Chess players from Bloomington-Normal, Peoria, and Decatur matched wits with our own local talent to produce six perfect scores (4.0) in the April 15 Champaign Chess Challenge: Jaden Wang, Navid Tajkhorshid , Himani Musku, Vincent Fang, Joyce Zheng and Elbert Fang.

Hard-fought. Well-played. Here’s how this USCF K-12, 4-round, 80 player contest finished: Grades 6-12: Jaden Wang, 4.0, 1st Pl; Navid Tajkhorshid 4.0, 2nd Pl; Leonardo Ludaescher 2.0, 3rd Pl. Jay Ganesan, Simon Peyma Anari, Nora Sun, Savindi Devmal, Samuel Balogh and Kiran Naidu also scored 2.0.

Grades 4-5: Himani Musku, 4.0, 1st Pl; Max Chen, 3.5, 2nd Pl; Jeffrey Yao, 3.0, 3rd Pl. Kaylee Zheng, Catherine Liu, Kaixuan Liu, and Mrithuun Rajkumar also scored 3.0.

Grades 2-3: Vincent Fang, 4.0, 1st Pl; Joyce Zheng, 4.0, 2nd Pl; Anthony Yang, 3.0, 3rd Pl. Yao Chang, Anirudh Shome, Abhiram Karnatapu and James Yan also scored 3.0.

Grades K-1: Elbert Fang, 4.0, 1st Pl; Maurya Chandra, 3.0, 2nd Pl; Srikar Jayam, 3.0, 3rd Pl. Louwyn An, Alexander Caesar and Bryan Zhao also scored 3.0.

The Knight’s Tour Challenge? Several brave knights rode hard. When the dust cleared, jousters Garrett Cook, Jiwoo Kim and Lawrence Booth championed 1st, 2nd and 3rd place trophies, respectively.

Rising Star trophies were awarded to rated US Chess newcomers: Ana Alvarez-Wyman, Garrett Cook, Emily Dossey, Taylor Gladden, Krishna Ravi and Bryn Zhao.

Special thanks to chess mavens/coaches John Klein, Daniel Wright, and David Neuman for their exceptional work on the floor and on the boards; and, to the many parents who assisted with set-up, score-keeping and awards presentation.

Our Lucky Squares Drawings: Heartfelt thanks to Dr Gs BrainWorks (superstore intelligentsia) for contributing gift certificates; Champaign Public Library for free book cards; and, US Chess for complimentary copies of Chess Life for Kids magazine. We sweetened the treasure with US Chess Gift Cards and Treasure Chess Presidential Dollar Coins. And so it went.

We’ve outgrown our space at the Champaign Public Library (thanks CPL for supporting our efforts) and are seeking a new venue for our next tournament. Will keep you posted!