Aidan Carey could have played it easy and entered the K-6 Open at the Third Annual Ice Harbor Scholastic. But who likes easy?

Instead the Avery Coonley School sixth grader entered the K-12 Open, beat a 1900, drew an 1800, raised his USCF rating to 1768 and nabbed the fifth place trophy.

Aidan's only loss came at the hands of Joseph Wan of Iowa, the event champion and the 2014 K-6 National Champion.

Fellow Aurora Chess Club member Vrishank Ramnath also might have vied for the K-3 Open championship, but after winning his first round, moved up to the K-12 where he won one and drew another against players twice his age. 

In addition to the K-12, K-6, K-3 Open sections, the Ice Harbor featured a couple "Under" sections where Illinois players showed well.

Gabe Panner (shown above) won the K-6 U800 section with an impressive 6.0/7 score, bolstering his rating more than 320 points!

Rockford's Thurgood Marshall Academy won the K-12 U1200 section, outpointing the University School of Milwaukee 12.5 - 11.5. 

The Marshall team consisted of Jeremiah Davis, Sreyansh Mamidi and Charles Kang. Jeremiah and Sreyansh both posted 4.5/7 with Jeremiah taking home the sixth place individual trophy and Sreyansh nabbing seventh.

Charles won first place among entrants whose pre-event rating was less than 600. With his 3.5/7 performance, Charles enhanced his provisional rating almost 200 points.

123 players from Iowa, Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota and Nebraska participated in the Ice Harbor, held at the Grand Harbor Resort in Dubuque, IA May 16 and 17.

James Hodina served as Chief Tournament Director with Bill Broich running the floor as Chief Assistant TD.

Complete results for the event can be found here with USCF Crosstables posted here.

Quad Cities' Joe Willett won the Rated Friends and Family event with a perfect 4.0/4. Rockford's Sureshkumar Rajamani won the Non-Rated Friend and Family with the same score.