1 Abbaraju, Rishik
2 Prabhu, Pranav
3 Sabarish, Shravan
4 Arunkumar, Krithin
5 Hogan, Paul Joseph
6 Daniels, Tate
7 Senthilkumar, Eyal
Jonathan Kogen crowned state champion at 2024 Illinois Open State Championship
The Illinois Chess Association is proud to congratulate Danial Wilson from Wilson Chess and Bill Buklis from King Registration for their amazing job at organizing our 2024 Illinois Open State Championship, at the Doubletree Hotel in Lisle, from August 30, 2024 to September 2, 2024.
The tournament consisted of six sections: Major, Under 2100, Under 1900, Under 1700, Under 1500 and Under 1300. This tournament exceeded previous years with a record of over 250 participants playing, as well as additional players in the scholastic tournament, of which there is a separate article. From there, the Illinois Chess Association wants to thank all the players for playing in the tournament and supporting our organization.
Image of the main playing hall (Regency Ballroom) during the final round. By Abdallah Aldweik
The State Champion title goes to the Illinois resident with the highest point total. The player with the highest point total was Awonder Liang with 6.5 out of 7. Alexander Velikanov tied for second with Jonathan Kogen with 5.5 points. But, because Awonder and Alexander are both not Illinois residents they are not eligible to be the State Champion, therefore Jonathan Kogen is this year's state champion.
Major
Awonder Liang won the section with 6.5 points out of 7. Then, as previously mentioned, Alexander Velikanov and Jonathan Kogen tied for second with 5.5 points. After that, Ochirbat Lkhagvajamts and Spencer Lahmann tied for fourth with 5 points.
Linked here are the top games from the 6th round.
Under 2100
Andrei Skorobogatykh and Aradh Kaur tied for first place with 5.5 points. For third place, four players, Rebecca Cortez, Dario Pjevic, Gurugrahan Gurumoorthi and Gaofei Wang, tied with 5 points.
Under 1900
Adam Walker was the outwrite winner with 6.5/7 points. His only draw came in the last round against Elizabeth Xia who finished uncontested in second with 5.5 points. After that, Amarjargal Ganbaatar and Shivani Manimaran tied for third with 5 points.
Under 1700
In an exciting finish in the U1700 there were two players, Joshua Flores and Nomay Piparia played each other in a tie for first place with 5 points out of 6. They drew and ended up tied for first place with 5.5 out of 7 points. Four other players tied for third with 5 points: Lucas Silverstre, Alex Giris, Christian Walls and Sanjay Advani
Under 1500
Four players tied for first place with 5.5 points: Amy Zhan, Patrick McDonnell, Sean Gao and Jack Witman.
Under 1300
Joseph Rozenblat won outright with 6.5/7 points. Aarnav Sheth finished uncontested in second with 6/7 points. Jim Alop and Anthony Dimonte tied for third place with 5.5 points.
Linked here is a complete cross-table for the event, courtesy of King Registration, and the US rating report.
Once again, we want to congratulate everybody who participated and gave their best in the tournament and to congratulate Wilson Chess and King Registration for running the tournament so smoothly on behalf of the Illinois Chess Association.
Read More2024 Illinois Scholastic Tournament
The Illinois Chess Association is happy to congratulate Danial Wilson from Wilson Chess and Bill Buklis from King Registration for their amazing job at organizing our Illinois Scholastic Tournament, at the Doubletree Hotel in Lisle last week, on August 31, 2024.
The tournament had three sections: Under 1200, Under 800 and Under 500. Across the entire tournament, there were over 150 players.
With that, the Illinois Chess Association wants to thank all the scholastic players for playing in the tournament and supporting us. Keep up the good work and we hope to see many of you being part of our Warren Scholars program in the future.
Under 1200
Rishik Abbaraju finished as the outright winner in the U1200 section with a perfect 5 out of 5 wins. Coming in a close second, Pranv Prabhu finished outright in second with 4.5/5 points. However, four players tied for third with 4/5 points: Krithin Arunkumar, Paul Hogan, Shravan Sabarish and Tate Daniels.
