Illinois Sends Ten Top 10 Finishers to 2014 World Open in VA, Kochemirovskiy Wins Under 1600 Co-Championship, Chicago Kelly's Jungo Undefeated, U1400 Co-Runner Up

The Land of Lincoln was well-represented in the Continental Chess Association's World Open, completed July 6 in Arlington, Virginia. Over 1100 players competed in the nine-round event. Crosstables can be viewed here.

Top 10 finishers included Alexey Kochemirovskiy tying for the championship in the U1600, Mark Jungo tying for 2nd in the U1400 and IM Angelo Young tying for third in the Under 2400. 

Max Haugh-Ewald tied for third in the U1600 and Sam Zschack tied for fourth place in the U1400. Ishaar Ganesan tied for 8th in the U1600, Brent Young also tied for 8th in the U1200. Jon Winick tied for 9th in the U1800 while Karthikeyan Pounraj tied for 10th in the U2000.

 GM Yury Shulman posted a 5.5/9 in the Open, in a 13-way tie for 14th place.

Section	Open	U2400	U2200	U2000
Top IL Finisher	Shulman T14	Young T3	Stevens	Pounraj T10
Others		Kogen T12	Hrach, Zinski,  Indusekar	Crissman, Murphy, Rei
Section	U1800	U1600	U1400	U1200
Top IL Finisher	Winick T9	Kochemirovskiy T1	Jungo T2	Young T8
Others	Natarajan T16	Haugh-Ewald T3, Ganesan T8, Plaines T13	Zschack T4
Also:  Adeeb Algadban Tied for 6th in the Unrated / Provisional Section

IM Angelo Young finished in a four-way tie for third in the Under 2400 section with a 7.0/9 tally. Young was actually undefeated with five wins, three draws and a half-point bye.

Jonathan Kogen was a point back with 6.0/7, tying for 12th place, boosting his USCF rating 31 points to 2271.

Michael Auger compiled a 4.5/9 after taking two half-point byes at the tournament onset.

128 players competed in multiple rounds in the U2400.

In the Under 2200, soon-to-be eighth-grader Matt Stevens posted a 5.0 with three wins and four draws, including victories over 10th-place finisher Samarth Chakrasali (6.5/9) of Minnesota and 16th-place finisher David Paulina of MD (6.0/9). He also drew two others in Paulina's score group.

Highland Park's Jonathan Hrach overcame losses in four of his first five rounds to finish 4.5/9. Akshay Indusekar won his first three matches before losing to co-champion Curtis Brooks of Texas. Akshay still managed to compile a 4.5 tally despite not playing the final two rounds. Benet Academy's Max Zinski also posted a 4.5, all three Illinois juniors tying for 74th place in the section. Approximately 190 participated in multiple rounds in the contentious U2200 section.

In the U2000, Karthikeyan Pounraj posted a 6.5/9, tying for 10th place thanks to five wins and two draws. 

A half-point back with six points, Illinois had three players among a 17-way tie for 20th: John Crissman and Ryan Murphy both had five wins and two draws, Tej Rei had four wins and two draws with a full-point bye. 

Also in that section Elchonon Daitchman finished 5.5, Charles Craigmile posted a 5.0 and Hector Hernandez tallied 4.5.

In the Under 1800 section, Jon Winick placed in a seven-way tie for 9th with 6.5/9. Jon enjoyed four wins and three draws. A half-point back, Oliver Natarajan's 6.0 tied him for 16th place.

Other scores in that section included Lauro Nava 4.5, George Trbojevic 4.5, Danial Wilson 4.0, Otis Lewis 4.0. Over 170 competed in the U1800.

With over 136 entrants in the U1600, Alexey Kochemirovskiy earned the co-championship with 8.0 points from seven wins and two draws, including a 7th-round draw against his co-champion, Joseph Zeltsan of New York.

Max Haugh-Ewald compiled a 7.0 score, good for a six-way tie for third place. Ishaar Ganesan's 6.5 earned him a place among eighth-place finishers.

Theron Plaines tied for 13th with 6.0, Slawomir Borkowski tied for 37th with a 5.0 tally.

In the Under 1400, soon-to-be Kelly High School (of Chicago) junior, Mark Jungo went undefeated to tie for second place, compiling a 7.0/9 result and raising his rating 181 points to 1514. Jungo won five matches and drew four, including a fourth-round draw versus Maryland's Philip Keisler with whom he tied for second place.

In that 80-player section, Illinois' Sam Zschack compiled a 6.5 result tying for fourth place.

Ed Bustamante and Robert McDonald, Jr. posted 5.0's, tying for 22nd place.

In the U1200 Brent Young participated in a six-way tie for 8th place with 6.0/9. Young's USCF rating actually declined 10 points due to the level of competition played compared to his pre-event rating. 

In the 15-player Unrated / Provisional section Adeeb Algadban tied for sixth with a 5.0 score. Algadban's provisional rating rose to 1076.