Five Illinois juniors are among the 28 Americans competing at the 2017 World Youth Chess competion in Montevideo, Uruguay underway the last week of September.

Hurricane Irma has prevented one player from competing but, thankfully, the Illinois team has arrived safely in South America.

More news is available on the US Chess site here and we'll try to keep you updated with the help of the players and their families.

385 players from 53 countries are participating in six sections. Illinois is represented in four of the six competitions with two entrants in Girls U14. 

Good luck to Aydin, Jacob, Marissa, Shreya and Aria! 

The US has the third-most players of any delegation -- and the most of any country outside South America. (Host Uruguay has entered 44, Argentina has 32 players).

Illinois-based Grandmaster Vlad Georgiev is serving as one of the US coaches.

Update: As of Round 7, Aydin Turgut is 5.0/7 in the U14 Open while Shreya Mangalam has 4.5 in the Girls U14.

Aria Hoesley is 3.5 in the Girls U14 while Marissa Li stands with 3.5 in the Girls U16.

Jacob Furfine has posted 4.0/7 in the Open U16.

Update: Heading into Round 10 of 11, Illinois has two representatives in the top 10 of their respective sections.

Jacob Furfine has 6.0/9 placing him in a tie for 7th in the Under 16 Open.

Aydin Turgut is 6.0/9, tying him for 8th in the Under 14 Open.

In the U14 Girls, Shreya Mangalam is 5.5/9, tying for 14th.  In that same section, Aria Hoesley is a mere point back from Shreya, at 4.5.

WCM Marissa Li has 4.0/9 in the U16 Girls.

Jacob is the top-ranked American in the section while Aydin has two other Americans with a similar 6.0 tally.

Only two Americans are above Shreya's points in the U14.

Update heading into the final round: With 6.5/10 in the U16 Open, Jacob Furfine will be playing the white colors on board 6. The two players with 8.0 are playing each other on board 1 -- and one player has 7.5, meaning Jacob still has an outside chance at tying for third place.

Aydin Turgut has posted 7.0/10 in the U14 Open and is playing White on board 5. Ahead of him are two players with 8.0 and one with 9.0, none playing each other, which gives Aydin an outside shot at tying for third place. 86 are competing in the U14 Open.

In the Girls U14, Shreya Mangalam has 6.5/10 and will play the dark colors on board 6. Shreya also has an outside chance at tying for third place if all the boards ahead of her break the right way and she wins. 59 are entered in the section.

Win, lose or draw, the ICA is proud of our Illinois contingent at this year's World Youth!