Zekaj and Gratz Co-Champions at Northern IL Fall Classic

 

The Fox Valley Chess Club hosted its first tournament since its rename (from Aurora Naperville Chess Club) and a pair of experts achieved top honors in the Open Section.

The Northern Illinois Fall Classic was held October 30 in Aurora with 44 competing in three sections.

Dritan Zekaj and Glen Gratz both went undefeated with three wins and a single draw to post 3.5/4's, but a couple of top Illinois juniors denied them both perfect scores.

Zekaj drew Brian Gong in the second round while Gratz could only manage a draw in the third round against IMSA's Shayna Provine.

Josh Kueker enjoyed three wins with a single loss to claim clear third place, raising his rating above 1700.

15 competed in the section in the Game/60; 5-second delay Open section.

The Reserve section saw a perfect score from Vrishank Ramnath who regularly played with the Aurora club until a couple years back. 

Alex M Ding -- not to be confused with Alex Q Ding who formerly played with the club -- took second place in the Reserve, with three wins after an opening round loss to Ramnath.

IMSA's Brian Yu was the clear winner of the 23-player Booster section, going 5-0.

A four-way tie for second place included Sarat Sagaram, Sriram Ashokkumar, Michael Przybyl and Nathaniel Mathew.

Nathaniel had the highest score (and tiebreak) for junior high participants and received that trophy accordingly.

Ryan Johnson, with 3.0/5, had the high score for previously unrated players.

Alex Federici -- also of IMSA -- had the highest score of other high schoolers not receiving a top three trophy, with 3.0/5.

Aadarsh Girish had the highest score of Grades K-2 players, also with 3.0.

Two players had the high score of Grades 3-5 players, Ria Raj and Advaith Kodipparambil. Both received co-champion trophies, assuring the tournament was a complete financial boondoggle.

Over $200 in cash prizes (to four players) and eight trophies were distributed.

The Fox Valley Club meets Tuesdays in Aurora at 7:15pm at the Turners Club.  Its next scheduled tournament is Dec 18 when it hosts the Northern Illinois Winter Classic.

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