Rishik proudly holding his first-place trophy
The top seven players received trophies:
Several other players tied for seventh, but did not receive a trophy due to tiebreakers, instead they received a medal for their amazing performance:
8 Senthilkumar, Vidyut
9 Blanka, Daniel
10 Kumar, Eesha
11 Vijayaraghavan, Pradhyum
12 Li, Ethan
Under 800
Sean Pepper was an outright winner with a perfect 5 points. An additional seven players tied for second with 4 points, which are listed below,
Sean proudly holding his first-place trophy
There were trophies awarded to the top seven players:
1 Pepper, Sean
2 Ruhullah, Yaqub Uzair
3 Khanbutaev, Evgenii
4 Jain, Shourya Nirmal
5 Behl, Nina
6 Memon, Essa Ahmed
7 Divekar, Viraj
The following player got a medal instead of a trophy based on tiebreakers:
8 Sendhilkumar, Shivasanjith
Under 500
Similarly to the other sections, George Baron won outright with 5 points. After that, there was a nine-way tie with 4 points, all of whom are listed below,
George proudly holding his first-place trophy
These seven players were awarded trophies:
1 Baron, George
2 Divekar, Vihan
3 Brown, Noah G
4 Wu, Alexander
5 Jiao, Yumu
6 Xie, Vincent
7 Patel, Shoobh
The following players were tied for second place and did not receive a trophy due to tiebreakers. Still, they were all awarded with a medal for their triumphs.
8 Agarwal, Vedansh
9 Lal, Aariyana
10 Dimasacat, Princess Euniece Cabales
We are also proud to congratulate the following players across all sections for increasing their ratings by over 50 points and wish them the best of luck to perform as well in their next tournaments as they did in this one:
U1200:
George Baron
Noah Brown
Vihan Divekar
Yumu Jiao
Vincent Xie
Shoobh Patel
Vedansh Agarwal
Vilok Puppala
Yash Gawas
Shreya Gawas
Joseph Chiang
Mia Chiang
Darren Pinto
Frankie Kirkman
Emilio Villegas
U800:
Rishik Abbaraju
Pranav Prabhu
Daniel Blanka
Vidyut Senthilkumar
Eesha Kumar
Kaiden Gomez
Ansh Jiandani
Arnav Shah
Sahasvath Indla
Akhil Nandakumar
Anya Chakida
U500:
Sean Pepper
Shivasanjith Sendhilkumar
Shourya Jain
Yaqub Ruhullah
Essa Memon
Nina Behl
Evgenii Khanbutaev
Viraj Divdkar
Vedant Sharma
Phani Surikuchi
Angela Rivas
Kellen Shibayama
Krishiv Singh
Ayansh Tata
Suveer Reddivari
Nicole Wishniowski
Lohith Gongati
Aadya Adusumalli
Issac Mendoza
Jaden Livingstone
Aniket Panicker
Linked here is a complete cross-table for the event, courtesy of Wilson Chess, and the US rating report.
Once again, we want to congratulate everybody who participated and gave it their best in the tournament and to congratulate Wilson Chess and King Registration for running the tournament so smoothly on behalf of the Illinois Chess Association.
2024 US Open Denker High School Invitational Winner – Avi Kaplan
Avi Kaplan travelled to Norfolk, VA to represent Illinois in the 2024 US Chess Championship national invitational. Each state sends one person. Illinois determines who to send from an Illinois Chess Association state invitational, which AVI won with a score of 4.5/5 points. 50 states + DC send their qualifying chess delegate to compete, with California sending two for northern and southern regions.
The US Open Denker Invitational is 6 rounds starting July 27th with one game, two games on 28th and 29th and last game on 30th. Time control was G90+30.
Avi was undefeated. He had four wins and two draws giving him a total of 5 out of 6 points. Two other high school players had a total of 5/6 creating a three-way tie. Avi was given second place in the tiebreakers. For his efforts, other than being co-champion of the “Denker Tournament of HS Champions” Avi received a $3000 college scholarship. Illinois Chess Association also gave him a $250 travel stipend.
Here is Avi receiving his award.
The complete cross-tables can be found here.
https://www.uschess.org/results/2024/usopen/?page=STANDINGS&xsection=denker
Here is Avi’s game for round six. He had a wonderful accuracy rating of 92.4% from Chess.com
The Illinois Chess Association wants to congratulate Avi for bringing home the Denker Co-Champion and being part of the team that brought to Illinois the team co-champion.
