April 2013 Chess Roundup

This month the youngins' take center stage.  First off, another teenager gets a GM norm. This time it's a Norwegian. The 2013 Junior Chess Congress has a record turnout.  (In case you were wondering the new record is 375.)  And the University of Illinois got ready to go to the President's Cup.  The final result was that the University of Illinois came in 4th. Here's a video story from CBS.

Here are the results from around the state:

March 2:  The Hoose 2013 Tournament in Bloomington, IL had 191 kids participating in 4 sections.  In each section, the sole winner had a perfect record.  Here are the winners for each section, Nathan Lee (Lower Primary), Nihar Mothikuru (Upper Primary), Ethan Catt (Elementary), and Balaji Iyengar (Junior High).  Crosstables.

March 2:  The Evanston March 2013 Tri-level tournament drew 56 players to the Levy Center.  In the Gold Section, Master Kenneth Wallach finished first with 3.5/4.0.  In the Silver Section, Rahul Dhiman went four for four and finished first.  In the Bronze Section, Conrad Zborowski also finished with an undefeated record.  Crosstables.

March 2:  The Peoria Academy - Warm Up Scholastic Tournament had 21 players in this Peoria event.  In the K-3 Section, Devanshi Kothari finished first.  In the 4-8 Section, Timothy Mou finished with a perfect 4/4.  Crosstables.

March 3:  The Chess Tournament at Whitney Young High School drew 29 players to this scholastic event in Chicago.  The K-2 had Carl Kash taking first and almost doubling his rating from 277 to 531.  The K-8 U800 Section did close to the same in this section when Mattia Zefran's rating went from 354 to 752 after a 4/4 finish.  Jonah Karafiol didn't have as big of a jump (103 points) after finishing undefeated in the K-8 Open Section.  Crosstables.

March 3:  The Naperville Open Tournament had 22 players in this 4 section event.  In each section there was one person who was undefeated, and they were:  Matthew Kosova (U600), Siddharth Sridhar (U1000), Deniz Gulecyuz (U1400), and Mikhail Korenman (Open).  Crosstables.

March 3:  The March Game-45 in Skokie had 37 players.  This two section event had Gregory Bungo and Christopher Girardo tying for first in the Open section without playing each other.  In the U1500 Section, Abhyudhaya Venkat gained 148 points by going undefeated.  Crosstables.

March 8:  The Friday Night Illini Blitz Tournament in Champaign had 8 players. Eric Rosen finished first with 3.5/4.0.  Crosstables.

March 9:  The Hough 2013 Tournament in Barrington had 88 players.  Each of the three sections had one player who went undefeated.  Those players are: Christopher Vu (Elementary),  Ethan Gagliano (Primary), and Brian Villarreal (Middle School and up).  Crosstables.

March 9:  11th Mark Oestrieich Memorial Tournament in Salem had 18 players.  Cesareo Rodriguez and Steven Evans were the sole two players to go undefeated.  Crosstables.

March 9 to 10:  To say the 2013 K-8 IL Chess Championship had a lot of kids participating in it is an understatement.  594 players showed up to play 7 rounds of games.  In the Upper Primary Section, Aydin Turgut drew one of his games to finish first with 6.5/7.0.  In the Lower Primary Section, Aaron Gan and David Zimmermann drew each other in the sixth round to finish tied for first with 6.5/7.0.  The Elementary Section had Edward Zhang finishing with 6.5/7.0 and gaining 101 points.  Vincent Do had an unblemished record in the Junior High section to take first place.  Crosstables.

March 10:  The March Game 60 Tournament had 36 players participating in Skokie.  In the Open Section, Evan Spiegel beat all his opponents including one expert to win first place. In the U1500 Section, Xander Nicolson won all his games and gained 54 points and finishing the tournament with a 1535 rating.  Crosstables.

February 21 to March 14:  The Saint Charles Club Championship ran a month and had 16 players participating.  The lone master, Tenzing Shaw, swept the championship.  Full results can be found at the Crosstables.

