in the U600 section. Crosstables.
April 14 to 15: 9th Nam – Scott Silverman Memorial Tournament was held in Skokie and had 30 players. There was tough competition with four masters and several Expert and Class A players. In the end, Kenneth Wallach and Steven Szpisjak tied for first. Crosstables.
March 5 through April 16: The TCCC Open Championship 2012 was held in Bloomington, IL. 18 players particpated and after the four rounds were completed, three of the highest rated players were tied at first with 3.0 points a piece. They were Joseph Alford, Jonathan Bonwell, and Suryaprakash Kopula. But as they say in the movie Highlander, “There can be only one.” So after the top finishers had a chance to play each other in a couple of Tiebreak Rounds it was Joseph Alford who finished up on top. Crosstables.
April 20: The KCF All Girls National Blitz Tournament had 26 players participating. Rachel Gologorsky finished first by never losing a game. (O.K., she drew a couple). Crosstable.
April 20: The scholastic tournament of NYCC April had 16 players and 4 sections. The winners were: Alexander Hu (Q1), Matthew Tang (Q2), Jeffrey Cheng (Q3), Raleigh Clemens (Q4). Crosstables.
April 21: The Webster Dictionary Open drew 16 players to Dekalb. Provisional players came out on top in the event. In the Open Section Sureshkumar Rajani took first. In the Under 1400, Jacob Patterson won all three of his games. Crosstables.
April 21: The Twin City Chess Club had their Normal April Open. 27 players participated and Robert Naiman was the first place winner. Crosstable.
April 22: The KCF All-Girls National Championship had 238 players and 6 sections. In the 18U section, Anupama Rajendra beat or drew several higher rated opponents to not only win the section but pick up 200 rating points. Lilia Poteat beat her closest rival in the fifth round to win the 16U section. In the 14U Section, Apruva Virkud may have beat Joie Wang in the third round, but Rachael Eng gave Apurva an upset in the fourth round. Meaning that when all was through Apruva and Joie tied for first with 5.0 points. In the 12U Section it came down to the last round with the two highest rated players playing each other for the title and Ashritha Eswaran came out on top. In the 10U Section, which happened to be one of the largest sections, Jennifer Yu and Ramitha Ravishankar drew in the last round to both finish with 5.5 points. In the 8U Section, Maggie NI finished with 5.5 points. Crosstables.
April 22: DTS #7 Tournament drew 23 players to this two section scholastic event. In the K-2 section there was a tie between Daniel Kozintsev and Abhinav Shankar. In the K-8 Open Section Cassie Parent won all games finishing with 4 points. Crosstables.
April 22: Touch Move Chess Center happened to have one of the few tournaments with 100% Illinois participation in April. 8 people came out and Rene Ancheta finished with 3 out of 3. Crosstable.
April 22: Park’s Place I Tournament in Oak Lawn had 6 players. Justin Rajsky and Kymantas Alborovas tied for first with 3 points. Crosstable.
April 28: The Kumbaya 51 Scholastic Tournament had 4 sections and 78 players. The winners in each section were: U600 (Adrian Wilburn), U1000 (Goren Hoyle and Rohit Pisipati), U1400 (David Wallach), and +1400 (Jonathan Tan). Crosstables.
April 28: The April G/60 Tournament was in Skokie and had 33 players participating. Eli Goering was the sole player winning all 4 games and gained 154 points. Crosstable.
April 29: The Chicago Amateur – 6 Tournament drew 20 players to this two section event. In Section A, I’m going to go out on a small limb and say it was a family affair with Avinash and Anupama Rajendra tieing for first with 4.0 points. In Section B, Ube Leopoldo, a provisional player who picked up 170 points, and Alexander Hu tied with 3.5 points. Crosstables.