Update: In a major upset (330 rating points!), Alex Zhao won his sixth round match and is one of three perfect scores remaining in the National K-1 Championship. Max Malecki also won round six, and now plays for the K-6 Under 1000 championship.

Dimitar Mardov (5.0/6) is playing white on Board 5 in the K-1, Aydin Tugut (5.0/6) is playing white on Board 5 of the K-6 Championship, and Aaron Gan (5.0/6) is playing black on Board 6 of the K-3 Championship. In the K-5 Championship, Peter Zheng (5.0/6) is playing black on Board 6 and Advaith Prabu (5.0/6) is playing black on Board 9.

Original story: With two rounds remaining, a pair of Illinois youth have two of the five perfect scores in the K-1 section of the National Elementary Championships. The seven round event concludes today in Nashville, TN. 

In round five, Illinois K-1 Champion Dimitar Mardov defeated Ronit Chandra of Tennessee. Also in that round, Illinois K-1 Co-Runner Up Alex Zhao upended Californian Adrian Kondakov who was rated 200 points higher. For an encore, Alex must now play the dark colors against Marvin Gao of Florida, the highest-rated player in the section.

280 are entered in the K-1.

In the K-6 Championship, the field of perfect scores has been whittled down to one player, fourth-grader Andrew Hong of California.  Andrew, the event's only master, defeated Illinois' Aydin Turgut in round five, dropping Aydin to a tie for tenth place with 4.0/5. Ricky Wang also has four points after drawing his latest match.

Jason Daniels has the top tiebreak among the 3.5 score group after losing to one of the nine experts in the section. His schoolmate Vishal Chandrasekar has also posted 3.5 through five rounds.

Joey Buklis along with classmates Alex Yasumoto and Richard Porwancher have all posted 3.0's through five rounds. 235 are playing in the top section.

In the K-6 Under 1000, Max Malecki has one of six perfect 5.0's. Ojas Vasisht is a point back, tied for ninth place with 4.0. Ben Broach has 3.5/5. 233 are playing in the section.

Advaith Prabu and Peter Zheng have the top Illinois postings in the K-5 Championship at 4.0. Advaith lost to one of the three experts in the section in round four before coming back strong in round five. Peter is undefeated with three wins and two draws.

Jonah Karafiol is a half-point back at 3.5. 351 are entered in the section.

In the K-5 Under 900, Avi Kaplan is tied for 14th at 4.0/5. 391 are entered.

In the K-3 Championship, third-grader Aaron Gan and second-grader Arthur Xu are in a tie for 12th place with 4.0/5. Before winning in the fifth round, Arthur lost to Nathaniel Shuman who is the top tiebreak with 5.0/5 so far.

Second-grader Vrishank Ramnath is a point back at 3.0 as is third-grader Sohan Bandre (tied for 58th out of 257). William Cahill, also a second grader, has posted 2.5 in the section.

In K-3 Under 800 play, Anish Deshpande stands at 4.0/5. 333 have played at least one game in the section.

Pairings and standings are posted here.