GMs Georgiev and Mitkov Split $2400 at 2017 IL Open

 

With a gentleman's draw in the final round, GM Vladimir Georgiev and GM Nikola Mitkov became co-champions of the 2017 Illinois Open, both with 5.5/6 tallies.

GM Georgiev had also been co-champion in 2016 with an outright championship in 2014, the first time it was held in Northbrook. For GM Mitkov, it represented the fourth time he has tied for the championship.

For the first time since 2003, the event drew over 200 players. The 214 entries represented a 15% increase over the 186 who played in the 2015 and 2016 events. The Labor Day weekend event concluded September 4 at the Crowne Plaza Northbrook.

A three-way tie for third place included FM's Gauri Shankar and Tansel Turgut along with Gopal Menon, all with 5.0's.

GM Dmitry Gurevich, FM Sam Schmakel and FM George Li all posted 4.5's with losses to one of the co-champions.

Akhil Kalghatgi nabbed top prize for Under 2200, collecting $460 with his 4.5 tally.

A four-way tie for top Under 2000 scores (3.5) split that prize pool between four high schoolers: Ed Zhang, Abhy Venkat, Emma Wang and Deniz Gulecyuz.

99 players competed in the Open, while 115 faced off in the Reserve. 50 players took home part of the $9400 pool of cash prizes awarded.

Max Matura and Deepak Salian split first and second place prize money as co-champions in the Reserve with 5.5's. $700 went to both.

A three-way tie for third place at 5.0 included Jonathan Lee, William Cahill and Sean Insley. All three lost their first-round matches before winning their last five.

Tying for top Under 1400 prizes were six players at 3.5: Craig Boskey, Nathan Roys, Ekansh Mehrotra, Anshul Shetty, Kaya Turgut and Sreyansh Mamidi.

A half-point back were the top scorers rated Under 1200 prior to the event: Christopher Von Hoff, Adi Oberai, Nathan Runda, Benjamin Mellon, Ria Raj, Srihas Rao, Julian Wang and Elton Huang.

The Chief TD for the event was Maret Thorpe with Bill Buklis serving as Chief Backroom TD. NTD Glenn Panner filled out the directing talent for the main event.

ICA President Bill Feldman served as the primary organizer of the event on behalf of the organization, and welcomes feedback on the event at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. This year's staff is discussing on how to improve the 2018 Open and will make recommendations to the ICA Board.

Complete results are posted elsewhere on this site: http://il-chess.org/ica-tournaments