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.
The Illinois Chess Association is proud to announce the 2022-2023 class of Warren Junior Scholars and Rising Stars.
The Warren Junior Scholar program was started over 30 years ago by Helen Warren, a former ICA president, to recognize the most accomplished and promising scholastic chess players in the state. In 2015, the Rising Stars program was added to recognize the next tier of up-and-coming scholastic players. Together, these two programs recognize the top scholastic chess talent in our state. Invitation to these programs is based on USCF chess ratings and active participation in chess tournaments.
In addition to providing recognition to these players, the purpose of the program is to nurture the highest-potential scholastic chess players so that they may compete on the national and international stage, and to provide students with an opportunity for rigorous study that will give them the skills to become leaders in other fields as adults.
More information about these programs can be found here: http://www.il-chess.org/aboutwjrs-72.
Many events for this group are already in the planning stages for this year, including Sunday evening online training sessions, an in-person or online training day, an awards banquet (date TBD), and several online tournaments.
While much effort has been put into identifying the players who qualify for this program, it is possible that some players may have been inadvertently missed. If you know of a player who should be on the list but isn’t, please check the qualifications HERE and then email the name, USCF #, and grade to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
If you find your name on this list, you should have already received an email from the Director. If not, please email Mr. Luster at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Congratulations from the ICA!
Warren Junior Scholars 2022-2023
|
Saanvi Adusumalli |
Jay Feng |
Jack Heller |
Shakira Luster |
Vikram Oberai |
|
Mohit Bayyarapu |
Sreekar Gangavarapu |
Avi Harrison Kaplan |
Sadkrith Malladi |
Linda Pham |
|
Nicholas Bruha |
Gabriel Gronski |
Nicholas Ladan |
Ekansh Mehrotra |
Elijah Platnick |
|
Eduard Danilyan |
Rohit Guha |
Michael Li |
Vamsi Munaganuri |
Sanjith Prabhu |
|
Scott Matthew Escalera |
Aditya Gupta |
Sarah Lin |
Himani Musku |
Ria Raj |
|
Anjaneya Sripathy Rao |
Patrick Rao |
Anshul Shetty |
Margarita Tsyganova |
Agastya Vanama |
|
Natalie Wisniowski |
Anthony Yang |
Tugstumur Yesuntumur |
David Yong |
Justin Zhang |
|
Louisa Zhang |
Ryan Zhang |
Owen Zhang |
Matthew Pikus |
Ryan Barretto |
|
Rebecca Cortez |
Lucas Silvestre |
Rising Stars 2022-2023
|
William Cahill |
Aiden Li |
Gabriel Panner |
Aryan Shrigadi |
Colin Wicks |
|
Jonah Chen |
Aidan Nelson |
Jacob Plotnick |
Aayush Thakkar |
Elizabeth Xia |
|
Dimitri Deligiannis |
Andrey Novikov |
Sachit Srinivas Rajkumar |
Christopher Von Hoff |
Cedric Zhang |
|
Gunn Kim |
Aditya Oberai |
Arnav Gupta |
Julian Wang |
William Wang |
|
Anisha Oberai |
Aarav Shah |
Shivani Manimaran |
Pragyan Misra |
Aaron Gan |
|
Arnav Karthikenyan |
Adarsh Girish |
Rishi Murali |
Anthony Chen |