More than 650 chess players from across the state met up at the Illinois State University student center in Bloomington the weekend of March 7-8 for the Illinois Scholastic K-8 championships. It was an exciting weekend of chess with many talented players.

Taking first place out of 100 players in the Lower Primary K-1 division was Vincent Do of Rockford. Vincent was the only player in the whole tournament to achieve a perfect score of 7-0.

 

In the Upper Primary 2-3 Division, the largest section with 218 players, Zhaozhi (George) Li (3rd Grader) and Jack Xiao (2nd Grader) tied for first with 6.5 points each, with George taking home the first place trophy on tiebreaks.

The Elementary 4-5 Division saw lots of upsets and wound up with a 6-way tie for first place: Allen Guo, Bryce McClanahan, Phillip Parker-Turner, Noah Weeks-Brittan, Gurveer Singh and Jason Kitson all finished with a score of 6/7. Allen took the first place trophy on tiebreaks.

And in the Jr. High 6-8 Division, Zachary Holecek, a 4th grader from Lincolnshire who was playing up, took clear first place with 6.5 points and gained 85 rating points in the process...way to go, Zachary!

Crosstable