News
GM Avrukh Claims '14 Greater Midwest Class Championship
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- Written by Bill Feldman Bill Feldman
- Created: 01 December 2014 01 December 2014
Third time is a charm: Illinois' newest grandmaster, GM Boris Avrukh has finally earned an outright championship in an American event. With his fifth-round victory over GM Nikola Mitkov, Avrukh secured the lone 4.5 tally atop of field of 35 entrants in a combined Masters and Experts section of the Greater Midwest Class.
Earlier Avrukh had drawn GM Vlad Georgiev in the second round denying him a perfect score. Avrukh's provisional USCF rating has now eclipsed 2700. In three events since moving to Illinois from Israel, Avrukh has 12 wins, three draws and zero losses.
GM Georgiev shared runner-up status with FM Alexander Velikanov of Wisconsin, both with 4.0 results. A five-way tie for fourth place at 3.5 featured GM Mitkov, New York's William Fisher -- a FIDE Master and the 11th-rated Under 21 year old in the US, and Illinois stalwarts IM Florin Felecan, Zach Kasiurak and Jacob Furfine.
Everyman Publishes Rockford Coach Czerwin's Chess Progress
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- Written by Bill Feldman Bill Feldman
- Created: 07 September 2014 07 September 2014
Rockford Guilford High School has not had a chess program for a few years but thanks to second-year teacher Erik Czerwin, the Vikings will be competing in the Northern Illinois Chess League (NICL) in 2014-2015.
Czerwin was named the Illinois Chess Coaches Association "Coach of the Year" in 2012 when he was coaching at Marengo High School. Since then, Coach Czerwin has compiled some of his first-rate training materials into an instructive book being published today by Everyman Press.
A description and an exerpt can be found here. The book is subtitled: From Beginner to Winner.
Illinois' Felecan Amid Top Six-Pack at '14 Cleveland Open
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- Written by Bill Feldman Bill Feldman
- Created: 18 August 2014 18 August 2014
IM Florin Felecan rode three victories and two draws to a stake in the co-championship of the Continental Chess Association's 2014 Cleveland Open. All six of the 4.0/5 scorers came from different states.
Felecan is currently the seventh- or eighth-rated active player in Illinois based on USCF ratings depending on which list is consulted.
Illinois' Zach Kasiurak finished in an eight-way tie for 10th place with 3.0/5. Kasiurak drew co-champion GM Sergey Kudrin in the second round.
9 States Represented at 60th Iowa Open; Brooks Repeats
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- Written by Bill Feldman Bill Feldman
- Created: 18 August 2014 18 August 2014
Missouri's Michael Brooks repeated as the undisputed champion of the Iowa Open, defeating Illinois' Angelo Young in the final round. Going into their game, Young had been leading the tournament with the only 4-0 record.
Brooks had begun the two-day, five-round event with a draw, finishing 4.5. Young's 4.0/5 resulted in a four-way tie for second with Awonder Liang (WI), Robert Keating (IA) and Arshaq Saleem (IA).
Young, Liang and Keating had all been runners up to Brooks in the 59th Iowa Open in 2013. Brooks was also the co-champion in 2012.
The tournament was hosted at the Marriott Hotel and Conference Center in Coralville, IA, completed August 17. Crosstables viewable here.
Turgut Becomes Illinois' 12th USCF-Active FIDE Master
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- Written by Bill Feldman Bill Feldman
- Created: 08 August 2014 08 August 2014
Dr. Tansel Turgut spends a lot of time these days as the proud poppa to his son Aydin, the third-rated 9-year old in the country -- and at times this year -- number one in his national age group.
But the Decatur-area interventional cardiologist has demonstrated this year he is not quite ready to hand over the reigns to Aydin as the family's best chess player.
After two recent co-championships in midwest events, the senior Turgut has been awarded the title of FIDE Master.
Turgut had the higher tiebreak in a two-way tie for top honors at the just-completed Chicago Class. He was co-champion with four others in April's Bill Wright Open held in St. Louis.