February Chess Roundup

In January the world of celebrities and chess intersected as Kim Kardasian tweeted that she wanted Armenian GM Levon Aronian to teach her chess.  In other chess news, GM Magnus Carlsen tied Garry Kasparov's record in winning the 75th Tata Steel tournament in Wijk ann Zee.  Edward R. Murrow High School won it's 16th win at the annual citywide championship.  The 36th Cardinal Open Chess Tournament in Columbus, Ohio had GM Andre Diamant beating out GM Carl Boor and Illinois's own GM Dmitry Gurevich.  The US Team won the Pan-American Teams Championship in Brazil.

In local Illinois there was a bunch of activity. We also got noticed by the media. Check out the article about high school student, "Penny" Xu, in The News-Gazette. And, as always, below is the roundup of all activity in Illinois Tournament Chess.

January 5: Iexcell Jan 2013 Open/Scholastic Tournament in Bloomington, IL had 34 players in this two section event.  In the Under 1000 Scholastic, Pranav Venkatesh won 4.5/5.0 to take first and gain enough rating points to no longer be rated under 1000.  In the Open Section, Adithya Chandramouli finished with 3.5/4.0 to take first and gained 111 points.  Crosstables.

January 5: Winter Scholastic 2013 Tournament in Oakbrook, IL had two sections and drew 58 kids to the event.  In the U1200 Section, Robert Barr finished first and saw a huge bump (334 points) in his provisional rating.  In the U700 Section, Trevor Tompkins finished on top with 4.5 out of 5.0.  Crosstables.

January 5 to 6: Winter Open-Reserve 2013 Tournament in Oakbrook had a couple sections and 129 players.  In the Open Section there was a three way tie for first between Angelo Young, Angel Angelov, and Thomas Ulrich.  All had four wins and one draw.  Angelo and Angel drew against each other in the last round and Thomas drew against one of the second place finishers in the third round.  In the Reserve Section, Gee Leong and Nathan Beauchamp tied for first.  Crosstables.

January 6: The Indian Trails Tournament in Wheeling, IL had a couple sections and brought out 33 players.  In the R Open Section, Leo Kulov played his first rated tournament and got not only first place but an initial provisional rating of 1717.  In the R K-5 Section, Jospeh Buklis swept all four rounds and came away with first place.  Crosstables.

January 12: The 2013 Tri-Valley Scholastic Tournament in Downs, Il had a whooping 216 players.  This four section event saw Nathan Lee sweeping the LP Section and Jack Thain doing the same in the JH Section.  With so many players it is possible for multiple players to win all their games in their section, and that is exactly what happened in the other two sections.  Alexander Hsia and Vishnu Anagani tied for first in the EL Section, and Jai Mahajan and Mihit Garlanka tied for first in the UP Section.  Crosstables.

January 12: The January Game-60 Tournament in Skokie, IL had 19 players.  In the Open Section Mohammad Askari won first place and gained 116 rating points.  And he did it by beating or drawing all higher rated players.  In the U1500 Section, Daniel Margulis won all four rounds and went from a provisional rating of 1015 to a full rating of 1193.  Crosstables.

January 13: The January Game-45 Tournament in Skokie had 8 players.  Even though the numbers were small almost half the players tied for first.  The people who finished with 3.0/4.0 were Kent Cen, D Gregory Bungo, and David Rockwell.  Crosstable.

January 18: The Naperville Youth Chess Club 2013 0118 Tournament had 7 sections and 28 players.  The winners in each section were: Brian Gong (A); Christopher Xu (B); Matthew Tang, Jatin Mathur, and Patrick Rao (C); Ishaan Mathur and Brian Zheng (D); William Zheng (E); David Chu (F); and Temur Mangushev and Jonathan Zhang (G).  Crosstables.

January 19: The Evanston 3x3 Tournament had three sections and 47 players.  The Gold Section had Kenneth Wallach winning all three of his games.  In the Silver Section there was a lot of competition and three people tied at 2.5/3.0.  They were Max Villarreal, Terrance Aguinaldo, and Nathaniel Sobey.  The Bronze Section had Armel Peel and Adam Wallach tying for first.  Crosstables.

January 19: If there was a prize for most creative IL tournament name I would give it this month to the Route 20 Chess Club in Freeport, IL.  The Bungle in the Jungle event drew 10 players.  In the RBO Section, John Werkheiser ran away with it, finishing 5/5.  In the Open Section, Benjamin Spinello went 3/3 in a G/65 and 5 second delay format.  Cross-tables.

January 19: The Orland Park January Tournament had 8 people participating.  Deniz Gulecyuz lost to Kyle Kras in the second round and the two ended up tying for first in the tournament (thanks to Shaun Mattson who beat Kyle in the third round).  Crosstable.

January 20: The Renaissance Knights had their 85th Quest.  It took place in Northbrook, IL and drew 129 players.  Here are the winners per section:  Christopher Girardo (Open); Julian O'Carroll (U1400); Elijah Patterson (U1000); and a five way-tie between Anton Schuster, Jayant Maheshwari, Justin Weinzweig, Adam Bareket, and Nikhil Patel (U600).  Crosstables.

January 21: The Naperville Scholastic-4 Tournament had 21 players and two sections.  The U800 had Patrick Rao finishing 5/5.  The Open Section had Shayna Provine and Varun Malladi tying at 4/5.  Crosstables.

January 21: The MLK 2013 Tournament in Normal, IL drew 323 players to this scholastic event.  The Junior High Section had four people tying each other with the two top seeded players drawing each other in the final round.  The winners were Hanson, Hao, Jason Daniels, Balaji Iyengar, and Isabel Mata.  The Lower Primary Section had Anesh Konagalla sweeping it with 5/5.  With 114 players in the Section, three players finished with perfect 5/5 records.  They were Jai Mahajan, Jacob Davis, and Arnold Ogerio.  In the Elementary Section only one person finished with a perfect record and that was Rithvik Musuku.  Crosstables.

December 14 to January 24: The Epiphany Club Championship 2013 was held in Normal, IL.  10 players participated.  The lone perfect score was Andrew Hamara.  Crosstable.

January 26: Normal, IL also was the town for the Chesstronic Uptown Normal Scholastic Tournament.  This two section event had 14 players.  In the LP section Herbert Lim finished first with 4.5/5.0.  In the UP section, Jacob Davis swept with section with a perfect score.  Crosstables.

January 26: the BWO 2013 Tournament in Peoria, IL drew 32 players.  Kyle Miles was able to beat Master Nikhilesh Kunche in the last round to take first place.  Crosstable.

January 27: The 16th NA Amateur tournament in Skokie, IL had 15 players in the two section event.  In the Open Section, Christopher Girardo and John Crissman drew each other in the second round and went both went on to win their next two games.  They ended up tying at 3.5/4.0  In the U1500 Section, Slawomir Borkowski and Joshua Prupes tied for first. Crosstables.

January 8 to 29: The 2012 Club Championship in Moline, IL had 6 players participating in this G/95 D/5 event.  No one went unscathed in this event.  The two top rated players, Luis Peralta and Mark Flowers, ended up tying for first with 3.5/5.0.  Crosstable.

January 8 to 29: The 2012 Reserve Championship in Moline, IL had 9 players.  Richard Rector edged out Ben Wolf for first place.  Crosstable.