Out of Staters Sweep US Junior and US Senior Opens

Wisconsin youth won three of the four sections at the 2015 US Junior Open completed June 14 in Schaumburg.  Massachusetts GM Alexander Ivanov won the 2015 US Senior Open.

Both events were organized by Sevan Muradian of ChessIQ and Glenn Panner of Chess Weekend and were hosted at the Hyatt Regency of Schaumburg. Crosstables are viewable for the Junior Open and the Senior Open.

12-year old Awonder Liang of Wisconsin was perfect in the U18 section defeating Atulya Shetty of Michigan in the final round.  

Earlier Awonder defeated Andrew Tang of Minnesota (round 5) and Alexander Velikanov of Wisconsin (round 4) -- Andrew and Alexander were the co-runners up with 5.0/6 scores.

Atulya finished in the 4.5 score group along with Illinois' Sam Schmakel and Ohio's Maggie Feng. 

In the Under 15 competition, Wisconsin's Anupama Rajendra (5.5) edged Illlinois' Akhil Kalghatgi (5.0) to top the section. The two drew in the fourth round, Anupama's only blemish. Akhil also drew Wisconsin's Adream Liang in the sixth round.

With that draw, Adream posted a 4.5, joining Vishal Menon of Virginia, Milton Lee of Kansas, Aaron Thomson of Minnesota and Shayna Provine and Aidan Carey, both of Illinois.

Nikhil Kalghatgi fell victim to Anupama in the last round to post a 4.0/6 score. Wisconsin's Rithwik Mathur tallied the same score, losing to Nikhil in the fifth round.

Dairy State's Daniel Perelman mounted a perfect score in the Under 11's, well ahead of a four-pack at 4.5. That score group included Gordon Lee of Kansas, Anish Lodh of Iowa and and the Wisconsin pair of Hersh Singh and Gauri Menon. Illinois' highest scorers were Alex Zhao and Nicholas Ladan, both with 4.0's.

In the Under 8 section, Nebraskan Sanjay Rajjan was 5.5, a half-point better than Wisconsin's Aradh Kaur. Illinois' Dhruv Malladi came in third place with the only 4.5 score.

There was a four-way tie for fourth place at 4.0 including three Illinois players: David Chen, Saanvi Adusmalli and Vikram Oberai.

GM Ivanov was perfect for the weekend with the exception of a fifth-round draw with GM Dmitry Gurevich. Gurevich also drew Angelo Young in the final round to finish a half-point back at 5.0.

IM Young was part of an eight-way tie for third at 4.5 and there were plenty of age-division prizes for the seniors too.

73 competed in the US Senior Open, the first time it was organized by the Chess Weekend - ChessIQ combination.

Over 180 competed in the US Junior open with others enjoying the "Not Senior, Not Junior" event. Juniors also competed in side events featuring a six-round Blitz tournament and a Puzzle Solving competition.