Class Struggle Resolved in Lisle

A huge walk up registration saw 99 compete in six sections at the 2013 Illinois Class. The ICA-sponsored event was held November 24 at the Lisle Hilton. The four-round event also represented the tenth and final stop on the 2013 Illinois Chess Tour.

With a fourth-round draw over Gopal Menon, GM Nikola Mitkov claimed the championship in the combined Masters/Expert section. Menon shared second place with Aung Zin and Nathan Kranjc, all posting 3.0/4 scores.

USCF Crosstable

GM Mitkov also finished atop the Open classification of the 2013 Tour, having shared the championships in the 2013 Midwest Class, Illinois Open, and Chicago Open. Reconfirming he also knows how to play chess outside Illinois, Mitkov won the Indianapolis Open outright in August.

In the Class A, William Blackman finished with 3.5/4 to claim top honors. Daniel Bronfeyn, Andrew Taylor and Daniel Modes tied for second, a half-point back.

Class B competition saw Scott Kolb win the top spot with a 3.5/4 tally, ahead of Wisconsin's Nikhil James and Illinois' Sam Henderson and Tej Rai. (By the way, Rai claimed the Scholastic Reserve award for the 2013 Tour.) Kolb beat James in the second round and Rai in the final round to earn the championship.

After a seven-year absence from USCF-rated play, Kevin Oliver posted a 3.5/4 score in Class C to win the section. Oliver needed a fourth-round victory over Nathan Holzmueller to earn the class championship. Holzmueller tied with Slawomir Borkowski with 3.0's for second-place honors in the section.

Playing up a section, Oliver began the day in Class D territory, continuing a tournament history dating back to a pair of events in Oregon in 2006. Not satisfied with his Class C title at the Illinois Class, Oliver stepped up to Class B competition in the following weekend's Greater Midwest Class, respectably tying for fifth place in the 28-player section. His only losses came against two of the three co-champions. Welcome to Illinois chess, Mr. Oliver, you've come a long way in one week!

In the Under 1200, Sahil Conjeevaram and Vikram Dara drew in the fourth round, giving the youths a co-championship. On tiebreaks, Conjeevaram claimed the top trophy. There was a seven-way tie for third in the section for those with 3.0/4 scores, including two unrated first-timers, Scott Daniels and Brandon Wang.

Within that 28-player section, Harrison Zhang had the top score for Class F players (3.0/4) while Evan Liu and David Chu posted that same score earning co-top honors among Class G players.

Kevin Song earned a 2.0/4 score giving him the high total for Class H competitors, while Pranav Addepalli's 2.0 gave him the upper hand among Class I players. Song and Addepalli are both provisional players on the rise.

The ICA is indebted to Tournament Directors Jeff Smith and Darren Erickson for their efforts at running the one-day event.