2026 KCF All-Girls National Chess Championship

2026 KCF All-Girls National Chess Championship

 

The Illinois Chess Association is happy to congratulate David and Sheila Heiser from Renaissance Knights on running their 21st annual All-Girls National Chess Championship. The event was held from April 10th to April 12th, 2026 in the McCormick Place and we want to thank the Renaissance Knights Chess Foundation, Kasparov Chess Foundation and United States Chess Federation for bringing the tournament to Chicago.

 

 

 

The tournament was open to girls under 18 years old as of January 1, 2026 and participants competed in the following categories: Under 8, Under 10, Under 12, Under 14, Under 16, and Under 18. The Champion in each age group earned the honor of representing the USA at either the World Cadet or World Youth Championships, depending on their age, in accordance with US Chess Scholastic National and International Invitation Events and Awards.

 

The tournament had over 600 participants and all games were 90 minutes with a 5 second delay.

 

Under 18 Championship

 

Entering the final round, both Jasmine Su and Megan Paragua were tied with 4.5 points out of 5. However, they drew each other in the previous round and were forced to play other opponents, games which both of them won. By tiebreakers, Jasmine got first overall. Due to the 4 point players, Allyson Yu and Elizabeth Xia, losing, as well as other players, Chloe Zamoski was awarded third place alone with 4.5 points.

 

Here are the players that finished with at least four out of six points, listed in tiebreak order.  Players highlighted in yellow are from Illinois. The first 8 places received awards:

 

 

Under 16 Championship

 

Entering the final round, Khanim Ismayilove was the only player with a perfect 5 points, while only Leah Yang had 4.5 points of a possible 5. Once they drew each other, Khanim won first outright with 5.5 points while Leah was joined with Audry Zhou, Evelyn Qiao, and Sunny Zhang with 5 points to tie for second place.

Here are the players that finished with at least four out of six points, listed in tiebreak order.  The first 8 places received awards:

 

 

Under 14 Championship

 

Entering the final round, only Alive Chovanec had a perfect 5 points, while 3 players – Pavithran Sajish, Anqing Wang, and Violet Duran – had 4.5 points. Alice and Pavithran drew while Anqing defeated Violet, leaving Alice and Anqing tied. However, Alice had stronger tiebreakers and was awarded first place overall.

 

Here are the players that finished with at least 4.5 out of six points, listed in tiebreak order.  Players in yellow are from Illinois. The first 16 places received awards:

 

Under 12 Championship

 

Entering the final round, both Alexandra Liu and Kate Stripunsky had a perfect 5 points, and they drew in the last round, leading to a tie for first between the both of them which Alexndra won based on tiebreakers. They were followed closely behind by 5 players tied with 5 points out of 6 possible, who you can see below.

 

Here are the players that finished with at least 4.5 out of six points, listed in tiebreak order.  The first 16 places received awards:

 

 

Under 10 Championship

 

Entering the last round, only Giallian Gao was undefeated with a perfect 5 points, and she defeated Abigail Zhou in the last round to finish with a perfect 6 points. In the meanwhile, Charlotte Chang entered the last round with 4.5 points and defeated Grace Peng who had also entered the final round with 4.5 points – leading to Charlotte placing in second outright with 5.5 points.

 

Here are the players that finished with at least 4.5 out of six points, listed in tiebreak order.  Players in yellow are from Illinois. The first 16 places received awards:

 

 

Under 8 Championship

 

Entering the final round, there were 3 players with a perfect 5 points: Siddhishree Sundaram, Dhiriti Singh, and Aadya Pavithra Rajesh. Both Siddhishree and Dhriti won their games to tie for first with a perfect 6/6 points, but Siddhishree got first due to tiebreakers. After that, 9 players tied for third with 5 points out of 5, who you can see below.

 

Here are the players that finished with at least 4.5 out of six points, listed in tiebreak order.  The first 16 places received awards:

 

Illinois Chess Association would like to congratulate the following players that represented Illinois and received awards:

 

 

And we also want to give a shout out to the following teams from Illinois that won awards:

 

 

Linked here is a complete cross-table for the event, including all individual and team awards, courtesy of Renaissance Knights, and linked here is the US rating report. Following these links, you can view the full results across any sections instead of the abbreviated standings above. Once again, we are happy to congratulate everybody who participated and gave it their best in this tournament and to congratulate David and Shiela Heiser along with Renaissance Knights for running the tournament so smoothly.