The 26th Midwest Class Championships kicked off October 6  -- but it's not too late to get in on the fun. The 2-day option kicks in today with the merge this evening -- and five rounds of play continuing through tomorrow. Once again, the Westin North Shore in Wheeling is the host site.

A prize pool of $20,000 is at stake across seven sections.

32 of the early entries playing in the top three 3-day sections are members of the prestigious Warren Junior Scholar and ICA Rising Stars programs.

In the Premier 3-day, FM's George Li and David Peng lead the Scholars. Jacob Furfine, Aydin Turgut, Matthew Stevens and his Whitney Young teammates Nikhil & Akhil Kalghatgi, Marissa Li, Ricky Wang, Abhy Venkat, Rishi Narayanan, Arthur Xu and Dimitar Mardov all vying for the $2000 first prize.

In the U2100 (Under 1700-2099) 3-day section, Aria Hoesley, Eric Starkman, Kevin Ho, Emma Wang, Patrick Rao, Shreyas Reddy, Deniz Gulecyuz, Aren Emrikian, William Wang, Nicholas Bruha, Nicholas Ladan and Madhav Parthasarathy are all signed up for the three-day section with 26 entries. 

In the 3-day U1900 (1500-1899), Alex Zhao, Deepak Salian, Benjamin Chen, Ankush Moolky, Jack Santner, Natalie Wisniowski, Toby Yang, Ethan Gagliano and Yuvraj Chennareddy are among those competing for $2700 in prizes including a $1400 top award.

Other Scholars and Stars are opting for the two-day entry and other sections, and the field is full of former participants in the year-long training program sponsored by the ICA.

Stay tuned for a final wrap up report late Sunday or Monday.

The Midwest Class is the continuation of the Illinois Tour which concludes with November 19's Illinois Class.