Bid Requests
Bid Schedule for 2025 Illinois State Tournaments
| Tournaments | Tournament Date | Bids Due to Bid Committee | Date Awarded By ICA Board | Bid Winner |
| IL Open Chess Championship | Labor Day Weekend | March 15th | April 1st | Wilson Chess & Kingregistration |
| IL Blitz Championship | Labor Day Weekend | March 15th | April 1st | Wilson Chess & Kingregistration |
| IL Class Championships | Fall | March 15th | April 1st | Chess Weekend |
| IL Quick Championships | Fall | March 15th | April 1st | Caveman Chess |
| IL All-Grade Chess Championship | Fall | March 15th | April 1st | Greater Peoria Chess Foundation |
| 2026 IL K-8 Individual and Team Championship | Spring | March 15th | April 1st | Chess Weekend |
| 2026 IL High School Individual Open Championship | Not Set | Not Set | Not Set | |
| 2026 IL Girls State Championship | Spring or Summer | September 15th | October 7th | |
| 2026 IL High School Team Championship | Not Set | Not Set | Not Set |
Reference the updated Bid Guidelines for more details on ICA state events and bidding procedures. --> Here
ICA Guidelines for Bidders - Updated
The Illinois Chess Association (“ICA”) is the recognized state affiliate of the United States Chess Federation (“USCF”) for the State of Illinois. ICA is an Illinois corporation with not-for-profit status under Internal Revenue Code (“IRC”) §501(c)3. As the USCF state affiliate, ICA is responsible for conferring chess titles for the state of Illinois under USCF auspices.
Although the ICA is responsible for conferring USCF titles in Illinois and retains the right to organize a championship tournament itself, it may request and encourage other organizers to submit bids for state titled events. ICA may also confer a title based on an event run by another entity. For example, ICA has in the past recognized the title awarded by IHSA for the high school team title.
General bid and tournament guidelines are below. Current calls for bids, including event-specific requirements and bid deadlines will also appear on this page.
Bid and Tournament Guidelines
These are ICA’s tournament bidding guidelines (revised 1-7-25). Also available below are the two bid forms in Microsoft Word format.
Bid and Tournament Guidelines 02-06-2025 (PDF)
ICA Bid Committee
The ICA Bid Committee's task is to gather and review tournament bids and recommend a chosen bidder for ICA State Sanctioned Championship events to the ICA Board. Members of the ICA Bid Committee include:
Jeff Wiewel (Chairperson) - Jeff's mother taught him chess when he was eight. He was Board 1 on the Larkin High School team in Elgin, one of the district’s top teams, and around that time began playing at the St. Charles Chess club. He played in three Pan-Ams while attending the University of Chicago, and became an expert in 1984, peaking at 2137. Jeff has played in ten US Opens. In 1983 Jeff began helping Erv Sedlock's St. Charles team directing K-8 tournaments, which then had little competition. The K-8 state championship was then breaking records with approximately 100 kids. He became an NTD in 2002, an International Arbiter in 2024, and is one of the country’s most active tournament directors with hundreds of tournaments of 100+ players each. His position as overall chief of the 2025 Supernationals is his 56th scholastic national and 11th scholastic national as the overall chief. Being chief arbiter of the tournaments of state champions and fair play officer of the Pan American Youth (both in 2024) are some of his FIDE tournament positions. He is currently chair of USCF's Tournament Director Certification Committee and became active in ICA in 2009, chairing a task force which drafted ICA’s comprehensive bid guidelines.
Murrel Rhodes - has been active in the Peoria chess community for over 40 years. He has also been active in ICA, having served as editor of the Illinois Chess Bulletin, and in the USCF, where he has been a voting delegate from Illinois. Murrel is a chess Expert and currently helps run Peoria’s Hult Chess Club for kids in grades K-9 (www.hultcc.org). A retired businessman, he is also an active private coach.
Chris Merli - has been playing chess since 1970. He earned a PhD in Molecular Biology from the University of Illinois in1997 and teaches Biology and Chemistry at Richland College in Decatur. His principal research focus is on the regulation of genes. Chris is an Associate National Tournament Director currently working on his National Tournament Director exam. He has directed a number of national tournaments and is heavily involved in high school chess, coaching the excellent University High School team in Urbana and serving as pairing chief at the IHSA State Championship. He also coaches elementary school players and promotes elementary school chess in central Illinois. He has served as the Missouri Chess Association Executive Director and as both the Vice President and President of the ICA. He is currently on the board of the Illinois Chess Coaches Association.
Pending Bios:
Glenn Panner
Erik Czerwin
Bill Buklis