With a ninth round defeat of Cuban GM Lazaro Bruzon Batista, IM Jeffery Xiong claimed the 24th Chicago Open championship. The victory was worth $10,300 to the 14-year old Texan who was undefeated with five wins and four draws for a total of 7.0/9 points.

In round eight, IM Xiong handed GM Boris Avrukh his first defeat in five events since moving to Illinois from Israel. Avrukh had compiled 19 wins and 13 draws before the loss, lauding his game against the eventual winner.

The 2015 Chicago Open, concluding May 25, attracted 826 players to the main event, an 18 percent larger field than in 2014.

At 6.5/9 there was an eight-way tie for second place with FM Eric Rosen nabbing the slightly-richer $2000 prize for top Under 2400 score in the Open. Seven others -- all Grandmasters -- each took home $1671.43. 

Ukranian GM Illia Nyzhnyk, who now resides in Missouri, won his final match to join the 6.5 score group. The other six drew against each other in the ninth round, including New Yorker Gata Kamsky drawing Russian GM Valdimir Dobrov, Illinois-based Vladamir Georgiev half-pointing with Californian Daniel Naroditsky, and Sergei Azarov even up with Sam Sevian.

Entering the event, Massachusettes-based Sevian (USCF 2655) was the top-rated 14-year old in the US while Xiong (USCF 2583) was #2, 72 points behind based on published May ratings.

A half-point back at 6.0, FM Atulya Shetty, a University of Michigan freshman, pocketed $1000 as the U2400 runner up in the Open.

Five others tallied 6.0/9 including Avrukh, tying for 9th place overall, earning $160 a piece.

Sixteen players in the Open posted 5.5's finishing just outside the money. That scoregroup included Illinois FM Gauri Shankar, Wisconsin FM Awonder Lliang and Indiana FM Sean Vibbert along with entrants from Michigan, California, Texas, Utah, Kansas, Arizona, Maryland, New York, New Jersey and Cuba. 

GM Dmitry Gurevich posted 5.0 with three wins and a draw, losing to Nyzhnyk in the penultimate round. IM Angelo Young also tallied 5.0, drawing in the second round against the eventual champion. 

FM Sam Schmakel compiled a 4.5 as did Jacob Furfine. Schmakel won two and drew five, with both losses coming against members of the 5.5 final score group. 13-year old Furfine finished strong with three draws followed by a pair of wins.

David Peng (age 12), Vishnu Arjun and Jonathan Kogen were Illinois contributions to the 4.0 score group. Kogen was undefeated in his final five rounds with two wins and three draws. 

Other Sections

A re-entry was key to Nicky Korba's 6.0/7 score and the championship in the U2300 section. The Californian earned $5000 and won five and drew two after reentering before which he'd drawn one and lost one.

Four players tied for second including high school freshman Alex Bian, each earning $1275. Alex too had reentered after dropping an earlier match against Bill Brock.

New York's William Del Castillio was undefeated in the U2100 with six wins and a draw, pocketing $5000. An eight-way tie for second included eighth grader Matthew Stevens who is headed for Whitney Young High School in the fall. Other 5.5's included Todd Freitag and Rene Ancheta; each is $837.50 richer. 

Bian and Stevens were Illinois' two top-rated 14-year olds according to the USCF May lists.

Bennett Joseph was at or near the section lead all weekend until he lost a tough seventh-round match to Del Castillio, tying for 10th place with eight others. The 5.0 score group included Dan Jones, Rafeh Qazi, 13-year old Hanson Hao and 14-year olds Jack Curcio and Rishi Narayanan.

Fedor Titov leveraged his 1899 pre-event rating to a 6.5/7 score in the U1900. Titov's previous regular-rated USCF event was the 2014 Chicago Open when he finished 4.5/7 in the same section. Titov pocketed $5000 from his championship.

There was a four-way tie for second at 6.0 and a three-way tie for sixth at 5.5 which included Hector Hernandez and Caleb Denby. The 6.0's earned $1275 and the 5.5's took home $433.33.

