December 2013 Chess Roundup

Let's see.  What happened in the world of chess in November?  Only a little match between reigning world champion Viswanathan Anand and challenger Magnus Carlsen to determine who would be World Chess Champion.  After ten rounds, Magnus Carlsen was crowned the new world champion.  

A little closer to Illinois than Chaennai, was a lot of tournaments to determine who would be the winner of some local tournaments.  Below is the listing. 

November 2:  The Bloomington Normal November 2013 Tournament had three sections and 22 players.  In the Under 600 Section, Aatmodhee Goswami swept all five rounds.  For the Under 1200 Section, with just a couple of draws, Arnav Sriram, took first place.  In the Open Section, Joseph Alford went 4 for 4.  Crosstables.

November 2:  The Evanston Tri-Level, November 2013 Tournament had three sections and 33 players.  In the Gold Section, the provisional rating of Nasir Zeytinoglu was increased to 2222 from 2063 after winning all four rounds.  In the Silver Section, Tony Christian went undefeated, and in the Bronze Section, Keith Ammann had a single draw to take first place. Crosstables.

November 2: The Extravaganza 5 Tournament in Naperville, IL drew six players.  Evan Liu went undefeated.  Crosstable.

November 2:  The OP - Nov'13 Tournament in Orland Park had 7 players.  After winning all five rounds, Deniz Gulecyuz's rating rose to 1301.  Crosstable.

November 2 to 3:  The Susan Polgar World Open in Northbrook IL had eight sections and 147 scholastic players,  In the Boys K-3 Section, Patrick Rao finished 5.5/6.0 and gained 182 rating points.  In the Girls K-3, Nastassja Matus swept all the rounds, and in the Boys 4-5 Section, Aaron Gan accomplished the same.  In the Girls 4-5 Section, Jeannie Zhang finished in first with 5/6 points.  With no losses, two draws, and four wins, Eli Karp finished in first place with five points in the Boys 6-8 Section.  In the Girls 6-8 Section, Miranda Liu finished first with 5.5 points.  In the Boys 9-12 Section, Alexander Velikanov and Reece Thompson tied for first.  The Girls 9 - 12 Section Elliana Faletsky finished in first with 4.0 / 6.0 points.  Crosstables.

September 19 to November 7:  The Fall Tournament in Saint Charles had 10 players participating.  In the Knights Section, Jeff Wiewel finished in first with 5/7 points.  In the Squires Section, Robert Bales Jr. took first place.  Crosstables.

November 8:  The NYCC 2013 1108 Tournament in Naperville had two sections and 29 scholastic players.  In the U1400 Section, there was a three-way tie for first between Patrick Rao, George Polski, and Christopher Xu.  In the U800 Section, there was a four-way tie for first between David He, Vrishank Ramnath, William Zheng, and Steven He.  Crosstables.

November 9:  The scholastic St. Anne Tournament in Barrington had 74 players.  In the Primary section Kevin Yuvaraj and Paul Hanrahan tied for first place and raised their provisional ratings 126 and 196 points respectively.  In the Elementary Section Vaarin Shroff drew one game in the second round but had an otherwise unbroken winning streak to end in first place.  In the Open Section, Ethan Gagliano won all five rounds.  Crosstables.

November 9: The Other Tal Memorial 2013 in Dekalb, IL had 39 players and four sections.  In the Open Section, there was a four-way tie for first between Vincent Do, Jon Winick, Aaron Maney, and Chelsea Harper.  In the Reserve Section, Kevin Taylor swept all four rounds.   In the Tweeners Section, Steve Wilson finished in first with 3.5/4.0 points and raised his provisional rating to 1374.  In the Booster Section, Charlie Harrison, Abhinav Shankar, and James Stacey all tied for first with 3/4 points.  Crosstables.

November 10:  The 95th Knights Quest in Northbrook, IL had 89 players show up to this four section event.  In the Open Section, Jimi Akintonde came in first place after sweeping all four rounds (which included beating two higher rated players).  In the U1400 Section, Oliver Brady went undefeated, and the same was accomplished by Monish Bhasin in the U1000 Section.  In the U600 Section Ojas Vasisht and Navaj Sivakumar tied for first by both winning all four rounds.  Crosstables.

November 16:  The 2013 Illinois All Grade Chass Championship in Bloomington, IL had 3030 players and 10 Sections.  In the Kindergarden Section, Alexander Daniels jumped 259 points after wining all five rounds.  Arthur Xu went undefeated in the 1st Grade Section.  Sam Fayn finished 5/5 in the Second Grade Section.  In the 3rd Grade Section, Jai Mahajan, finished in first place a full point ahead of the four second place finishers.  Going undefeated in the 4th and 5th Grade Sections were Advaith Prabu and Edward Zhang, respectively.  In the 6th Grade Section, Nathaniel Sobery and Ishaar Ganesan tied for first with 4 out of 4 points.  In the 7th grade Section, three players tied for first with 3.5 points.  They were Hanson Hao, Jonathan Lee, and Cassie Parent.  In the 8th Grade Section, Nicholas Bartochowski and Maxwell Jong tied for first.  In the High School Section, Joey Bikus beat all his opponents in the section.  Crosstables.

November 16:  The November Game - 60 in Skokie had 31 players.  A single draw in a separate round for David Franklin and Dusan Tutush had them ending up with 3.5 points and tied for first place at the end of round 4.  Crosstable.

November 17:  The November Tournament in Glenwood, IL had 16 players.  After 4 rounds there was a six-way tie for first between Gregory Bungo, Tianlu Peng, Stefan Musikic, Bill Feldman, Joe Woods, and Kaleb Tucker.  Crosstable.

November 17:  The Naperville Scholastic 6 Tournament in Naperville, IL had three sections and 19 players.  The U600 Section, had Lucas Guillet increasing his provisional rating 258 points after finishing first with 4.5 points.  In the Open Section, Bethany Simos finished in first by having a near perfect record of 3.5 points.  In the U900 Section, Daniel Polski won 4 of 5 rounds to come in first.   Crosstables. 

November 23:  The St. Johns Nov. 2013 Tournament in Lombard, IL had 4 sections and 88 scholastic players.  In the Lower Primary section, Vrishank Ramnath swept all five rounds.  In the Upper Primary Section, Daniel Roman won all five rounds.  In the Junior High Section, Ricky Roman and Seth Wyma tied for first with 4/4 records.  In the Elementary Section, Aidan Carey won all five rounds.  Crosstables.

November 23:  The 61st Kumbaya Tournament in Skokie, IL had 3 sections and 58 players.  In the 1200 and above Section, Scott Drier swept all three rounds.  In the U1200 Section, Alan Wang had a perfect 4/4.  This feat was repeated by Gabriel Essex in the U700 Section.  Crosstables.

November 24:  The 2013 Illinois Class Tournament in Lisle had 6 Sections and 99 players.  In the MX Section,  Nikola Mitkov drew Gopal Menon in the last round to take first place.  In the A Class Section William Blackman finished in first with 3.5/4 points.  In the B Class Section, Scott Kolb came in first and gained 112 rating points.  In the C Class Section, Kevin Oliver took first place and gained 198 rating points.  In the D Class Ritesh Sivakumar swept all four rounds.  In the U1200 Section, Sahil Conjeevaram and Vikram Dara tied for first.  Crosstables.

November 5 to 26:  The Illowa November 2013 Tournament in Moline, IL 20 players.  After four rounds Artur Mueller and Brian Archibald were tied for first with 3.5 points.  Crosstable.