Read MoreAnjaneya Rao Named Champion of Champions at 2024 Barber Middle School Invitational
Every year, the Illinois Chess Association runs a tournament among the best players from 6th - 8th grade to represent Illinois in the US Barber Middle School Invitational. This year, Anjaneya Rao won and represented Illinois in Norfolk, VA. Every state and D.C. sends one delegate, while this year Virginia and California sent two delegates.
The US Open Barber Invitational was a 6-round(G90+30) tournament from July 27th - July 30th during which Anjaneya was undefeated. He finished as the sole winner with a score of 5.5 out of 6 after 5 wins and 1 draw. As Well as being the “Champion of Champions” of the Barber Middle School Invitational, Anjaneya received a $5000 scholarship to the college of his choice from USCF.
Below is Anjaneya receiving his award, pictured with Dewain Barber, after whom the tournament is named.
Here is Anjaneya’s game for round six, where he defeated Jasmine Su from Connecticut with the French Defense:
The Illinois Chess Association is proud to congratulate Anjaneya for his impressive performance at the Barber Invitational this year and hope to see just how much he can achieve.
The complete cross-tables can be found here
Illinois Makes a Splash at 2024 US Chess Invitationals
Just over two months ago, in late May of this year, the Illinois Chess Association ran our Youth and Senior Invitationals – used to determine the strongest player in their respective age section to represent Illinois in the US Open Championship Invitationals. The five players representing Illinois are pictured below: Larry Cohen (Irwin-Senior), Rebecca Corez (Haring-Girls), Avi Kaplan (Denker-High School), Anjaneya Rao (Barber-Grades 6-8) and Aiden Li (Rockefeller-Grades K-5).
From left to right: Rebecca, Larry, Aiden, Anjaneya, and Avi.
In the combined state team category, there was a four-way tie for first between Connecticut, Texas, Illinois, and Arizona. Based on tiebreaks, Illinois was awarded third place. Each player played a total of six games in their respective tournaments, their individual results are below:
Rebecca Cortez scored 3.5 points.
Avi Kaplan scored 5.0 points and finished as co-champion
Anjaneya Rao scored 5.5 points and finished as champion
Aiden Li scored 4.0 points
Larry Cohen scored 3.0 points
Below are the results of all of the teams who tied for first:
Place Code Name Score TBrk[M] TBrk[S] TBrk[C]
1 1-4 CT CT (2167.0) 21.0 72 110.5 78.5
IM Maximillian Lu (2479) 4.5
Jasmine Su (2241) 4.5
Lilianna Gao (1931) 4.5
Lacey Wang (1961) 4.5
Mikhail Koganov (2223) 3.0
2 TX TX (2177.8) 21.0 70 104.5 75
IM Eric Chang Liu (2446) 5.0
FM Sharvesh R Deviprasath (2540) 5.0
Ellery Zhang (1821) 4.0
Oscar Yihang Zhang (1997) 3.5
Scott Alan Elliott (2085) 3.5
3 IL IL (2074.4) 21.0 69 102 75
Anjaneya Sripathy Rao (2205) 5.5
Avi Harrison Kaplan (2319) 5.0
Aiden Linyuan Li (2024) 4.0
Rebecca Cortez (1824) 3.5
Lawrence S Cohen (2000) 3.0
4 AZ AZ (2166.6) 21.0 66 98 73
IM Sandeep Sethuraman (2479) 5.0
Roshan Sethuraman (2223) 4.5
Aishwarya Lakshmi Ganapathy (1844) 4.0
Sharvesh Arul (1959) 4.0
FM Robby Adamson (2328) 3.5
Click here to view the results of all teams who competed.
To help cover fees to travel to the tournament, all scholastic representatives received a $250 travel stipend from the Illinois Chess Association. In addition, Anjaneya Rao received a $5000 scholarship and Avi Kaplan received a $3000 scholarship to the colleges of their choice for their performance in their sections.
The Illinois Chess Association would like to congratulate all of our players for their amazing performance at the Championship Invitationals and extend our greatest appreciation for representing our state at such a great level.
Read MoreJeff Smith recognized as TD of year for 2024 by US Chess
The most memorable part of any chess tournament is a powerful tactic during your game or talking with friends after your games, but none of that would be possible without the careful orchestration and management from tournament directors. These individuals play a vital role in ensuring that tournaments run smoothly, fairly, and efficiently – making them indispensable to the success of any event. Due to their supreme importance, every year at the US Open, one tournament director is awarded the designation as the Tournament Director of the Year.
