400-plus Players Bring the In-Person Illinois K-8 Championships Back to Life

March 11-13 saw the return of the Illinois K-8 Chess Championships, this time in Schaumburg. Organized by Chess Weekend, Inc. working in partnership with the Illinois Chess Association, the tournament had 433 players compete over-the-board for 7 rounds of dual-rated chess on this event’s traditional “spring forward” weekend. Side events included blitz, bughouse and a puzzle-solving contest.

Due to pandemic uncertainties, attendance was lower than years past, and players were excited when they compared the number of trophies on-stage with the smaller field this year. Originally ordered for the 2020 Illinois K-8 State Championship, those trophies waited two years to go home with their happy winners.

Individual state champions were: Lillian Han (K-1), Matthew Tikhomirov (2-3), Andy Dong (4-5), and Anshul Shetty (6-8).

State champion teams were: Tripp School, Buffalo Grove (K-1), Latin School of Chicago (2-3), Grove Elementary School, Normal (4-5), Evans Junior High School, Bloomington (6-8).

Full results are here. The rating report is here.

The University of Chicago Chess Team (including GM Awonder Liang, GM Praveen Balakrishnan, and FM William Graif) had a booth at the tournament, played all challengers, and handed out UofC swag to the delighted K-8 audience. Rochester Chess was the bookseller and Oceans Apparel was the t-shirt vendor.

Organizer Glenn Panner and Chief TD Maret Thorpe enforced a rule of “masks-required” in the playing room, and players and parents were supportive.

Panner and Thorpe were very ably assisted by an excellent staff including Jeff Smith, Erik Czerwin, Tom Doan, Jim Hodina, Danial Wilson, Matthew Wiewel, Donna Wallach, Chris Wainscott, Jiten Patel, Suzanne Sheridan and Brian Egerton.