More than 500 players attended last month’s state All-Grade championshiop at Whitney Young High School in Chicago, co-organized by Chess Education Partners, Whitney Young High School and the Youth Chess Fondation of Chicago. This included 100 low-income students, many of whom were playing in their first tournament, who received free entry.
The tournament had 13 sections, one each for grades kindergarten through 12. A list of the winners follows. Congratulations to all:
Kindergarten: Nikolai Rhodes
1st grade: William Zhu
2nd grade: Jason Scott Daniels and David Wallach
3rd grade: Vincent Do
4th grade: Miranda Liu
5th grade: Anshul Adve and Jack Curcio
6th grade: Alec Feygin, Colton Longstreth and Akash Mattu
7th grade: John (Joey) Bikus and Allen Guo
8th grade: Chase Walbert and Maximilian Zinski
9th grade: Sam Schmakel
10th grade: George Ruan and Charles Swan
11th grade: Jamison Kaczmarek
12th grade: Saagar Gupta
Five of those champions—Rhodes, Adve, Zinski, Schmakel and Swan—are among close to 60 Illinois players who are spending this weekend in Orlando, Florida competing in the National All-Grade tournament, which runs from Friday to Sunday. Players from three area high schools—Evanston, Glenbard South and Whitney Young—make up about half the Illinois contingent. Click on this link to follow the results online.