Two scholastic sections both yielded co-champions from Illinois at the Kenosha $1000 Stateline Shootout.

The five-round, dual-rated event was hosted at the Radisson in Pleasant Prairie, WI on January 2nd. US Chess crosstables are posted.

Wisconsite Life Master Erik Santasius won the 63-player Open Section with 5.0/5, defeating Illinois high schooler George Li in the final round.

George tied for third place honors along with Illinois' Prashantha Amarasinghe, both with 4.0's. 

Ohio Expert Roman Kowalysko finished second at 4.5, drawing a Class C-player in the opening round, followed by four wins, two of which were against players who ultimately finished in the 3.5 scoregroup.

11 players compiled 3.5 scores, essentially tying for fifth place.

All games in the first-time tournament had 5-second delays; the first three rounds with Game/30 time controls, the fourth and fifth rounds were expanded to Game/45.

Scholastically, there were two sections, one for players K-12 with prior ratings Under 1000 and one for players K-5 with prior ratings Under 600. Illinois players secured the top eight spots in the K-5 and the top six spots in the K-12.

In the 15-player K-5 section, Aaron Rugg, Saatvik Kailasj and Keoni Osborne all posted 4.0/5's. Keoni defeated Saatvik in the third round but lost to Aaron in the fourth round. Saatvik defeated Aaron in the final round to assure his share of the co-championship.

Illinois' Riley Berge and Josephine Swan tied for fourth place with 3.5's. David Cotofrea and first-timer Richard Gale tied for sixth place with 3.0's.

In the 13-player K-12, Shridhar Mehendale, Jr., Joe Kessenger and Grant Edward all posted 4.0's. 

Shridhar defeated Grant in the second round, lost in the third round to Neil Martin, but defeated Joe in the final round to be included in the co-championship. 

Sawyer Price nabbed the fourth place trophy with a 3.5 score. Neil (Martin) and Layla Rodriguez tied for fifth place with 3.0 scores. Neil earned the fifth place trophy on higher tiebreaks, no doubt assisted by his third round victory and his facing the other co-champions in the final two rounds.

Trophies were also handed out for certain "under" categories... Matei Cotofrea won the first place U800 K-8 trophy (within the K-12) while his brother David won the U400 K-3 trophy (within the K-5 section).

The tournament was organized by Chief TD Allan Cargille of the Kenosha Chess Association .