A baker's dozen of U1900 players tied for 9th place at 5.0 including Tom Grudzinski, Ed Zhang, Scott Drier, Slavisa Djukic and Julien Bendalac. 

Illinois players grabbed seven of the top eight slots in the Under 1700 section with Joe Fleming earning the $5000 first prize with a perfect 7.0/7. Deonte Spencer, SD Prasad and Daniel Cohen were a point back, each earning $1500.

Tying for fifth place with 5.5 were Aidan Carey, Theo Caen, Marc McConney along with Indiana Class C player Emil Resurreccion. Resurreccion lost to Fleming in the final round. The 5.5's each earned $475 paychecks.

Tying for ninth place at 5.0 were 12 players including nine from Illinois: Rafael Ramierz, Joshua Prupes, Cameron Heino, Richard Becker, Henry McDonald, James Duffy, Charles Prude, Jonah Karafiol and Fred Yuan. Each claimed $50.

Under 1500 competition saw a trio of Illinois players claiming top honors with 6.0/7's. Andy Soukal and Alex Connelly each claimed $2750 while Samir Hadzic earned $1500 which was the maximum prize for previously unrated or provisional players (less than 26 rated games in either the USCF or FIDE).

Adam Wallach and Ryan Goebel each pocketed $644.34 with 5.5 scores, tying for fourth place along with Missouri's Wilson Gao. Tying for seventh at 5.0 was were seven U1500 entrants including four from Illinois: Emmett Madigan, Madison Loftin, Hyun Kim and Kris Harihara. Each earned $185.72.

A pair of Illinois players grabbed the top score at 6.5 in the U1300. Adam Przybyl took home $4000 while high schooler Nathan Fong only earned $1000 due to the Continental Chess Association's prize limitation on players without an established (non-provisional) rating. Przybyl and Fong drew head to head in the seventh round.

Illinoisian's Neil Wren and Kenneth Kotowsky both scored 6.0 to earn $1400. Wren lost to Przybyl in the fifth round and Kotowsky lost to Wren in the third round; both were otherwise perfect. 

Thirteen players tied for sixth place with 5.0's including Tim Krick, Nathan Brownell, Georgia Wolf, Patrick Kelly, Bharat Patel, Nathan Yamaguchi, Philip McCully, Paul Graham and Avi Kaplan. Each enjoyed $138.46 prizes.

Previously-unrated Ayodele Abejidea won clear first in the Under 1000 section with 7.0/7 while Washington's Jonathan Nazario scored 6.5 to claim second. However due to the CCA restriction, they pocketed only $200 a piece (plus trophies!). 

Abejidea's post-event provisional rating was 1826.

Three players scored 6.0's including Blas Guzman who nabbed third place and $400 with 6.0/7. Grant Kim took fourth place on tiebreaks and Aswin Chirukandath claimed fifth place.

Scoring 5.5's and tying for sixth place were another Illinois trio: On tiebreaks, Ryan Springer took 6th, Tim Sawyier nabbed seventh and Ronald Logan earned eighth. A half-point back, Eskandar won his first five matches, before losing to Abejide and Guzman to take 9th place.

Other Illinois players in the 5.0 scoregroup were Bruce Tang, Daniel Hammond, Isha Gani, Matthew Fales, Charlie Tiemeyer, Chris Alexander Parra and Hui Wang.

Iowa's Chi Hoang was the top unrated at 5.0.

Zephaniah Mussman was the top U800 at 4.5.

Other Illinois players with 4.5's were David Sun, Sebastian Tous, Kamalesh Sureshkumar, John Green, Cody Liu and Alex Fei.

Aditya Oberai was the highest scoring Under 600 at 4.0.

Aaryan Chandola was the top U400 at 3.0.

108 players competed in the U1000 competition.

Results are posted at http://chicagoopen.net/. USCF Crosstables have been posted here.