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2024 annual meeting;

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Written by ICA Board ICA Board

Created: 06 December 2024 06 December 2024

On Tuesday December 17^th   at 7pm we will be having our 2024 annual meeting, via zoom.

All members and afiliates will be getting a zoom link to their email.

ICA Board

Late 2024 Ballots

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Written by ICA Board ICA Board

Created: 06 December 2024 06 December 2024

The Illinois Chess Association would like to apologize about some late ballots.

We just had our latest board meeting and discussed whether we needed to extend the time to submit a ballot for the members of our executive board. After a lengthy discussion we noticed that not one member of the Illinois Chess Association reached out to anyone on the board to voice a concern asking for an extension for the time to vote. I personally called several members of the voting community of the association immediately after noticing a few ballots had technical issues getting delivered, none were more than a few days late that I am aware. We decided there was not a need to extend the time to vote.

A committee has been formed to investigate and look into the technical issues and will recommend solutions to avoid these issues moving forward. 

Once again, I apologize on behalf of the board, and we will do better next year.

Thanks

Stephen Plotnick – President of Illinois Chess Association

2024 Illinois Class Championship

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Written by Jacob Plotnick - Editor / Staff Reporter Jacob Plotnick - Editor / Staff Reporter

Created: 02 December 2024 02 December 2024

2024 Illinois Class Championship

The Illinois Chess Association is happy to congratulate Glenn Panner and Maret Thorpe from Chess Weekend for an impressive organization of our 2024 Illinois Class State Championship on November 24, 2024. This tournament was held in Schaumburg, Illinois.

The tournament had eight sections: the typical class sections which are Master/Expert, Class A, Class B, Class C, Class D and Class E, there was an additional two under sections, Under 1000 and Under 800. In total, there were over 250 participants, 19 of which were ICA members. The tournament consisted of four rounds of game 60 with a 5 second delay.

Players preparing to play, courtesy of Zoren Bogdanovic

Master and Expert

We had a very exciting last round with Sam Schakel leading with leading with a perfect 3 points and three players tied with 2.5 points going into the final round. The three players were Ochirbat Lkhagvajamts, Aung Thant Zin and Sachit Srinivas Rajkumar. Aung and Sachit took a bye in the last round, leaving them a total of 3 points for the event. Meanwhile, Sam and Ochirbat drew giving the Master / Expert title to Sam with 3.5 points. Ochirbat ended in second place, tied with seven other players.

Here are the players that finished with at least three points:

Class A

There was a three-way tie for first place. Two players, Aaron J Anderson and Gaofei Wang, went into the last round with a perfect 3 points and drew. At the same time, Hemanth Samayamantri  won their last game – causing a tie for first.

Here are the players that ended up with at least 2.5 points:

Class B

There was a two-way tie with a perfect three points going into the last round – afterwards Bu Long  and Matthew Lucas Hough drew to end up alone in first with 3.5 points. Meanwhile, three other players won their last games to end up with 3 points.

Here are the players that finished with at least 2.5 points:

Class C

Junho Park and Akshay Naik went into round four with a perfect 3 points. Then, Junho defeated Akshay to finish as the standalone winner of Class C with a perfect score of 4 points. Amy Zhan and Ethan Chen came in a close second with 3.5 points and several players ended up with 3 points.

Here are the players that ended up with at least 3 points:

Class D

Benjamin Link was the only player they had a perfect three points going into the last round. Benjamin played Kevin Peter in the final round, which he won; finalizing his perfect four wins for the tournament. At the same time, Robert Jamar Polite III and Abir Palekar both went into the last round with 2.5 points. Shortly thereafter, Robert defeated Abir to get second place alone with 3.5 points.

Here are the players that ended up with at least 2.5 points:

Class E

Three players went into the last round with a perfect 3 points: Joshua Michael Gordon, Ayaan Todi, and Neil Aditya Joshi. Joshua defeated Pratheek Gajula, who had 2.5 points, and Ayaan defeated Neil. Sean Keiya ended up alone with 3.5 points after winning his final game in a similar manner.

Here are the players that ended up with at least 2.5 points:

Under 1000

Nilan Velu won the Under 1000 with a perfect 4 points. Then, Ishaan Tanneeru and Danzan Dashdemberel came in a tie for second with 3.5 points.

