October Chess Roundup

Lot going on in the wide world of chess this past month. Fabiano Caruana won first half of Grand Slam in San Paulo. Humpy Knoeru won the FIDE Women's Grand Prix. The 40th Chess Olympiad concluded in Istanbul with Armenian finishing first. The FIDE Congress met with a couple articles (I & II) on USCF site plus an overall look at the topics covered.

But what about in the Land of Lincoln? Here's the highlights from Illinois tournaments durning the past month.

September 1: Labor Day Scholastic 2012 Tournament in Oakbrook drew 68 players for this two section event. Clear winners were had in both sections: Allan Lopez in the U12 Section and Jonathan Xu in the U7 Section. Crosstables.

September 3: The Naperville-1 Event drew 14 players. Kevin Ho drew one game to finish with 4.5/5.0 and first place. Crosstable.

September 1 to 3: The 2012 Illinois Open drew 150 players to this three section event in Oak Brook. In the Open Section, GM Nikola Mitkov and GM Dmitry Gurevich drew each other in the 4th round and went on to win the rest of their games and tie for first. In the Reserve Section, the highest rated player, Timothy Zhou, took first place, and in the Booster section, a familiar last name, Jacob Zhou took first place. Crosstables.

September 8: The 2012 Star Trek Rated Open in Dekalb may have not had William Shatner participating. But they did have William Engle who went undefeated and finished in first place. Crosstable.

September 15: In Orland Park, the OP - September 12 event drew seven players. Coming out without a loss and beating the closest competitor in the fourth and last round, was Stepan Terekhov. Crosstable.

September 15: The Rockford Adult Open was a small event with four players but did have a clear winner with Martin Wilber. Interesting side note : All the other players in the event tied for second. Crosstable.

September 16: The Renaissance Knights had 64 players for their 81st Knights Quest in Northbrook, IL. The Open Section had three players tying for first: Vincent Do, Howard Cohen, and Anupama Rajendra. The U1400 and U1000 Sections were a little clearer with Benjamin Friedlander and David Hafner, respectively, coming in first. The U600 section had Riya Chadha and Rainer Hakenen tying for first. Crosstables.

September 15 to 16: The 14th NA Amateur in Skokie, IL had 12 players with Tam Nguyen sweeping the comptetion and finishing with a perfect 4.0. Crosstable.

September 15 to 16: In Skokie, IL the Young Masters vs Experienced Master lived up to its name. Players who are master rated players or soon will be duked it out with each other. Angelo Young, an experienced master, finished first with 3.5 points. Crosstable.

September 22: The Evanston 3x3 drew 64 players, which might be a record number, and had three sections. In the Gold section, FM Kevin Bachler and Aamir Ansari both went undefeated. In the Silver Section Jonathan Tan was the sole person to win all his games. In the Bronze Section, 3 of the 28 players, had a 3.0/3.0. They were: Matthew Ylinen, Keith Ammann, and Lorenzo Sampson. Crosstables.

September 23: The September Game 45 in Skokie IL had 14 players. Tam Nguyen, the lone expert, swept the four rounds. Crosstable.

September 25: The Illowa September Tournament drew 17 players. Iowa was an unstoppable force in the event. Artur Mueller swept all four rounds to come in first, and four Iowans tied for second. Luis Peralta from Illinois came in third. Crosstable.

September 28:The Naperville Youth Chess Club had a 2012 event and had 28 players. The higher rated divisions in the scholastic tournament had two rounds and the winners were: Alexander Hu (Ex Section), and a tie between Joseph Isaac and Brian Gong (U1200 Section). In the lower rated sections there were three rounds and the winners were: Christopher Xu (U900), Jeffrey Cheng (U800), Sean Mccarter (U700), Patrick Rao (U600), and Charles Chen (U400).Crosstables.

September 29: The Glenwood September Open drew 18 players. A draw in the final round meant Sedrick Prude and William Blackman tied for first. Crosstable.

September 29: St. Charles Chess Club sponsored the scholastic Countryside event which drew 68 players to South Barrington. James Zhang won the Primary Section. Nathaniel Sobery went undefeated in the Elementary Section, and Prathik Kandimalla beat some higher players to win the Middle School, High School Section. Crosstables.

September 30: The September Game-60 Tournament in Skokie, IL drew 22 players. In both the sections, no one went unscathed. In the Open Day 1 Section, Robert Moskwa finished first with 5.0/6.0, and in the Open Day 2 Section, Vytautas Vitkaukas finished first with 2.5/3.0. Crosstables.