ChessKid.com Gold Accounts Available Once Again

If your child is a scholastic ICA member and you have previously had a Gold Account on ChessKid, please contact editor@il-chess.org to have your Gold status reinstated.

The ICA board decided not to continue the program at its most recent meeting, but a generous benefactor has decided to fund the renewal of a limited number of accounts to allow Illinois kids to prepare for upcoming state and national tournaments. If there is sufficient interest, the Gold status may continue throughout the term of the ICA membership.

A 25-page guidebook providing a logical sequence of videos to watch is available for download here. ChessKid.com provides a kid-friendly, safe environment to play games against online opponents and to learn all about chess through almost 100 hours of videos, unlimited tactical puzzles and repeatable training exercises.

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Hrach Wins '16 Illinois High School Individual Championship; Highland Park High School Takes Medley Team Title

The first Illinois High School Individual and Medley Championship held since the mid-1970s was held February 27 - 28 at Maine South High School in Park Ridge.

31 high school students and eight teams competed for state champion titles. The tournament featured Game/100 time controls over five rounds.

In the individual competition, Expert Jonathan Hrach took the 2016 Illinois High School Individual Champion title with a perfect 5.0 score followed by New Trier's John Compton with 4.0 / 5. Eight others tied for third place with 3.5 / 5.

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Rockford Marshall Earns 8th Grade Title at 2016 IESA

Bloomington Evans and Normal Chiddix both won team trophies in all three divisions at the 2016 IESA Championships.

But it was Rockford Marshall garnering the 8th Grade team championship, led by individual champion Vincent Do and silver medalists Sengdao Inthavong, Jeremiah Davis, and Sreyansh Mamidi.

Complete results for the IESA are posted, along with information on how a junior high or middle school might participate in the 2017 competition which will once again be held in Peoria.

Over 50 teams and 479 individuals competed in the two-day, seven-round event completed February 27 at the Peoria Civic Center.

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Record Turnout of 422 at YCFC / CCF Rickover Tourney

Goudy teammates Daniel Percastegui and Muhammad Balai faced off in a playoff game to decide the Advanced Section of the February 20 YCFC / CCF tournament. Percastegui prevailed in the five-minute blitz match to claim the top trophy. Both had perfect 5-for-5 days before that, ahead of an eight-way pack of 4.0 scorers. The duo led Goudy to the Advanced team championship, aided by Mohammad Rahman's 3.0 tally.

Avi Kaplan, Ryan Wong and Umair Ahmed placed third through fifth on tiebreaks in that 4.0 score group. Others with 4.0 included Jimmy Nguyen, Rob Parkel, brothers Aditya and Vikram Oberai, and Jana Zivanovic. Thanks to the 4.0's from Ahmed, Nguyen, and Zivanovic, the Bateman team took second place hardware.

In five sections, 422 competed at Rickover Naval Academy, the most ever for a YCFC event.

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Whitney Young Regains IL High School Team Championship

After a year absence, Whitney Young has once again won the IHSA state team chess championship. Despite losing on first board, Whitney Young defeated Stevenson (Lincolnshire) 42.0 to 26.0 in the final round to claim the championship with a perfect 7.0. 

With a large faction of the tournament hall gathered around Fourth Board and the team score at 33.0-26.0, Nikhil Kalghatgi offered a draw to his Stevenson opponent, Conrad Oberhaus. The 4.5 points would have been enough to secure the team championship, but would have cost Nikhil his own perfect score. When the offer was rejected, Nikhil went on to secure the win in a thrilling end game. 

Stevenson was one of five squads winding up with 6.0/7, taking second place with the highest tiebreak in the score group.

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