Here is Nilan receiving his trophy courtesy of his parents

Below are the players that ended up with at least 2.5 point:

Under 800

There were six players going into the final round with a perfect 3 points: Michael Cronin, Shrinath Hariharan, Sohan Chamarthi, Nirali Mohapatra, Alexander Panich, Larry Furnish, Evgenii Khanbutaev, Rayansh Prasad and Aadhya Adusumalli. After an exciting final round, there was three players with a perfect 4 points.  Michael won on tiebreaks, Shrinath came in second with tiebreaks and Sohan came in third via tiebreaks.

Here is Michael Cronin receiving the first-place trophy courtesy of his parents.

Here are the players that ended up with at least 3 points:

Linked here is a complete cross-table for the event, courtesy of Chess Weekend, 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 Glenn Panner and Maret Thorpe along with Chess Weekend for running the tournament so smoothly on behalf of the Illinois Chess Association. We also want to thank the 19 Illinois Chess Association members that came out and supported our Illinois State Championship.

Jonathan Kogen crowned state champion at 2024 Illinois Open State Championship

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Written by Jacob Plotnick - Editor / Staff Reporter Jacob Plotnick - Editor / Staff Reporter

Created: 15 September 2024 15 September 2024

The Illinois Chess Association is proud to congratulate Danial Wilson from Wilson Chess and Bill Buklis from King Registration for their amazing job at organizing our 2024 Illinois Open State Championship, at the Doubletree Hotel in Lisle, from August 30, 2024 to September 2, 2024. 

The tournament consisted of six sections: Major, Under 2100, Under 1900, Under 1700, Under 1500 and Under 1300. This tournament exceeded previous years with a record of over 250 participants playing, as well as additional players in the scholastic tournament, of which there is a separate article. From there, the Illinois Chess Association wants to thank all the players for playing in the tournament and supporting our organization.

 Image of the main playing hall (Regency Ballroom) during the final round. By Abdallah Aldweik

The State Champion title goes to the Illinois resident with the highest point total. The player with the highest point total was Awonder Liang with 6.5 out of 7. Alexander Velikanov tied for second with Jonathan Kogen with 5.5 points. But, because Awonder and Alexander are both not Illinois residents they are not eligible to be the State Champion, therefore Jonathan Kogen is this year's state champion.

Major

Awonder Liang won the section with 6.5 points out of 7. Then, as previously mentioned, Alexander Velikanov and Jonathan Kogen tied for second with 5.5 points. After that, Ochirbat Lkhagvajamts  and Spencer Lahmann tied for fourth with 5 points.

Linked here are the top games from the 6th round.

Under 2100

Andrei Skorobogatykh and Aradh Kaur tied for first place with 5.5 points. For third place, four players, Rebecca Cortez, Dario Pjevic, Gurugrahan Gurumoorthi and Gaofei Wang, tied with 5 points.

Under 1900

Adam Walker was the outwrite winner with 6.5/7 points. His only draw came in the last round against Elizabeth Xia who finished uncontested in second with 5.5 points. After that, Amarjargal Ganbaatar and Shivani Manimaran tied for third with 5 points.

Under 1700

In an exciting finish in the U1700 there were two players, Joshua Flores and Nomay Piparia played each other in a tie for first place with 5 points out of 6. They drew and ended up tied for first place with 5.5 out of 7 points. Four other players tied for third with 5 points: Lucas Silverstre, Alex Giris, Christian Walls and Sanjay Advani

Under 1500

Four players tied for first place with 5.5 points: Amy Zhan, Patrick McDonnell, Sean Gao and Jack Witman.

Under 1300

Joseph Rozenblat won outright with 6.5/7 points. Aarnav Sheth finished uncontested in second with 6/7 points. Jim Alop and Anthony Dimonte tied for third place with 5.5 points.

Linked here is a complete cross-table for the event, courtesy of King Registration, and the US rating report.

Once again, we want to congratulate everybody who participated and gave their best in the tournament and to congratulate Wilson Chess and King Registration for running the tournament so smoothly on behalf of the Illinois Chess Association.