News

2024 Illinois Class Championship

Details

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

Details

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.

2024 Illinois Scholastic Tournament

Details

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

Created: 11 September 2024 11 September 2024

 

The Illinois Chess Association is happy to congratulate Danial Wilson from Wilson Chess and Bill Buklis from King Registration for their amazing job at organizing our Illinois Scholastic Tournament, at the Doubletree Hotel in Lisle last week, on August 31, 2024.

 

The tournament had three sections: Under 1200, Under 800 and Under 500. Across the entire tournament, there were over 150 players.

 

With that, the Illinois Chess Association wants to thank all the scholastic players for playing in the tournament and supporting us. Keep up the good work and we hope to see many of you being part of our Warren Scholars program in the future.

 

Under 1200

 

Rishik Abbaraju finished as the outright winner in the U1200 section with a perfect 5 out of 5 wins. Coming in a close second, Pranv Prabhu finished outright in second with 4.5/5 points. However, four players tied for third with 4/5 points: Krithin Arunkumar, Paul Hogan, Shravan Sabarish and Tate Daniels.

 

Rishik proudly holding his first-place trophy

The top seven players received trophies:

 

1 Abbaraju, Rishik

2 Prabhu, Pranav

3 Sabarish, Shravan

4 Arunkumar, Krithin

5 Hogan, Paul Joseph

6 Daniels, Tate                           

7 Senthilkumar, Eyal 

 

Several other players tied for seventh, but did not receive a trophy due to tiebreakers, instead they received a medal for their amazing performance:

 

8 Senthilkumar, Vidyut

9 Blanka, Daniel 

10 Kumar, Eesha 

11 Vijayaraghavan, Pradhyum 

12 Li, Ethan 

 

Under 800

Sean Pepper was an outright winner with a perfect 5 points. An additional seven players tied for second with 4 points, which are listed below,

Sean proudly holding his first-place trophy

 

There were trophies awarded to the top seven players:

 

1 Pepper, Sean

2 Ruhullah, Yaqub Uzair

3 Khanbutaev, Evgenii 

4 Jain, Shourya Nirmal

5 Behl, Nina 

6 Memon, Essa Ahmed

7 Divekar, Viraj 

 

The following player got a medal instead of a trophy based on tiebreakers:

 

8 Sendhilkumar, Shivasanjith 

 

Under 500

 

Similarly to the other sections, George Baron won outright with 5 points. After that, there was a nine-way tie with 4 points, all of whom are listed below,

George proudly holding his first-place trophy

 

These seven players were awarded trophies:

 

1 Baron, George 

2 Divekar, Vihan 

3 Brown, Noah G 

4 Wu, Alexander 

5 Jiao, Yumu 

6 Xie, Vincent 

7 Patel, Shoobh 

 

The following players were tied for second place and did not receive a trophy due to tiebreakers.  Still, they were all awarded with a medal for their triumphs.

 

8 Agarwal, Vedansh 

9 Lal, Aariyana 

10 Dimasacat, Princess Euniece Cabales 

 

We are also proud to congratulate the following players across all sections for increasing their ratings by over 50 points and wish them the best of luck to perform as well in their next tournaments as they did in this one:

U1200:

George Baron

Noah Brown

Vihan Divekar

Yumu Jiao

Vincent Xie

Shoobh Patel

Vedansh Agarwal

Vilok Puppala

Yash Gawas

Shreya Gawas

Joseph Chiang

Mia Chiang

Darren Pinto

Frankie Kirkman

Emilio Villegas

 

U800:

Rishik Abbaraju

Pranav Prabhu

Daniel Blanka

Vidyut Senthilkumar

Eesha Kumar

Kaiden Gomez

Ansh Jiandani

Arnav Shah

Sahasvath Indla

Akhil Nandakumar

Anya Chakida

 

U500:

Sean Pepper

Shivasanjith Sendhilkumar

Shourya Jain

Yaqub Ruhullah

Essa Memon

Nina Behl

Evgenii Khanbutaev

Viraj Divdkar

Vedant Sharma

Phani Surikuchi

Angela Rivas

Kellen Shibayama

Krishiv Singh

Ayansh Tata

Suveer Reddivari

Nicole Wishniowski

Lohith Gongati

Aadya Adusumalli

Issac Mendoza

Jaden Livingstone

Aniket Panicker

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

 

Once again,  we want to congratulate everybody who participated and gave it 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.

Illinois Makes a Splash at 2024 US Chess Invitationals

Details

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

Created: 02 August 2024 02 August 2024

Just over two months ago, in late May of this year, the Illinois Chess Association ran our Youth and Senior Invitationals – used to determine the strongest player in their respective age section to represent Illinois in the US Open Championship Invitationals. The five players representing Illinois are pictured below: Larry Cohen (Irwin-Senior), Rebecca Corez (Haring-Girls), Avi Kaplan (Denker-High School), Anjaneya Rao (Barber-Grades 6-8) and Aiden Li (Rockefeller-Grades K-5). 

 

From left to right: Rebecca, Larry, Aiden, Anjaneya, and Avi.

 

In the combined state team category, there was a four-way tie for first between Connecticut, Texas, Illinois, and Arizona. Based on tiebreaks, Illinois was awarded third place. Each player played a total of six games in their respective tournaments, their individual results are below:

 

Rebecca Cortez scored 3.5 points.

Avi Kaplan scored 5.0 points and finished as co-champion

Anjaneya Rao scored 5.5 points and finished as champion

Aiden Li scored 4.0 points

Larry Cohen scored 3.0 points

Below are the results of all of the teams who tied for first:

 

 Place  Code    Name                                           Score  TBrk[M]  TBrk[S]  TBrk[C] 
  1    1-4  CT      CT (2167.0)                                     21.0       72    110.5     78.5 
                    IM Maximillian Lu (2479) 4.5                  
                    Jasmine Su (2241) 4.5                         
                    Lilianna Gao (1931) 4.5                       
                    Lacey Wang (1961) 4.5                         
                    Mikhail Koganov (2223) 3.0                    
  2         TX      TX (2177.8)                                     21.0       70    104.5       75 
                    IM Eric Chang Liu (2446) 5.0                  
                    FM Sharvesh R Deviprasath (2540) 5.0          
                    Ellery Zhang (1821) 4.0                       
                    Oscar Yihang Zhang (1997) 3.5                 
                    Scott Alan Elliott (2085) 3.5                 
  3         IL      IL (2074.4)                                     21.0       69      102       75 
                    Anjaneya Sripathy Rao (2205) 5.5              
                    Avi Harrison Kaplan (2319) 5.0                
                    Aiden Linyuan Li (2024) 4.0                   
                    Rebecca Cortez (1824) 3.5                     
                    Lawrence S Cohen (2000) 3.0                   
  4         AZ      AZ (2166.6)                                     21.0       66       98       73 
                    IM Sandeep Sethuraman (2479) 5.0              
                    Roshan Sethuraman (2223) 4.5                  
                    Aishwarya Lakshmi Ganapathy (1844) 4.0        
                    Sharvesh Arul (1959) 4.0                      
                    FM Robby Adamson (2328) 3.5                

Click here to view the results of all teams who competed.

 

To help cover fees to travel to the tournament, all scholastic representatives received a $250 travel stipend from the Illinois Chess Association. In addition, Anjaneya Rao received a $5000 scholarship and Avi Kaplan received a $3000 scholarship to the colleges of their choice for their performance in their sections. 

 

The Illinois Chess Association would like to congratulate all of our players for their amazing performance at the Championship Invitationals and extend our greatest appreciation for representing our state at such a great level.