Illinois representatives are holding their own at the USCF Elementary Nationals concluding today in Dallas. A record 2200 players had pre-registered, with Illinois players in each of the four championship sections still in contention for high honors.

The Land of Lincoln has already claimed hardware in the K-6 Blitz event. With 132 players competing, 4th-grader Aydin Turgut posted one of the two top scores, 10.5/12. On tiebreaks, Aydin earned the championship trophy. Jacob Furfine and Emmett Madigan finished 8.0/12, in a pack tied for 17th place. Entering the competition, Aydin and Jacob had the two highest Blitz ratings of the field. 

In the K-5 main event, Aydin resumes play today facing Arizona fifth-grader Rick Sun. Along with California's David Pan, Aydin and Sun have the section's only 5.0/5 perfect scores.

The three highest-rated players in the section, Texan Brian Gu, Ohio's Christopher Shen and New York's Justin Chen lurk a half-point off the pace in an eight-way tie for fourth.

In the same 351-player section, Ricky Wang has posted a solid 4.0/5, tied for 12th.

In the K-1, Vrishank Ramnath is one of three players with a perfect 5.0/5 so far. Arthur Xu is only a half-point back after a fifth-round draw. With four wins in five rounds, first-grader William Cahill and kindergartner Alex Zhao are in a pack tied for 12th place.

In the K-6, Jacob Furfine sits nicely in a six-way tie for second place with a 4.5/5. Jacob drew Nebraska's Joseph Wan in the fifth round, while defeating the section's top-rated player, Brandon Nydick of New York, in the fourth round. Texas' Emily Nguyen is the lone perfect score so far.

In the K-3, Martin Stukan is in a pack of 4.0/5's tied for 11th place.

Play resumes today with Round 6 at 9 am and Round 7 at 2 pm. 

A link on the USCF site to follow the action can be found here.