With that, the Illinois Chess Association would like to congratulate one of our own TD’s – Jeff Smith – who received this prestigious award at the US Open this year. Jeff has worked in over 750 sections across the country since 2005. Beginning in 2007, where he worked the Illinois All Grade, Jeff has been a major part of Illinois Chess. Since 2009 Jeff has worked at many national events, the first of which was the Supernationals of that same year. Just in 2018, Jeff finally became a National Tournament Director. More recently, you may have seen him working at many IHSA and IESA tournaments.
On a personal note, Jeff is an amazing person and an excellent addition to the Illinois and US chess communities, as well as chess as a whole. The ICA is proud to say that this excellent director is one of our own and we are deeply proud of him for receiving this award. This award is well deserved and best of luck to Jeff as he continues to help our great community into the future.
Read MoreU.S. Cadet Chess Championship 2024
The U.S. Cadet Championship is an annual invitational event which pits the eight strongest American players aged 16 and under against each other in a round-robin tournament. The first tournament was run in 1986 at the Manhattan Chess Club, where Alex Sherzer became the first champion. Since then, the tournament has taken place at a multitude of venues across the country – including Washington D.C., Nashville, TN, Rockville, MD, and Schaumburg, IL. This year's tournament took place in Lisle, IL.
This years competitors pictured with the organizers(Danial Wilson and Bill Buklis), courtesy of Danial Wilson
The 2024 Cadet Championship took place late last month from June 20 - June 23. This event featured two IMs, Bach Ngo and Ryo Chen, as well as 6 FMs: Eric Liu, Tanitoluwa Adewumi, Erick Zhao, Isaac Wang, Ryan Sun, and Zoey Tang. For pairing purposes, shortly before the beginning of the first round, playing cards – ace through eight – were drawn to seed the players by lot number rather than by rating.
The event was won outright with an impressive 6/7 score by the 13-year old prodigy Tanitoluwa (Tani) Adewumi, who finished last place in the same tournament the previous year. Nevertheless, he started off strong into the competition by defeating one of the strongest players in the first round:
This impressive performance has caused Tani’s FIDE rating to come within 20 points of the IM rating threshold of 2400, for which he recently earned his final norm. Along with the recognition of winning the tournament, he can add the $1,000 prize and $10,000 scholarship( $5,000 from the Dewain Barber Foundation and $5,000 from US Chess) to the college/university of his choice to his ever-growing list of awards.
Below is another of his wins from the tournament, highlighting tactical masterclass with an accuracy of 97%:
Tani accepting his award, courtesy of Danial Wilson
Congratulations to Tani for winning this event and congratulations to Danial Wilson at Wilson Chess and Bill Buklis King Registration for their third successful year of running this event and best of luck to them in the future.
Final standings – ranked according to lot number, courtesy of US Chess
All games from the event can be reviewed on Lichess.
uncategorised
ICA is in the process of obtaining bids for tournaments in 2019, and holding an election for five at-large board members.
Requests for bids are posted here:
Call for Bids for 2019 Illinois K-8 State Championships. Send completed bids to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
The election schedule is here:
The following coaches and tournament directors offer their services to Illinois chess players and clubs. Listings are free for ICA members (memberships start at $15). “Affiliate” in a listing signifies an ICA Affiliate member, and readers are referred to the Affiliates web site, which includes additional detail.
Being listed does not imply an endorsement from the ICA. Users are encouraged to check references and conduct background checks.
