For over a decade, Chuck Beach has brought quarterly Rockford Chess Challenges to juniors in eight counties in northern Illinois. The tournaments are unrated from a USCF perspective, but Mr. Beach has developed his own system and students covet seeing their ratings grow. The Spring 2014 event attracted 160 players to Rockford Enviornmental Science Academy May 3 competing in a five-round, three-section Swiss.

There were six perfect scores on the day, with Washington Academy nabbing two of the three sections and host RESA earning the upper section's top score.

Among kindergartners, Lincoln Noble had the top score at 2.5, a full point ahead of Taven Gibbs, Kaylena Baker and Delilah Farrar. For first graders, Charlie Taylor posted a 3.5, just ahead of Washington teammate Ashwin Gudiseva who finished with 3.0. Second-grader Peter Koch enjoyed the lone perfect score in the K-2 section, a full point ahead of Varshitha Reddy, Shasank Shashikumar and Saatvik Biradar.

In the K-2, Washington Academy compiled the top team score of 14 schools, ahead of Montessori Private and Rockford Lutheran Academy.

The Grades 3-5 section saw three perfect scores from Bryce Lawson, Jeremiah Davis and Charles Kang with Bryce nabbing top honors on tiebreaks. Fourth-grader Puranjay Gupta was undefeated going into the last round, losing to Bryce. Nontheless, Puranjay's 4.0 was good for top honors among fourth-graders, a half-point ahead of Spencer Kang and Martin Bernsten. All three fourth-graders attend Washington Academy. Washington's Kamalesh Sureshkumar and Ethan Vanderkolk along with Christian Life's Aiden Montes all posted 4.0's as third-graders, with Kamalesh taking first on tiebreaks, Aiden second and Ethan third.

From a team perspective, Washington again claimed top honors in the Grades 3-5, ahead of Whitehead, 18-14.5, ahead of a field of 16 squads.

RESA's Sofia Dunn raised her rating to over 1000 (1043) posting a perfect 5.0, ahead of teammate Andy Roungtakoun and HOUSE's Joseph Rynkewicz. On tiebreaks, Joseph took second and Andy was third.

7th-grader Elijah Patterson of Christian Life also won all five of his games increasing his rating to 1130. Philip Koch of Holy Family finished a point back.

Among sixth-graders, the foursome of Sreyansh Mamidi of Washington, home-schooled Joel Boeve and Thurgood Marshall's Sengdao Inthavong and Richard Yang all posted 4.0/5's. On tiebreaks, Sengdao finished first, Sreyansh took second, Joel third and Richard fourth.

Host RESA edged Marshall for top team honors in the Grades 6-8 section, 15.0-14.0. 17 teams competed.

Complete results of the 56th Rockford Challenge and the archive of all prior events can be found here. For further information about the series and to learn if your school might be able to participate in future Challenges, see here.