Whitney Young's Phillip Parker-Turner has won a $12,000 college scholarship from the David R. MacDonald Foundation thanks to his winning performance at the Chicago Public School's MVP tournament.

The April 19th event was held at the Washington branch of the Chicago Public Library. The tournament was conducted in two high school and four K-8 sections with 118 players competing. 

Parker-Turner was a perfect five-for five. Mark Jungo finished second with 4.0/5, earning a $6,000 scholarship.

Pranav Sriram and Samir Hadzic tied for third place with 3.5's, each earning $3,000 scholarships.

18 players competed in the Grades 11-12 section.

In the Grades 9-10 section (Junior Varsity Division), Akhil Kalghatgi was the clear winner with 5.0, winning a $1000 scholarship for the top freshman score. Matthew Stevens and Nikhil Kalghatgi tied for second place with 4.0/5.  

Six players tied for third place in the JV group, two freshmen (Ravel Valdez and Ricky Roman) and four sophomores (Alexander Ding, George McCoy, Mindren Lu, and Alexander Parkel). The sophomores opted to split the $1000 scholarship money in lieu of a playoff.

17 participated in the "JV" section.

The largest section was the Junior High group with 36 entries. Aria Hoesley and Daniel Zhang tied with 4.5/5.

Zubair Ahmed won the Elementary section (Grades 4-5) with 4.5, a half-point better than the score group which included Jack Heller, Lucas Staniszewski and Henry Guo.

Andrey Novikov was perfect in the Grades 2-3 (Upper Primary) section with 5.0, a full point ahead of John Seward who was the sole four-pointer.

Nine participated in the K-1 (Lower Primary) section with Lucas Walsh earning first place thanks to his 5.0 score. Joaquin Hong nabbed second place with 3.5.

Marija Mitkova of  GM Chess Academy served as organizer of the event. She reports that Jan Van de Mortel was the tournament director. Mitkova indicates that she distributed 120 invitations to CPS chess coaches who in turn nominate the students participating in the event. She also invites some entrants who are not part of an established club. Marija indicates the tournament has "always been limited to 120" players -- but at times, the field is augmented by a few more.

Marija Mitkova supplied the pictures. Thanks!