New listings -- or updates -- should be sent to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
COACHES
Mesgen Amanov, Grandmaster, 1711 Kendale Dr., Glenview IL 60025, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., 773-817-1097
Boris Avrukh, Grandmaster and Author, Co-Champion: 2014 Midwest Class. Hoffman Estates, Private or Group Lessons, in-person or via Skype. https://www.facebook.com/BorisChess. 847-337-4483, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Caveman Chess (Kevin Bachler, FIDE Master, FIDE Trainer, USCF Professional Chess Coach (Level V), This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. 224-985-5245 www.cavemanchess.com (Affiliate)
Chess Ed (Alice Holt), This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., 847-775-9906, http://www.chess-ed.com
Chess Utopia (Frank Swindell), Grayslake, IL, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Chess Weekend (Glenn Panner, USCF Expert, USCF National Chess Coach (Level 4), This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
815-955-4793 Individual, group lessons, schools, or camps. Located in the SW suburbs. (Affiliate)
International Educational and Cultural Services, Inc. (Mikhail Korenman, Willowbrook, IL),
785-906-0402, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., http://www.intecsus.org
Joshua Flores, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., 815 650 5960; @Squarehopperchesspro (FB and Instagram) @SquarehopperP (twitter). Experience at a reasonable rate. (Affiliate)
Kings and Queens Chess Club (Lead Coaches: Master Tamara Golovey, Leonid Bondar, Mila Finkelshtein); 709 Drae Court, Wheeling, IL 60090; (847) 778-5259 or (847) 867-0116, (847) 207-2819. E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., kqchessclub.com (Affiliate)
Dejan "Max" Maksimovic, International Master, 20 years’ experience as a chess coach, available for private, group, school, college or university instruction, as well as online lessons, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., 1-224-822-3621, https://maxchampionsacademy.com/
Arjun Vishnuvardhan, International Master, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., 224-392-6981
Yury Shulman, Grandmaster, 2008 US Champion, Barrington, www.shulmanchess.com, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., 312-375-7475
TOURNAMENT DIRECTORS
Bill Buklis, US Chess Senior TD, floor or back room, FIDE National Arbiter, scholastic or open, directing or organizing, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Erik Czerwin, Local TD, floor or back room, scholastic, open, or IHSA, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., 815-904-1392
Joshua Flores, Local TD, back and floor, Experience in all event types - scholastic/opens, invitationals, round robins, ladders, etc. Available as an organizer as well. This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., 815 650 5960
Glenn Panner, National TD, floor or back room, scholastic or open, plenty of experience with organizing events, willing to work with new or experienced organizers. This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., 815-955-4793
Maret Thorpe, USCF National Tournament Director, FIDE NA, floor or back room (WinTD or SwissSys), scholastic, open or IHSA, directing or organizing, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Stephen Plotnick, USCF Local TD, rated or non-rated events, all-age or scholastic, full-service organizing with $1m / $2m liability insurance, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., 224-248-8802
Suzanne Sheridan, US Chess Local TD, floor or backroom, scholastic or open. Experience organizing and promoting events. Spanish speaker. This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., 847-834-5631
2019 Tour Schedule
- Tim Just Winter Open, Jan. 5-6 results
- Bradley Winter Open, Jan. 26 results
- David Mote Memorial, TBA results
- Greater Peoria Open, April 6-7 results
- Chicago Open, May 23-27 results
- Chicago Class, July 19-21 results
- Bradley Summer Open, TBA results
- Illinois Open, Aug. 31- Sept. 2 results
- Midwest Class, Oct. 11-13 results
- Illinois Class, Nov. 17 results
Skyrocketing interest in youth chess over the past few decades can be explained, at least in part, by its unique ability to rivet our attention and simultaneously teach important life skills. Anyone who has watched a scholastic tournament can see the intensity of concentration engendered by this classic battle game. First-time observers typically comment on how quiet the playing room is. More important, the academic literature is now rich with studies showing that chess improves academic performance, strategic thinking, consideration of alternatives, and social skills (see The Value of Chess). It is no wonder that kids continue to flock to the game when given the opportunity, that their parents encourage it, and that chess has been incorporated into many schools’ curricula.
There are many excellent chess programs in Illinois. Most are run by dedicated teachers, parents, coaches and community volunteers. Other programs are run by private service providers, both for-profit and not-for-profit. Some of the state’s most active community-wide programs are profiled in these pages. At the same time, the chess world in Illinois has been described as islands of largely disconnected programs, and many areas of the state are largely unserved. Our purpose here is to bring together a variety of resources intended to help organizers connect with each other, start new chess programs, and improve those which already exist.
A wealth of information about chess already exists, both in hard copy and online. Our goal was to sort through it, pick out some of the best, and add useful and practical material from our own experience. ICA has assembled an experienced team to guide it through this effort (see ICA Youth Committee).
