DeKalb Chess Club Celebrates the 102nd Anniversary of the Lincoln Penny in Its Own Way

Three dozen competitors turned out for the August 7th Lincoln Penny Challenge in Sycamore (eight scholastic players and 28 others). The DeKalb Chess Club hosted this Scholastic and Open tournament in honor of the 102nd anniversary of the first Lincoln-faced coin.

In an exciting 5-minute blitz play-off, Glen Gratz defeated James Marshall, but both experts had gone undefeated in three rounds of tournament play.

Gratz, who coaches North Boone High School's team in the Rockford area, and Marshall who plays with the St. Charles club, split first and second place prize monies, walking away with $75 and $70 respectively.

Complete Tournament Crosstable

With 2.0/3 scores, Rockford's Vincent Do and Chicago's Ted Mercer and Seth Kushinsky split Class B prize money, dividing up an augmented $45 pot. Chicagoan Andrew Bell won the Class C $40 prize and Aurora's Kyle Mathews took home the Class D prize of the same amount.

In the 6-player Tails section, Zoran Bogdanovich, won the Class E/Unrated prize ($40) going undefeated.

Over $300 in prize money was distributed between eight players. Talk about emptying the penny jar!

The most rating improvement was shown by Nathan Holzmueller who went 1.5/3 against several strong players. For his efforts, Nathan's USCF rating jumped 83 points, from 1349 to 1432, raising him from Class D to Class C.

Mathews, pictured to the left, playing DeKalb's Don Reyes, plays with the Aurora Naperville Chess Club. He completed his provisional game sequence with a nifty 70-point bump.

Andrew Bell hiked his rating 48 points, while the DeKalb club's Cliff Adams enhanced his rating 46 points.

For the scholastics, there was a three-way tie with 3 points out of 4 possible. Arartik Marwah, Chufan Chen, Moulik Mehta all earned gold medals. All eight school-aged participants received free chess books courtesy of the DeKalb Chess Club.

As the DeKalb Chess Club completes its first year of hosting tournaments, the Lincoln Penny Challenge marked the biggest turnout yet. Club organizers indicate they are proud to have fielded a dozen open events attracting 87 different participants from four states. This includes a couple daddy-daughter pairs, a couple father-son combinations and several sets of brothers!

The DeKalb Club remains committed to hosting reasonably-priced and competitive tournaments in the Norther Illinois area. The recent foray into scholastic events will continue. The Lincoln Penny event marked the first time significant cash prizes were awarded, and as such, was the first event with an entry fee exceeding $10 for the open section. The club seeks to keep entry fees under $10 for the scholastic entrants indicating, "it just feels like the right thing to do." Said one organizer, "Junior chess depends heavily on the dedication and generosity of chess parents, and in addition to their time, the events shouldn't extract and arm and a leg too."

The club's next tournament titled "First Saturday in DeKalb," will be held October 1st in neighboring Sycamore. Details can be found at the DeKalb Chess Club website, or on the ICA calendar. Once again, it will feature open and rated-scholastic sections.

An easy hour's drive due west from the Chicago loop, DeKalb finds itself in the middle of chess hot beds in every direction. It's worth the excursion to enjoy a full day of chess in ideal conditions, and these events continue to serve a vital role in the Northern Illinois chess scene.