Shaunak Bhattacharyya and Yashom Kapoor split the championship of the 86th Kumbaya held December 13 in Skokie.

Only four competitors entered the Under 1600's, turning the top section into a quad-paired event.

Yashom beat Shaunak in the final round to stake his claim to the co-championship. Yashom had lost to David Chen in the second round. Shreyas Reddy and David both finished with one point.

US Chess crosstables are posted here.

In the 21-player U1200 section, Max Malecki and Anton Schuster shared top honors with 3.4/4 tallies. They both drew other opponents in earlier rounds, coming from behind and winning their last matches. Max defeated Alex Fogel in the last match to cement his placement. Alex wound up tied for third with 3.0/4, along with Nathan Melnikov and Zephaniah Mussman.

Among 35 players in the U700 section, first-timer Nicklas Zanzok and provisionally-rated Nisha Salian were the two perfect 4-0 scores. Finishing a half-point back with 3.5 was Harry Heller.

9 of the 35 were playing in their first US Chess-rated event.