GM Avrukh Claims '14 Greater Midwest Class Championship

Third time is a charm: Illinois' newest grandmaster, GM Boris Avrukh has finally earned an outright championship in an American event. With his fifth-round victory over GM Nikola Mitkov, Avrukh secured the lone 4.5 tally atop of field of 35 entrants in a combined Masters and Experts section of the Greater Midwest Class.

Earlier Avrukh had drawn GM Vlad Georgiev in the second round denying him a perfect score. Avrukh's provisional USCF rating has now eclipsed 2700. In three events since moving to Illinois from Israel, Avrukh has 12 wins, three draws and zero losses.

GM Georgiev shared runner-up status with FM Alexander Velikanov of Wisconsin, both with 4.0 results.  A five-way tie for fourth place at 3.5 featured GM Mitkov, New York's William Fisher -- a FIDE Master and the 11th-rated Under 21 year old in the US, and Illinois stalwarts IM Florin Felecan, Zach Kasiurak and Jacob Furfine.

This was the second year for the Greater Midwest Class, jointly organized by Chess IQ and Chess Weekend. Vytautas Vitkauskas was credited as Chief TD, assisted by Sevan Muradian and Glenn Panner. The event was hosted at the Hyatt Woodfield in Schaumburg, completed November 30.

The Under 2000 section saw a four-way tie for first place at 4.0/5 included Akhil Kalghatgi, James Condron, Max Friedman (of Tennessee) and Edgar Talayko. Tying for fifth place, a half-point back with 3.5, were Illinois juniors Jack Curcio, Nihkil Kalghatgi and Jonathan Lee.

Joey Bikus claimed the Under 1800 section by himself with a 4.5 result, a half-point ahead of Iowa's Pranav Krishnamurthy. Third place was shared by a foursome including Jacob Bakalinsky and Divya Pandey (both of Wisconsin) and Rafael Ramirez and Joe Fleming (both of Illinois).

Mani Terrazas earned the clear Under 1600 championship with his 4.5 tally including a full-point bye in the first round and a half-point bye in the third round. Madhav Parthasarathy, Jeff Bikus and Lyle Rubin shared runner up honors with 4.0 scores. Terrazas and Rubin raised their USCF ratings over 100 points, Parthasarathy bumped his almost 200 points. Bikus saw an increase just shy of 100 points.

Niles North's Hyun Soo Kim was the outright winner of the U1400 section with a 4.5/5 posting, offering a draw in the final round in his game with Joey Buklis. Buklis accepted and wound up in a five-way tie as runner up with a 4.0 score, joining Kris Harihara, Eric Starkman, Alan Wei and Lee Strobel. Kim defeated Harihara in the second round and Starkman in the fourth round, raising his provisional rating from 1024 to 1353, a difference of 329 points!

In a one-day Scholastic side event November 29, Iowa's Teja Jetty prevailed, posting four wins and no losses. Ray Tan and Kamalesh Sureshkumar were runners up with 3.0/4 scores, Sureshkumar claiming the Under 1000 championship. Mengzhu Cai was a half-point back at 2.5, earning the U1000 runner up nod. All participants in the event received trophies as well as medals, encouraging future participation in competition.

In Blitz competition, 31 players went six rounds at a pace of Game/3 with a 2-second increment. When the dust cleared, there was a four-way tie for first with 5.0/6 including Michael Auger, Mateusz Bobula, Gauri Shankar, and 2013 Illinois Class Champion Aung Zin.

Bobula defeated Zin and Augur in consecutive games, but lost to Shankar in the final round. Auger defeated University of Illinois teammate Eric Rosen in the final round to secure his place in the co-championship. Earlier, Augur had defeated Shankar in the fourth round. There was a six-way tie for fifth place, all with 4.0/6 tallies.

USCF crosstables are viewable here. 147 participated in one of the main event sections with two- and three-day options.