March 16: The 2013 Northern IL Winter Open in Lisle, IL drew 18 players to this dual sectioned event.  In the Open Section, Bradley Guan had an undefeated record and raised his rating 91 points to 1806.  In the Reserve Section, Vic Zaderej won all four games and went from a provisional rating to a full rating of 1301.  Crosstables.

March 16:  At the same time as the above tournament was the Northern IL Winter Scholastic.  15 kids participated in this G/30+d5 event.  Jack Galassi went 3.5/4.0 to finish first and raise his rating over 200 points from 647 to 850.  Crosstables. 

March 16:  The Orland Park March '13 Tournament had 10 players.  Deniz Gulecyuz beat out Anthony Malysz to take first place.  Crosstables.

March 16: The March Game-60 Part 2 in Skokie, IL had 32 players.  This time instead of a single winner in each section, there were multiple ties.  In the Open Section, three people tied for first with 3.5/4.0.  They were Ilan Meerovich, Dusan Tutush, and Brian Villarreal.  In the U1500 Section, Slawomir Borkowski and Kirnes Holland tied for first by both losing one game.  Crosstables.

March 17: The 87th Knights Quest in Northbrook, IL drew 147 players to this four section event.  In the Open Section, Timothy Sage took first by edging out a few other experts and Class A players who were in close pursuit.  Jacob Furfine, Timothy Krick, and Archit Potharazu all tied for first in the U1400 Section.     The U1000 Section had Riley Wilson being the sole person to go 4/4.  In the U600 Section, three people had a perfect record.  They were Justin Weinzweig, Jessie Valle, and Bryan Packard.  Crosstables.

March 17: The 3rd NSCC Scholastic had 4 players in their U100 Section.  With a lot of rounds there was a lot of chance for players to win lose against the same competitor.  In the end, Adrian Calinescu won more than lost to take first place. Crosstable.

March 23:  "Give Me Liberty! Challenge" was an event in DeKalb, IL that drew 30 players.  In the Smyslov Section, Christopher McKinney and James Oberweis tied for first with 4/5.  In the Korchnoi Section, Michael Flynn, Jonathan Gaenzle, and Ricky Wang all tied for first.  In the Seirawan Section, Colton Ewing drew a couple games but edged out compeitors to take first place.  Crosstables.

March 24: The International Invitational in Naperville, IL had 22 players.  The Intermid Section had a tie between Kevin Ho and Kolin Kras for first place with 3/4 points.  In the Advanced Section, Nikita Vvendenskij and Bethany Simos drew each other in the last round to tie for first.  In the Open Section, having never played a rated game before, Gleb Fridman jumped right to a provisional rating of 1744 after winning all four games.  Crosstables.

March 24:  The March Game-60 Part 3 in Skokie there was 36 players.  In the Open Section, Kenneth Wallach went undefeated for a sole first place.  The same feat was accomplished by Kavin Lavari in the U1500 Section.  Crosstables.

March 5 to 26:  The ILLowa March 2013 tournament in Moline drew 18 players.  The Illinois side of the border has not always fared well against the IA side, but Luis Peralta represented Illinois well with a 3.5/4.0 first place finish.  Crosstables.

March 30:  The Chesstronics, Normal IL - March 2013 Tournament had 20 players.  In the UP Section, Pugazhendhi Saravanan won all five rounds and gained 103 points.  In the Under 1400 Section, Shanku Nair was a clear winner after four rounds, winning them all.  Crosstables.

March 30 to 31:  The Intercontinental Scholastic Team in Naperville, IL had 61 players.  In Section A, Gleb Fridman and Mikhail Timoshin were both undefeated after 7 rounds.  In Section B, Daniel Bronfeyn won a lot of games, 6.5 out of 7, to go up 4 rating points.  Crosstables.

March 31:  The 17th NA Amateur in Skokie drew 24 players.  In the Open Section, Kenneth Wallach went 3.5/4.0 to take first.  Narayan Karra swept the U1500 section and gained 87 points.  Crosstables.