The world of chess is a big one. In the month of August there was the start of the 40th Fide Chess Olympiad in Istanbul, Turkey where one of the stories from it is to see if Medina Aulia, 14, from Indonisia will become one of her country’s youngest Women’s Grandmaster. There was a five way tie at Open International de Sants for first. Gata Kamsky won the Washington International. Three top French players were suspended for cheating. And the first feature documentary “Algorithms”, on blind chess, is finished.
In Illinois there seventeen tournaments which is light for this state. Here’s the highlights:
August 4: In New Lenox they had the Warriors Open and Reserve Tournament in which 26 players participated. In the Open Section, winning all three rounds was Kyle Mathews, and in the Reserve Section was Walter Griesmeyer accomplishing a perfect record. Crosstables.
August 4: In Skokie, IL Sevan Muradian hosted the August Game 30 Tournament. It had 13 players and had Kent Cen edging up his rating three points by winning 4.5/5.0. Crosstable.
August 5: Renaissance Knights hosted their 80th Knights Quest Tournament in Northbrook, IL with 114 players participating. In the Open Section, Avinash Rajendra did the rare feat and defeated Aung Zin who typically takes first in the section. But Avinash wasn’t the only strong player in the section and Vincent Do ending up tying for first place. In the U1400 Section Emmett Madigan was the sole player to win all four rounds, an accomplishment duplicated by Jonas Vriend in the U1000 Section. In the U600 section, two players went undefeated, David Zimmermann and Vinodh Sekhar. Crosstables.
August 5: The August Game 24 Tournament in Skokie, IL drew 13 players. Christopher Baumgartner had his solitary loss to Vincent Hart in the second round but Vincent drew two players in subsequent rounds so the two ended up tying for first. Crosstable.
August 11: 1st Steinitz Memorial Open had 22 players in Dekalb, IL for this two section event. In the Open Section, Patrick Lacey took first with a perfect record. In the Reserve Section, Vladimir Koveshnikov and Jacob Patterson drew each other in the second round and ended up tying for first. Crosstables.
August 11: The 2nd Glenwood Blitz had six players in it and ten rounds. Tam Nguyen, the lone expert in the group, couldn’t be stopped or slowed and he ended up winning all rounds. Crosstable.
August 11: The First Illinois vs. Indiana Match was held in Glenwood and had 17 players participating. Five players ended up with two points in this two round event. The majority were from Illinois. Take that Hoosiers. The top players were: Joe Emole (IL), Kymantas Alborovas (IL), Akash Shah (IN), Eric Mendenhall (IL), and Walter Griesmeyer(IL). Crosstable.
August 11: Peoria, IL was the location for the Midstate Chess Camp Tournament that had two sections and 21 players. The Anand Section had Yiliang Li winning all four games, and the Nakamura Section was up for grabs with four people tying for first: Jazel Carr, Edward Zhang, Alice Li, and Joyce Li. Crosstables.
August 11: The So ILL Summer Open Tournament in Salem, IL had 19 players. James Pollitt and Brad Baldridge ended up drawing different people and tied with each other with 2.5/3.0 points. Crosstables.
August 18: Ronald Martin was the Chief TD for the My Second Tournament — tournament, in Park Forest, IL. Gregory Bungo took first place with a perfect record. 18 players participated.Crosstable.
August 19: The 2nd Chicago All-Stars in Northbrook, IL had 40 players. With so many players and three rounds there were six players who ended up with perfect records. They were: Aung Zin, Avinash Rajendra, David Sye, Mark Reed, Mohammad Askari, and Vishesh Verma. Crosstable.
August 18 to 19: The 13th NA Amateur in Skokie, IL had a lot of tough comptetion. Of the 24 players, there was one master and 4 experts and a lot of strongly rated players. In the end, the two highest rated players, Steven Szpisjak and Tam Nguyen tied for first with 3.5 points. Crosstables.
August 25: The 49th Bradley Summer Open had 32 players in Peoria, IL. A Game 80 event with four rounds had master Nikhilesh Kunche taking first by winning all four rounds. Crosstable.
August 25: The August Game 60 tournament in Skokie, IL drew 25 players. Tam Nguyen finished with a perfect 4.0. Crosstables.
August 26:The August Game 45 tournament had 7 players in Skokie, IL. This was the second tournament of the weekend for the North American Chess Association and the second time that Tam Nguyen took first. Crosstable.
August 7 to 29: The Illowa August 2012 Club tournament had 21 players in Moline, IL. Illinois didn’t finish on top but in the end, Mark Flowers, from Iowa did with 4.0 out of 4. Crosstable.
August 30: The Glenwood Thursday Octogon had 9 people playing in the G/40 tournament. Kymantas Alborovas was the clear winner of the three round event by beating out one of the second place players in the second round. Crosstable.