Illinois High School Association (IHSA) - Chess State Championship 2025

Illinois High School Association (IHSA)

Chess State Championship 2025

Peoria, Illinois February 14-15, 2025

Firstly, I’d like to thank the organizers and the directors, along with all the players, for making this edition of the IHSA State Championship the best it could’ve been.

The tournament consisted of the 128 best high school teams across the state, who all competed in their respective sectional events two weeks prior. Now, onto the results:

128 teams played in the tournament – after the first three rounds only 16 teams remained undefeated.

Round 4; Final 16 undefeated

Table 8: Dunlap defeated Lemont (H.S.) 44 vs 24

Table 7: Evanston (Twp) defeated Northbrook (Glenbrook North) 55 vs 13

Table 6: Naperville (Neuqua) defeated Glenview (Glenbrook South) 48.5 vs 19.5

Table 5: Lincolnshire (Stevenson) defeated Naperville (North) 46.5 vs 21.5

Table 4: Hoffman Estates (Conant) defeated Chicago (Lane) 43.5 vs 24.5

Table 3: Palatine (Fremd) defeated Aurora (Illinois Math and Science Academy) 47 vs 21

Table 2: Chicago (Whitney Young) defeated Hinsdale (Central) 42 vs 26

Table 1: Chicago (Payton) defeated Aurora (Waubonsie Valley) 45 vs 23

Round 5; Final 8 undefeated

Table 4: Naperville (Neuqua) defeated Hoffman Estates (Conant) 42 vs 26

Table 3: Lincolnshire (Stevenson) defeated Chicago (Payton) 48 vs 20

Table 2: Palatine (Fremd) defeated Dunlap 46.5 vs 21.5

Table 1: Chicago (Whitney Young) defeated Evanston (Twp.) 37 vs 31

Round 6; Final 4 undefeated

Table 2: Palatine (Fremd) defeated Naperville (Neuqua Valley) 51.5 vs 16.5

Table 1: Chicago (Whitney Young) defeated Lincolnshire (Stevenson)  38 vs 30

Round 7, Final round; Final 2 undefeated

Table 1. Chicago (Whitney Young) defeated Palatine (Fremd) 49.5 vs 18.5

Chicago (Whitney Young) came in first, the only undefeated team with 7 points to become the IHSA State Champion for 2024-2025.

There was a seven way tie for second place, here are the list of the seven with positions determined by tie-Break, all of these teams were awarded plaques for their efforts to achieve 6 points out of 7 – except for second and third place who received trophies for their respective placing.

Here is the winning team:

Courtesy of IHSA

Additionally, Glenn Panner from Chess Weekend supplied individual award medals to all players with at least 5.5 points out of 7. Bronze was awarded with 5.5, Silver with 6, and gold with 6.5 or 7 points. Around 100 players received medals out of 1200.

The following participants were awarded medals:

Linked here is a complete cross-table for the event, courtesy of IHSA

ICA Illinois Tour Prizes 2025

Prizes 

• Open: Awarded to players with the most Tour points accumulated in open or top-level sections, including the U2300 section at the Chicago Open.

  • $500.00 1st 

  • $450 2nd

  • $400 3rd

  • $350 4th

  • $300 5th

• Reserve – Adult:  Awarded to players 19 years of age or older as of the final Tour event who played in one or more reserve or class sections.

  • $300 1st

  • $250 2nd

  • $200 3rd

  • $150 4th

  • $100 5th

• Reserve – Scholastic: Awarded to players under 19 years of age as of the final Tour event who played in one or more reserve or class sections.

  • $300 1st

  • $250 2nd

  • $200 3rd

  • $150 4th

  • $100 5th

Players will earn participation awards based solely on the number of tournaments entered, subject to the requirement of playing a minimum of at least one-half of the scheduled rounds (byes not included).

