Youth Chess Foundation of Chicago (YCFC) hosts six free tournaments a year at various schools around Chicagoland. The second of the six events for the 2016-2017 calendar year was held December 18 at De La Salle Institute on Chicago's southside. 

 

George Dzuricsko of De La Salle, and Kelli Moore of St. Columbanus served as hosts with Mike Cardinale once again serving as organizer and Chief Tournament Director.

 

 

Fox Valley Chess Club's Nandini Prakash vindicated a loss in an earlier tournament to win the K-2 championship with five wins in five games.

Isabella Patel-Gracia of Kinzie was second with four wins and a draw for 4.5 points.

 

St. Joseph of Summit edged Decatur (of Chicago) for the top team honors in the section, 11.5 to 11.0. Kinzie placed third, a half-point better than Edgebrook, 9.5 to 9.0.

 

Beaubien stomped the field in the Novice 3-4 section with three perfect 4-for-4 scores. Dmitri Delgiannis, Radu Bucur and Angelo Landiza were all perfect as was David Cedeno of Monroe. On tiebreaks, Dmitri won first place.

 

Beaubien ran away with the team trophy with 14.0, ahead of Skinner North (12.0) and Jefferson (10.5).

 

With 99 players in the section, limited TD staffing and a huge "day of" registration, that section -- and Novice 5-6 -- only held four rounds instead of five. 

 

In the Novice 5-6, five players finished with a perfect four-for-four, with Leon Cao of Skinner North earning the top tiebreak.

 

Leon Chen of Ward, Colin Jung of Edison, Max Castillo (also of Skinner North) and Gunn Kim of Keller all won their four matches.

 

Teamwise, Skinner North was the 5-6 clear winner with 14.0, Keller placed second with 13.0 from only four players and Ward placed third with 12.5 from the top four of twelve players.

 

Nolan Falk and Andrew Ahn were the top scorers in Novice 7-8 at 4.5, both drawing in the third round against different players. Nolan, of Beaubien and Andrew of Edgebrook didn't let that half-point round phase them, finishing strong with two more wins. It's all in the endgame, right?

 

Ward was the team winner in Novice 7-8 with 12.5, ahead of Cook (11.0) and Morgan Park (10.5).

 

For the second event in a row, Decatur's Avi Kaplan was the Advanced section winner with 5.0/5. Andrey Novikov of Bateman placed second with 4.5.

 

Those two teams -- Decatur and Bateman -- tied for top team score in the Advanced with Decatur claiming first on the higher tiebreak. Lenart -- with only three players claimed third place with 9.5.

 

Top four players' scores are used in the Novice sections and top three are used in the Advanced.

 

The next YCFC event will be January 14 at Brooks Academy on 111th in Chicago.  Contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. if your squad might be interested in participating in YCFC events.

 

This year's competitions are co-sponsored by the Chicago Chess Foundation. The De La Salle event was supported by numerous volunteer hours from AT&T, Apartment People, the ICA's Warren Scholars & Rising Stars, among others.

 

YCFC is a 501 (c) (3) supported by community contributions to keep the events free for the Chicagoland participants.