40 young ladies participated in the first Illinois all-girls chess championship in five years. US Chess crosstables have posted.

The event was resurrected by Glenn Panner of Chess Weekend upon submission of a proposal to the ICA. Niles North High School in Skokie was the host venue which simultaneously hosted the 87th Kumbaya event. The four-round competition was held in three sections with Game/40; 5-second delay time controls.

IMSA sophomore Cassie Parent went undefeated in the Grades 6-12 section, winning all four matches, raising her rating 69 points to 1657.

The three top-rated Illinois females under 18 did not participate.

Emma Wang, Ms. Parent's victim in the third round, placed second with a 3.0/4 score. Cassie's IMSA classmate Shayna Provine along with Aria Hoesley tied for third place with 2.5's, drawing head to head in the last round. Earlier (round two) Shayna had lost to Emma while Aria was bested by Cassie.

On tiebreaks, Aria took third place hardware while Shayna took fourth.  Christine Zhang had the top tiebreak in the 2.0 score group to claim fifth place honors, ahead of Layla Rodriguez and Anna Shabayev. 

The scores from Cassie, Shayna and Anna were more than enough to give Illinois Math and Science Academy (based in Aurora) the team title.

In the Grades 3-5 section, Anusha Nadkarni and Sarah Lin both posted 3.5's after drawing in the final round. On tiebreaks, Sarah grabbed the championship trophy while Anusha nabbed second.

A four-way tie for third place at 3.0/4 included Louisa Zhang, Sahitya Maheswaran, Kyla Smith and Stella Pashyan. On tiebreaks, Sahitya took third place hardware, Louisa fourth, and Stella fifth.

Fremont was the Grades 3-5 team champion thanks to the efforts of sisters Stella and Sofia Pashyan. Avery Coonley placed second thanks to contributions from Annika Geiersbach and Neola Edwin.

Louisa went up 72 points while Sofia (2.0) saw her rating increase 66 points.

18 competed in this section including four girls playing in their first US Chess-rated event. 

In the K-2 section, Catherine Liu managed to defeat Ria Raj in the final round to claim the championship.  Catherine was a perfect four-for-four while Josephine Swan and Lilian McCarthy tied for second place, both with 3.0's.

Catherine bested Josephine in round three and Lilian in round two.

Josephine wound up with the higher tiebreak to claim second place hardware, Lilian nabbing third.

Ria (2.5) took fourth place with two wins and a draw. She would have been the outright champion had Ria won her last match, still, her rating jumped 88 points!

Aya Bareket earned the highest tiebreak in the three-player 2.0 scoregroup, earning fifth place hardware.

Lilian's rating was bolstered 156 points, Aya went up 139 points.

Cardinal Bernadine won the K-2 team championship lead by Lilian's 3.0. Ariana Lopez and Charlotte Buck also contributed to the winning team score.

(Photo credits to Bill Buklis)