• 7 Tour events played - Free ICA Membership for the following year ($15.00 value)
• 9 Tour events played - $25 chess merchandise gift
• 11 Tour events played - $50.00 chess merchandise gift

12 Tour events played - $100.00 chess merchandise gift certificate

Tim Just Winter Open XLI – First ICA Tour event 2025

Tim Just Winter Open XLI – First ICA Tour event 2025

The Illinois Chess Association is happy to congratulate Bill Buklis from King Registration and Dan Wilson from Wilson Chess for impressively running our first ICA tour event of 2025, the 26th Tim Just Winter Open. The event was held from January 3 to January 5, 2025 in Schaumburg, Illinois. During the tournament, there was a scholastic side tournament on January 4, 2025; which can be found here.

The tournament had six sections: Major, Under 2100, Under 1900, Under 1700, Under 1500, and Under 1300. In total, there were nearly 300 participants, 63 of which were ICA members. The tournament consisted of five rounds of game 90 with a 30 second increment.

Picture Courtesy of Wilson Chess

Master 

We had a very exciting last round where FM Ochirbat Lkhagvajamts was leading  with a perfect 4 points and four players tied in second with 3.5 points going into the final round: IM Augusto Cesar Campos, GM Praveen Balakrishnan, CM Anjaneya Sripathy Rao, and John Abraham. John took a bye in the last round, leaving him a total of 4 points for the event. Meanwhile, Augusto won giving him 4.5 points tying Ochirbat who drew Praveen giving the Master co-champion title to  Augusto and Ochirbat with 4.5 points. Praveen and John ended up tied for third with 4 points. 

Here are the players that finished with at least three and a half points:

Under 2100

We had an undefeated player, Srivatsan Sekar, with a perfect 5 out of 5 wins. Michael H Li was also undefeated after taking a half point bye in the first round, ending up with 4.5 points. Steven Napoli ended up alone in third place with 4 out of 5 points. There was a 7-player tie with 3.5 points. 

Here are the players that finished with at least three and a half points:

Under 1900

There was a two-way tie for first place with 3.5 out of 4 points going into the last round, making for an exciting finish with three other players having a total of 3 points. Chad Beasley and Amarjargal Ganbaatar played each other for the U1900 title. Chad won the game for a total of 4.5 points. Amarjarga ended up in an 8-way tie for second with 3.5 points. The other 7 players are listed below with 3.5 points.

Here are the players that finished with at least three and a half points:

Under 1700

There were two players going into the last round with 3.5 points. Ojas Sahoo and Evan Y Jin. Since Ojas drew Evan in round 4, they did not play each other. Instead, Ojas ended up defeating Junho Par to take the title with 4.5 points.  We had three players ending up with 4 points coming into a tie for second place. The three players were Joshua Flores, Emil Sadyktov and Junho Park.

Here are the players that finished with at least three and a half points:

Under 1500

Going into the last round Henry Byrne Thomas was the only undefeated player with 4 out 4 points. He defeated Tecumseh Griffin to end up undefeated with 5 points. Meanwhile, Robert Gavin Decicco won his last game to finish outright in second place with 4.5 points.

Here are the players that finished with at least three and a half points:

Under 1300

Shaun Stubenvoll won the U1300 title with a perfect score of 5 out of 5 games. At the same time, Saboor Khan, who came in second, had an outstanding achievement considering he was unrated starting the event. We had another outstanding tournament by Connor Chung who also came into the event unrated ended up with 4 points. We also want to recognize the following players who came into the event unrated to enjoy our first ICA tour event of 2025: Ravi Ranjan, Andrew Block, Ian Sornson, Bud Harrison, Kayleb Sims, Max Grouper and Shorya Mehta.

Here are the players that finished with at least three and a half points:

Linked here is a complete cross-table for the event, courtesy of King Registration, and linked here is the US rating report. Following these links, you can view the full results across any sections instead of the abbreviated standings above. Linked here is a recap with many pictures and cross tables courtesy of Wilson Chess for the event. Once again, we are happy to congratulate everybody who participated and gave it their best in this tournament and to congratulate Bill Buklis along with King Registration and Dan Wilson from Wilson Chess for running the tournament so smoothly. We also want to thank the 63 Illinois Chess Association members that came out and supported our first ICA tour event for 2025.

January 2025 Top Youth

January 2025 Top 100 Youth

Welcome & congratulations to Nora Maxfield (515) and Frankie Kirkman (452), who made the national Top 100 Girls.