Advaith Prabu came within a half-point of the National K-5 Championship. The fifth grader finished 6.0/7, losing only to Washington's Anthony He, the second highest-rated player in the section.

Anthony drew the first and second place finishers, Tan Nguyen and Daniel Levkov, in the sixth and seventh rounds respectively. As a result, the fourth grade USCF Expert finished with the highest tiebreak among six 6.0 scorers, taking home fourth place hardware.

Advaith claimed the seventh place trophy, despite having the lowest pre-event rating among the top 10 finishers. His score paced his Benjamin Elementary (Bloomington) team to 17th place hardware. Also contributing to the Benjamin team score were Tyler Tanton (3.5), Arnav Sriram (2.0) and Owen Parker (2.0).

Tying for 22nd place with 5.0/7 were two other downstaters and an upstater: Peter Zheng of Champaign, Arnold Ogerio from Bloomington and Chicagoan Jonah Karafiol. On tiebreaks, Peter was 32nd, Arnold was 48th and Jonah was 51st. All three were awarded 30th place trophies.

Four Illinois juniors 4.0/7, including Aria Hoesley, Spencer Vincent, Pierce McDade, and Jacob Davis. 351 competed in the K-5 Championship.

In the K-5 Under 900 competition, Avi Kaplan finished with the top tiebreak in the 5.5 score group, claiming 16th place hardware. Avi's only loss came against Carson Tucker of Indiana who placed second.

Rahul Bammid Bhavan posted a 5.0, losing to the section champion in the fourth round. Peter Elzanati was 4.5, tying for 69th place out of 390 entrants, easily in the top fifth.

Owen Lowe tallied 4.0.