A half-point. Doesn't sound like much, does it? Fighting through fatigue to close out a win when others might have accepted a draw. Sacrificing into a complex mating net versus accepting a safe route to an even game. That's half a point.

For Mount Zion fourth-grader Aydin Turgut, a half-point was the distance between his score and a pack of nine others at the USCF's National Elementary Championship's K-5 section held May 9-11 in Dallas, TX. And that half-point means that once again, Aydin is a USCF National Champion!

This was not Aydin's first USCF Championship rodeo: he won the K-1 National Championship in 2011 and was K-3 National Champion in 2013. As documented in my prior Dallas write up, Aydin won the K-6 Blitz earlier in the weekend, tying one other at 10.5/12 with the higher tiebreak.

So that makes Aydin a four-time National champion with two more shots at becoming (what is believed would be) the first player ever to win all four Elementary Nationals: the K-1, K-3, K-5 and K-6 (with the Blitz Championship as a bonus!).

In the main event, Aydin agreed to a draw in the final round with Texas-native Brian Gu, the highest-rated player in the section, leaving Aydin with 6.5/7. Aydin had defeated Arizona's Rick Sun in the penultimate round with Sun taking second on tiebreaks, leading the pack of 6.0/7 scorers.

The Illinois trio of Jason Daniels, Advaith Prabu and Ricky Wang all finished with respectable 5.0 point tallies, tying for 22nd place in a field of 351. Arnold Ogerio posted a 4.5 while Joey Buklis, Aria Hoesley and Alex Turk compiled 4.0 points.

Championship Section	K-1	K-3	K-5	K-6
Top IL Finisher / Pts	Vrishank Ramnath, 6.0	Martin Stukan, 5.5	Aydin Turgut, 6.5	Jacob Furfine, 5.5
Tied for / On Tiebreaks	3rd / 4th	7th / 12th	Sole Championship!	5th / 8th
Entrants	307	259	351	196

In the K-6 Championship section, Jacob Furfine mounted a 5.5 result, tying for fifth-place, earning the eighth-place trophy on tiebreaks. No other Illinois entrants had plus scores in the section, but Richard Porwancher and Jacob Davis finished with 3.5/7 even scores. 196 competed in the K-6.

Lead by Jacob's 5.5 and Richard's 3.5, Highcrest Middle School of Wilmette placed 8th in the K-6 as a team. Alex Yasumoto, Justin Weinzweig and Aryoman Patel all posted 3.0's with two of them contributing to the team total.

In the K-3 Championship, Martin Stukan finished with 5.5 points, tying for seventh-place, earning the twelfth-place trophy on tiebreaks. Pierce McDade was even at 3.5/7. 259 entered the section.

In the K-1 Championship, Vrishank Ramnath managed a 6.0 score, finishing strong after a sixth-round loss to the section runner up, New York's Lucas Foerster-Yialamas. Vrishank tied for third place, earning the fourth place trophy on tiebreaks amid a pack of nine 6.0/7 scorers.

Arthur Xu tied for 12th with a 5.5 score, placing 14th on tiebreaks. William Cahill and kindergartner Alex Zhao both posted 5.0's, tying for 22nd. 

From an Illinois perspective, these results essentially paralleled the 2014 K-1 State Championship results where Vrishank won and Arthur tied for second, with William and Alex tying for fourth place.

Also in the K-1, Yash Desai, Neola Edwin and Jaden Fauske posted 4.0/7's, tying for 79th place in a field of 307 competitors. Thanks to these three along with Alex Zhao's 5.0 score, Downers Grove's Avery Coonley School placed 8th in the K-1 team total out of 36 entries. All but one of the teams placing above Avery Coonley were from New York.

In the K-5 Under 900 section, Ojas Vasisht posted an impressive 6.0/7 result, tying for third place, claiming 15th on tiebreaks.

In the K-3 Under 800 section, Herbert Lim finished 6.0, tying for fourth place, claiming the 8th place trophy.

Astmodhee Goswami started a perfect 5-0 before dropping the final two rounds, finishing in a tie for 25th.

Illinois applauds all our representatives to Nationals.

Complete final standings can be read here.