In “Learning Chess,” we begin with some basics, including how to decide whether a student may be ready for a chess program. We then summarize the research on the value of chess and include links to video clips which show the pride that can result from a successful program. A parent of a top Illinois player then describes both typical starting points and the many paths toward advancement in chess. We next recommend some of what we consider to be the best teaching material available, including computer-aided curricula, and conclude with information on chess camps and classes.
The centerpiece of our section called “Chess Programs” is our guide to starting (or improving) a scholastic program. We’ve tried in that section to address every step in the process, from initial planning through special activities designed to keep kids interested throughout the year. We then profile a number of the community-wide programs in Illinois, providing website links and contact information.
Most young players love to compete, either in school-versus-school matches or in tournaments. In our “Competition” section, we include with an overview of Illinois’ major scholastic events, which is followed by a detailed guide to tournaments prepared by one of Illinois’ top coaches. Her guide describes the types of tournaments available to Illinois players and the nuts and bolts of how they are run. Our “Competition” section also includes a piece on sportsmanship and etiquette, another containing advice for parents and players, and lists of Illinois’ past youth champions and top current players. The section also includes a link to the listing of scholastic tournaments on our Events page.
We then describe the Warren Junior Program, which provides special opportunities for the state’s top youth players. We also briefly describe the ICA Fellows Program, in which top high school and college players serve as coaches, mentors and in other ways to help youth programs statewide.
All the content can be downloaded in PDF format. Open any article, then click the Acrobat PDF icon at the upper right corner of the article. A PDF will open in a new window in about a minute. For best results, please use Firefox, Google Chrome, or Safari to browse the site.
We’re at work on two other sections. In one, we’ll provide lists of clubs throughout the state, along with contact information. (Clubs will have to agree to be listed.) This should foster the kind of networking that many of you have said would be helpful. In the second, we’ll try to capture the vibrancy of Illinois youth chess by profiling some of the people who make it work, including not only top players, but outstanding coaches, parents, and organizers.
We hope you find this material helpful. Most of us on ICA’s Youth Committee have started programs and are prepared to help newcomers to Illinois’ chess scene and others with questions. We are a varied group. Some of us are chess professionals, but most are parents of chess players, teachers, amateur players interested in promoting the game, or retirees who enjoy working with kids. Feel free to get in touch with us. Short bios of our members appear on this site (see ICA Youth Committee), as does contact information for many of us (see “Contact Us”). If we cannot answer your questions ourselves, we will find someone who can.
Special thanks to the many people who have made significant contributions: Kevin Bachler, Chuck Beach, Jay Dembsky, Betsy Dynako, Louis Fogel, Hector Hernandez, Paul Kash, Colley Kitson, Mike Leali, Herb Lichtman, Brad Rosen, Andi Rosen, Garrett Scott, Joe Splinter, Jennifer Stevens, Maret Thorpe, Leo Vilker, Phil Yontez, Mike Zacate and Pattie Zinski.
Jerry Neugarten
ICA Executive Board
Stephen Plotnick (President) joined the chess community when his son started playing late 2015. He has assisted Quest Academy run by Yury Shulman where his son takes chess classes. Due to his passion he is now a TD having worked at the Chicago Open and the K-12 Greater Chicago Open at McCormick Place. He started his business life in the early 1980’s trading at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. After working for Merrill Lynch heading up their IT department for their business brokerage and valuation division in Chicago, Steve started is own consulting business in 1987. He has maintained a relationship with many large companies including a multi-billion dollar company in retail and wholesale environment for almost 30 years. This is the strength he hopes will be his best asset for serving the Illinois Chess Association.
Eric Ortega (Metro VP)
Amy Green (Downstate VP) has been active in the chess community for 16 years when her son joined the school chess team in Kindergarten. She has been active in the Bloomington/Normal Area Scholastic Chess Association for 13 years serving as President for the last 10 years. This has afforded her the opportunity to organize tournaments at both the local and state level. She partners with the local Parks and Recreation to ensure chess is offered as an activity to engage new players. In addition, she is active with both IESA and IHSA in their chess activities.
Emily Dawson (Treasurer)
Joshua Flores (Secretary) Picture this: Chicago Stockyards: railroads, steel factories, slaughter houses, warehouses. The younger branches of several Mexican families migrating into this Euro-centric neighborhood. A boy born with the gifts of pattern recognition, ADHD, spatial understanding, math abilities and a smart mouth to a marriage of two of these families. A crucible for young Josh Flores which burned and forged him into a strong-voice, determined, fighting, advocate for himself.
