2025 Greater Chicago Championship

•  2025 Greater Chicago Championship

 

The Illinois Chess Association is happy to congratulate David Heiser from Renaissance Knights for running their 15th annual Greater Chicago Championship. The event was held on February 8, 2025. The Renaissance Knights Chess Foundation, Kasparov Chess Foundation, Chicago Public Schools Academic Chess program, and SBB Research Group worked together to bring the tournament to Chicago at the McCormick Place.. 

The tournament had eleven sections with almost 700 participants. There were two High School sections, consisting of K-12 Championship and K-12 Reserve. The following each had three sections, composed of Championship. Reserve and Novice: Junior High (K-8), Elementary (K-6) and Primary (K-4).  The Championship section consisted of four rounds with game 40 with a 5 second delay. The reserve and novice sections had five rounds of game 25 with a 5 second delay.

High School K-12 Championship

 

There was a very exciting last round with four players entering the last round with a perfect three points: Artemii Khanbuyaev, Dario Pjevic, Sachit Srinivas Rajkumar and Avi Harrison Kaplan. Artemii defeated Avi, leaving him alone in first with a perfect four points. Dario drew against Sachit to both end up with 3.5 points; Whitman Kosak also ended with 3.5 points. 

 

Here are the players that finished with at least three out of four points:

 

High School K-12 Reserve

 

We had a close last round with two players entering the last round with a perfect four points: Alp Bahadir Caputlu and Julian Plascencia. Alp defeated Julian to win the K-12 reserve section. There were a further eight players that also went into the last round with 3.5 points.

Here are the players that finished with at least 3.5 out of five points:

 

Junior High K-8 Championship

 

There was a close final round with Andrew Gerelt Od being the only player going into the last round with a perfect three points. However, he was defeated by Isaac Chan-Osborn who went into the round with 2.5 points out of three.

 

Here are the players that finished with at least two out of four points:

 

Junior High K-8 Reserve

 

There was an exciting final round with two players entering with a perfect four points: Ayush Geddamuri and Dustin Tallacksen. Ayush defeated Dustin to be the winner of the Junior High Reserve section. Meanwhile, Sameehan Nikhil Jadhav and Zakaria Isahnounen both had 3.5 points after round four.

 

Here are the players that finished with at least 3.5 out of five points:

 

Junior High K-8 Novice

 

There was an exciting final round with four players entering the last round with a perfect four points out of four games: Munther Kurdi, Eric Cheng, Kingsley Ng and Anlun Ping. Kurdi defeated Kingsley and Eric defeated Anlun creating a two way tie with a perfect five points. But, Kurdi was awarded the Junior High K-8 Novice winner on tiebreaks. At the same time, Theodore Hoffman was the only player going into the final round with 3.5 points. 

 

Here are the players that finished with at least 3.5 out of five points:

 

Elementary K-6 Championship

 

We had a very exciting last round with four players with a perfect three points:  Anirudh Sai Jeeju, Angad Saran, Ishaan Jean and Bishrelt Aiden Munkhsuld. Anirudh defeated Bishret, while Angad and Ishaan played to a draw. This gave the Championship for the Elementary K-6 to Anirudh. Angad and Ishaan finished tied with 3.5 points and Angad was awarded second place due to tiebreaks. 

 

Here are the players that finished with at least 2.5 out of 4 points:

 

 

Elementary K-6 Reserve

 

There was an intense final round with two players entering the last round with a perfect four point: Alex Milewski and Dev Guru. Alex defeated Dev to end up with a perfect score. Meanwhile, both Ranvir Kochar and David Bobrov entered the final round with 3.5 points, culminating in Ranvir defeating David, giving him outright second place.

 

Here are the players that finished with at least 3.5 out of five points:

 

Elementary K-6 Novice

 

In this section, an impressive five players entered the final round with a perfect four points: Liam Kane, Srihitesh Adusumalli, Cindy Pelka, Lincoln Seiler and Isalinda Wu. There also were two players with 3.5 points: Luis A Narvaez and Adam Mckee. In the end, Liam defeated Isalinda and ended up in first place due to tiebreaks. Srihitesh defeated Luis to get second place on tiebreaks. Cindy defeated Lincoln to get third place via tiebreaks. 

 

Here are the players that finished with at least 4 out of five points:

 

Primary K-4 Championship

 

Four players went into the final round with a perfect three points: Danzan Dashdemberel, Vaibhav Juturu, Vihaan Narisetty and Roydin George. Danzan defeated Vihaan. Vaibhav defeated Roydin. This caused a two player tie with a perfect 4 points; of which Danzan became the Primary Champion on tiebreaks.

 

Here are the players that finished with at least 2.5 out of 4 points:

 

Primary K-4 Reserve

 

There was a close fight in the final round between Albert Yan, who entered the round with 4 points, and Alvin Fang, who entered the round with 3.5 points. After Alvin defeated Albert, he ended alone in first place with 4.5 points and Albert finished tied with four other players with four points. However, Albert placed second place via tiebreaks. 

 

Here are the players that finished with at least 3.0 out of five points:

 

Primary K-4 Novice

 

We had a very exciting final round with five players entering the last round with a perfect four points: Adam Michura, Daze Duncan, Brendan Kobe, Ronald D Finley, Jr. and Anthony Caetano. There were an additional four players with 3.5 points: Charlie Mazzuca, Aarav Dhadankar, Curtis Kwan, Karter Hill, and Kyrihn Cooper. In the final round, Adam defeated Ronald to end up with a perfect 5 points. Duncan defeated Anthony to also finish with a perfect 5 points. Adam finished in first place due to tiebreaks. Meanwhile, Brendan drew against Krihn–giving him third place alone. 

