With six wins and a sixth-round draw, Dimitar Mardov has secured the National K-3 Championship at SuperNationals VI. New York's Liam Putnam also finished with 6.5, but Dimitar posted the superior tiebreak to earn the sizeable championship trophy.

Dimitar raised his rating to 2014 to achieve "Candidate Master" (Expert) status.

Dimitar's father, Andon, wrote to the ICA after the event noting that his son received some much appreciated help from GM Mitkov preparing against the two experts faced in Rounds Six and Seven. (The grandmaster's own son was playing at SuperNationals).

Mr. Mardov also noted that the popular grandmaster was helping a bunch of other Illinois kids including the Avery Coonley School team.

Andon continues that Dimitar achieved his goals for the event earning both the blitz and main event championships as well as achieving his USCF Expert title. He states, "Overall, it was a very successful event for our state and that's the result of hard work of students, coaches, organizers, leadership, etc. I think we're ahead of the game (as a state) and we're lucky to have what we have here in Illinois."

Aydin Turgut finished strong, posting a 6.0/7, tying for second place in the K-8 Championship, taking home the fourth place trophy.

Aydin defeated Andy Huang in the fifth round, but Huang -- with the same score -- wound up with the third place trophy, one place bigger than Aydin's.

Dr. Tansel Turgut, Aydin's father and a FIDE Master in his own right, told the ICA that it was a very challenging competition noting that his son had beaten Christopher Shen in South Africa at the World Youth -- "but this time it wasn't meant to be." Shen also posted 6.0, earning the top tiebreak in the score group for the second place trophy.

Ricky Wang was also 6.0/7 in the K-8 Championship, nabbing the 8th place trophy.

Shreya Mangalam went 5.5, tying for 9th place, while Jason Daniels scored 5.0, tying for 16th place, receiving the 19th place trophy.

Also posting solid plus-scores in the section were Nicholas Ladan and Kevin Ho (4.5's), along with 4.0's from second grader Aren Emrikian, Shreyas Reddy, Aria Hoesley, Aidan Carey, and Ashley Yan.

K-8 Class Awards:

Justin Weinzweig of Wilmette Junior High (4.0) earned the second place class award for players rated 1500-1599 in the section.

Ivan Mitkov (son of the aforementioned GM) nabbed the second place award (3.0) for players rated 1100-1199 while Avery Coonley's Alex Turk earned the third place distinction.

Alex's teammate, Benjamin Broach, took third place honors among players rated Under 1000.

Other Championship Awards:

Jacob Furfine tallied 5.5/7 in the K-9 Championships to tie for third place, taking home the 5th place trophy on tiebreaks. 

Vincent Do, Arthur Xu and Ishaar Ganesan all finished with impressive 4.5 scores, finishing just outside the top 15.

Lane Tech's David Harrison nabbed the third place trophy for players rated 1200-1399 (Class D) in the section.

In K-1 Championship competition, Illinois K-1 Champion Anshul Shetty tied for third place with 6.0/7, receiving fourth place hardware. Anshul had to beat state-mate Yuvraj Chennareddy in the final round to get the job done. 

Tying for 10th place with 5.5, receiving the 14th place trophy, was Akshith Narava of Cedar Ridge in Bloomington.

Yuvraj finished with 5.0, tying for 15th place, taking home 18th place hardware. Also finishing with 5.0 was Lucas Prainito of Highland Park, Illinois' K-1 runner up in March, nabbing a "tied for 20th" trophy.

Christopher Sakaliyski scored 4.5 in the section, just missing a trophy by a half-point.

Avery Coonley School placed 12th as a team, lead by Jake Izhaky's 4.0.

In the K-5 Championship, Chicagoan Avi Kaplan tied for 15th place receiving a "tied for 25th" trophy with a 5.0 

Nicholas Bruha tallied 4.5 in the K-6 Championship, tying for 23rd place. Sreeansh Reddy and Adithya Sathyamurthy -- both of Normal's Chiddix Junior High -- nabbed 1st and 2nd place honors in the section for players rated between 900 and 999.

In addition to Dimitar's K-3 Championship performance detailed above, Celina Wang posted the highest score of players rated 600-699, raising her rating 100 points from the event!