Puzzles satisfied a hunger for challenges and truth for the six-year-old, but the books had strange diagrams which escaped him. Figures on a checkerboard. A visit to a drug store, digging into his pocket for a quarter, and leaving with a small red and black box with the word CHESS. Another nickel and the same color scheme checkerboard was acquired. Now the problems could be solved. The box had rules!
Or so he thought.
Directors At Large
William Blackman grew up on the Southside of Chicago with 9 siblings. He learned to play chess at the old age of 13 during an after-school club held by the school. William continued to grow his love for chess at Morgan Park High School, where his math and physics teacher introduced him to chess tournaments and the study of the royal game/sport.
Over the next three decades, William would include his love of chess in everything he does from being the topic of academic studies in his MBA program, teaching philosophy, small chess, math and tutoring service, decision making, and many other parts of his life.
William firmly believes that chess saves lives and is worthy both recreational and academic time for students and adults alike. He is eager to serve the chess playing communities of Illinois.
Larry Cohen learned to play from father (Davis) and brother (Howard). First rated tournament in 1974 at Governors State University, which was mostly composed of Park Forest Chess Club (PFCC) players. Scored 1 point out of 5 games.
Directed first tournament even before being a tournament director. PFCC had about a half dozen players that were also Tournament Directors (TD), but none were available for the first round of the once-a-week tournament that was being held. I was asked to do the first round, and was told it was easy to do. I ended up directing the entire event, and that is how I was suckered into becoming a TD.
Eventually I started being a TD for events outside of the PFCC which included the US Amateur Team Midwest (now known as USAT-North), US Senior, US Amateur North, and the US All-Grade (K-12) held in Oak Brook Illinois. That led me into being a TD for scholastic events as well as adult events. That led me to being a TD for the Chicago Public Schools scholastic events as well as the Kasparov All-Girls national championships, both of which are organized and run by Renaissance Knights Chess Foundation. I have organized a number of national and non-national chess events in the Chicago area and in other states. That included in the 90s an Illinois Chess Tour event in Hammond, Indiana.
Danial Wilson
Older Members for Future Reference (hidden)
Ren Vincent Escalera was born and raised in Cagayan de Oro City, Philippines. He is a graduate of Bachelor of Arts in International Studies. He worked as a General Manager in a travel agency and was a School Administrator for 7 years. He migrated to United States in 2012 and is currently residing at Oak Park, Illinois. He is an enthusiast of chess since high school which led him to be a club TD and initiated the King’s Wisdom Chess USCF affiliation. Ren Escalera, with the help of Robert Stoltz (VP Chess Vets) and Philip Linninger (OPRFHS Chess Head Coach), have been conducting weekly free rated tournament since June 2019 at Oak Park Public Library, wherein, the goal is to make the area accessible to chess enthusiasts of Oak Park and nearby villages. Ren is married to Maria and they have two children – Scott Matthew Escalera and Quinn Jericho Escalera. He is grateful to be assisting/participating Chess Vets and Burr Ridge Chess Clubs from time to time on their chess endeavors.
Michael Lenox is a physically disabled retired US Navy Chief Petty Officer. He credits chess with his rapid recovery from severe mental effects from a major stroke 11 years ago. He is the founder/president of several Chicago area chess clubs and the Illinois Chess Vets (ICV) nonprofit organization. ICV holds weekly US Chess (USCF) tournaments, has several VA hospitals recreational chess therapy programs, oversees several chess clubs, and conducts community outreach on the health benefits of chess. He is a 1200+ strength tournament chess player, USCF Local Tournament Director, USCF Certified Coach and USCF Special Needs and Circumstance board member. His veteran organization memberships include the American Legion, Disabled American Veterans and Veterans of Foreign Wars. He currently lives in Burbank, Illinois with his wife of 19 years, Lia.
Rachel Schechter (Downstate VP) After a fortuitous meeting with Bobby Fischer in 1999, Rachel A Schechter, while teaching Lit at Ramapo College of NJ, started teaching chess. One square at a time, so to speak, from NJ to ME to CA then finally to Illinois where, for the past five years, she's advanced youngsters through chess in the Champaign-Urbana area, via classroom teaching, mentoring, and scholastic tournaments. A 2019 Delegate to the US Chess Open, Rachel utilizes chess enrichment "to build confidence, character and community". What can't we learn from the royal game?