 

Here are the players that finished with at least 4 out of five points:

 

The Illinois Chess Association would also like to congratulate the following players that increased their ratings by at least 50 points.

 

 

Linked here is a complete cross-table for the event, courtesy of Renaissance Knights, and linked here is the US rating report, courtesy of US Chess. Following these links, you can view the full results across any sections instead of the abbreviated standings above. Once again, we are happy to congratulate everybody who participated and gave it their best in this tournament and to congratulate David Heiser along with Renaissance Knights for running the tournament so smoothly. 

Read More

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.

Position	Points	Tie-Breaks	Team
2	6	119.5	Lincolnshire (Stevenson)
3	6	109	Palatine (Fremd)
4	6	108.1	Chicago (Payton)
5	6	103.5	Aurora (Waubonsie Valley)
6	6	83.8	Dunlap
7	6	83.4	Evanston (Twp.)
8	6	81.9	Aurora (Illinois Math and Science Academy)

 

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:

Name	Points	Medal
Anjaneya Rao	7.0	Gold
Ekansh Mehrotra	7.0	Gold
Michael Li	7.0	Gold
Ochirbat Lkhagvajamts	7.0	Gold
Vinay Sridhar	7.0	Gold
William Cahill	7.0	Gold
Arjav Patel	6.5	Gold
Ben Popilek	6.5	Gold
David Chen	6.5	Gold
David Li	6.5	Gold
Debarghya Das	6.5	Gold
Jad Khoury	6.5	Gold
Sadkrith Malladi	6.5	Gold
Trifon Megremis	6.5	Gold
Aaron Hyler	6.0	Silver
Aaron Kwan	6.0	Silver
Ade Arroyo	6.0	Silver
Anshul Shetty	6.0	Silver
Aryan Shrigadi	6.0	Silver
Blake Wall	6.0	Silver
Daniel Avila	6.0	Silver
Enkhjin Namuunbayar	6.0	Silver
Eric Gorokhovsky	6.0	Silver
Eric Shpigelskiy	6.0	Silver
Ian Guo	6.0	Silver
Jack Modica	6.0	Silver
Jacob Plotnick	6.0	Silver
Jake Wittman	6.0	Silver
Jakub Laczek	6.0	Silver
Jeremiah Esios	6.0	Silver
Jeyson Vasquez	6.0	Silver
Joseph Sokan	6.0	Silver
Joshua Wang	6.0	Silver
Kavin Bendre	6.0	Silver
Koji Lemke	6.0	Silver
Kolawole Dawodu	6.0	Silver
Matthew Simpson	6.0	Silver
Nimay Piparia	6.0	Silver
Palash Gupta	6.0	Silver
Reese Black	6.0	Silver
Salvio Benoy	6.0	Silver
Sedrik Punzalan	6.0	Silver
Soham Dongre	6.0	Silver
Sreekar Gangavarapu	6.0	Silver
Vikram Oberai	6.0	Silver
William DeAllaume	6.0	Silver
William Wang	6.0	Silver
William Wang	6.0	Silver
Yuvraj Chennareddy	6.0	Silver
Aayush Thakkar	5.5	Bronze
Aiden Petersen	5.5	Bronze
Ajani Sutherland	5.5	Bronze
Alex Lazarowicz	5.5	Bronze
Alex Palacios	5.5	Bronze
Andre Dzwiniel	5.5	Bronze
Andrew Radnaasuren	5.5	Bronze
Andy Cao	5.5	Bronze
Benjamin McKendall	5.5	Bronze
Brandon Adams	5.5	Bronze
Brandon Van	5.5	Bronze
Cole Harris	5.5	Bronze
David Yong	5.5	Bronze
Dominic Millar	5.5	Bronze
Drake Callear	5.5	Bronze
Gavin Snopko	5.5	Bronze
Geri Paray	5.5	Bronze
Immanuel Sanchez	5.5	Bronze
Immanuel Zerega	5.5	Bronze
Ivan Saldana	5.5	Bronze
Jack Flynn	5.5	Bronze
Jack Ramsey	5.5	Bronze
James Montella	5.5	Bronze
Johan Cervantes	5.5	Bronze
Josh Reece	5.5	Bronze
Josh Zhao	5.5	Bronze
Kaleb Ashworth	5.5	Bronze
Kenneth Murray	5.5	Bronze
Konrad Kremper	5.5	Bronze
Kushan Bonela	5.5	Bronze
Kyle Bresingham	5.5	Bronze
Lyndon Proby	5.5	Bronze
Manan Syal	5.5	Bronze
Nelson Cui	5.5	Bronze
Nemotillo Parpiev	5.5	Bronze
Nolan Deines	5.5	Bronze
Omar Soliman	5.5	Bronze
Pedro Garcia	5.5	Bronze
Peter O'Brien	5.5	Bronze
Pierce Wei	5.5	Bronze
Reilly Meeker	5.5	Bronze
Ria Raj	5.5	Bronze
Rishi Murali	5.5	Bronze
Ryan Morgan	5.5	Bronze
Sahil Sabzaali	5.5	Bronze
Samantha Arnold	5.5	Bronze
Sergio Gutierrez	5.5	Bronze
Somil Bose	5.5	Bronze
Thomas Frame	5.5	Bronze
William McCloskey	5.5	Bronze
Zaid Ghaffari	5.5	Bronze

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

Read More

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

Read More

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.

Read More