Darren Erickson (Treasurer) learned to play chess in 8th grade (very, very many years ago) when a classmate taught him the basic rules. He first joined the United States Chess Federation in the late 1990s, but didn't really get involved in the organized chess community until he moved to Bloomington in 2005. Enjoying play as a superpatzer in the Twin Cities Chess Club and serving in Bloomington Normal Area Scholastic Chess, he is a USCF Senior Tournament Director. When not thinking about chess, he labors at working on a newly purchased home and is a voracious reader. He works as a Registered Nurse in Peoria.
Sean Hennessy (Secretary) is a passionate chess teacher. He offers private lessons online and in person, as well as group lessons through Chess Wizards. Sean also works as a Tournament Director for Renaissance Knights and runs the Riverside Chess Club. He is the recipient of Chess Journalists of America’s 2022 Best Online Interview Award, and enjoys watching GM Ben Finegold on YouTube.
Eva Harrison was born and raised in Germany and came to the U.S. in 1995 with a degree in translation from the University of Mainz-Germersheim. After working at the Chicago Waldorf School for three years, she switched to self-employment and now handles legal, financial and business translations out of her home in Beverly (Chicago). Eva is married to John and they have five children, including two sets of twins. Soon after her then third-grader David had joined the Keller Chess Club (Christopher later followed), Eva was invited by a friend to the South Suburban Chess Club in nearby Oak Lawn. While not a complete beginner, in May 2012, she joined her first chess club and played her first tournament chess challenging her sons to beat her rating. When her time allows, she also frequents other chess clubs in the area or plays table tennis. Eva is the co-captain of the Pawns, one of the teams in the West Division of the Chicago Industrial Chess League (CICL), and became a board member of the ICA in April 2017.
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The ICA Youth Committee is devoted to promoting, expanding and improving youth chess in Illinois for grades K-12. Our premise is that every child should have the opportunity to learn and play chess. The committee is always open to new members who might be interesting in furthering the cooperation and coordination of youth chess in Illinois. Please contact the coordinator if interested.
Stephen Plotnick (Acting Coordinator) is also the ICA Metro VP and you can see his bio in the ICA Board section. Steve is looking for some good people to join the Youth Committee. Please e-mail him at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. The committee will be working with organizers, tournament directors, parents and players in an attempt to make Illinois youth chess the best in the country. So please contact Steve with any ideas, suggestions or a desire to join the committee.
Rachel A Schechter directs the Chess Enrichment Program at the Montessori School in Champaign-Urbana. Prior to that she taught chess at Carrie Busey, Dr. Howard's and Dr Gs ChessWorks, also in Champaign-Urbana. Rachel attributes her modest success to a fortuitous meeting with chess great Bobby Fischer in October 1999 during which he said: "While you may never be a good chess player, you'll be a helluva chess teacher..." Though primarily a Literary Arts professor, educating K through college students for more than 25 years, Rachel set up chess boards in several of her classrooms from coast to coast, claiming: "Chess education is life education. What can't we learn from the Royal Game?" Devoted to advancing youth across the board(s), Rachel utilizes chess to build confidence, character and community. Her memoir: Lost, With Bobby Fischer is in its opening phase.
David Heiser is the President and Founder of the Renaissance Knights with over 13 years of experience developing innovative chess programs that enrich the lives of Chicago’s youth. He successfully brought the multi-faceted benefits of chess to over 30,000 children in Chicago through our partnership with Chicago Public School (CPS). This partnership has dramatically increased the number of schools and students participating in after-school chess clubs, playing in CPS tournaments, and participating at the state and national level. It has also led to the development of the Cops & Kids Chess Initiative which utilizes chess as a tool to bridge the divide and unite police officers and youth across Chicago. David is the Chess Consultant and Chief Tournament Director for CPS, USCF National Tournament Director, FIDE National Arbiter, and Fide Development Instructor. His focus is to continue to inspire children towards academic growth and a love for learning, motivating them to think critically while building character that will inevitably transform the communities in which they live.
Bios Pending:
Sam Salahi
Farah Turk
Bennett Joseph