GREATER CHICAGO SCHOLASTIC CHAMPIONSHIP
by Jeff Caveney
Over 150 enthusiastic young chess players
came to the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Northbrook the weekend of February
27-28 to play in the Greater Chicago Scholastic Chess
Championships. The kids and their families came from
Chicago, the suburbs and all over Illinois, neighboring
Wisconsin and Indiana, and even as far as Colorado and
Maryland to compete for the beautiful and gigantic
trophies for the top teams and individuals. Renaissance
Knights Chess Foundation and the Kasparov Chess
Foundation sponsored the event, modeled after the
long-running successful New York tournament with the
same format. This is the first time the event has been
held in the Chicago area.
In the K-12 section, the competition was so tough that 6
players tied with 4 points out of 5 games. Shivram
Chandramouli (Munster High School, Munster, Indiana)
took 1st place with the best tiebreaks, an impressive
result since he was rated 9th out of the 30 players in
the section. James Bowen (University School of
Milwaukee, Milwaukee, Wisconsin), Tyler Lerner, Lukasz
Zak (Lane Tech High School, Chicago), Matthew Barbian
(Libertyville High School, Libertyville, Illinois) and
Eric Emer (Highland Park High School, Highland Park,
Illinois) took 2nd through 6th places respectively.
Especially notable was Lukasz Zak, who was unrated going
into the tournament. Since Zak won an overall prize,
Anud Dahiya (Naperville North High School, Naperville,
Illinois) took the 1st unrated prize with 3 points, and
his teammate Charles Coffman (Naperville North) took 2nd
place unrated with 2 points.
Alex Yerukhimov (University School of Milwaukee,
Wisconsin) took the 1st under-1500 prize with 3 points.
His teammates dominated the Junior Varisty top prizes:
Kern Khanna, Sam Schlesinger, John Venable and Ishan
Sinha (all University School of Milwaukee, Wisconsin)
took 1st through 4th. Charles Helding (St. Ignatius
College Prep, Chicago) took 5th place JV. Thomas
Grudzinski (Lane Tech, Chicago) took 1st place under-900
JV.
The 1st place K-12 team trophy went to University School
of Milwaukee. Naperville North and Lane Tech took 2nd
and 3rd place.
In the K-8 Varsity section, Yue "Penny" Xu (Urbana
Middle School, Urbana, Illinois) took clear 1st place
with 4 wins and a draw. Arjun Nandy (University of
Chicago Lab School, Chicago) took clear 2nd place with 4
points, and Rohan Mhaskar (The Prairie School, Racine,
Wisconsin) took clear 3rd place with 3.5 points. David
Peng (Winkelman School, Glenview, Illinois), Jack Xiao
(Laura Sprague School, Lincolnshire, Illinois) and
Eamonn Moore (Elm Place School, Highland Park, Illinois)
took 4th through 6th places with 3 points each. Alec
Feygin (Glen Grove School, Glenview, Illinois) won the
1st place under-1200 prize with 3 points.
St. Gilberts School in Grays Lake, Illinois took the 1st
place K-8 Varisty team trophy.
In the K-8 Junior Varsity section, John Lennon (Keystone
Montessori School, River Forest, Illinois) took clear
1st place with 4 wins and a draw. Alfredo Rodriguez (Logandale
Middle School, Chicago) took clear 2nd place with 4
points, and Andy Xu (Daniel Wright Junior High School,
Lincolnshire, Illinois) took clear 3rd place with 3.5
points. Brian Davis and Sylvester Highley, Jr. (James
Hart Junior High School, Homewood, Illinois) took 4th
and 5th places with 3 points, and Billy Hoseman took 6th
place with 2 points. Frederic Fosco (GIFT Homeschool
Group, Elgin, Illinois) won the 1st place under-700
prize with 3 points. Durman Jackson (James Hart Junior
High School, Homewood, Illinois) won the 1st place
unrated prize with 3 points, Quentin Kakuda (Lake Zurich
Middle School South, Lake Zurich, Illinois) took 2nd
place unrated, and Joshua Chan (Thomas Jefferson School,
Hoffman Estates, Illinois) took 3rd place unrated.
James Hart Junior High School in Homewood, Illinois won
the 1st place K-8 Junior Varsity team trophy, and
Logandale Middle School in Chicago took 2nd place.
In the K-6 Varsity section, Allen Guo (Daniel Wright
Junior High School, Lincolnshire, Illinois) took clear
1st place with a perfect score of 5 points. Ryan Toepfer
(Decatur Classical School, Chicago) and Daniel Bronfeyn
(Aspen Elementary School, Vernon Hills, Illinois) took
2nd and 3rd places with 4 points. Miranda Liu (Lake
Bluff Elementary School, Lake Bluff, Illinois) took 4th
place with 3.5 points. Derek Mizushima (Potomac
Elementary School, Potomac, Maryland) and Josh Power
(Bernard Zell School, Chicago) took 5th and 6th places
with 3 points. Asher Borstein (Bernard Zell School,
Chicago) won the 1st place under-1000 prize with 3
points.
In a very close competition between two Chicago schools,
Decatur Classical School took the 1st place K-6 Varsity
team trophy by a half point over Bernard Zell School,
who took 2nd place.
The K-6 Junior Varsity was by far the largest section of
the whole tournament, with 46 kids competing. Brody
Frapolly (Wildwood School, Chicago) and Coleman McJessy
(Alexander Graham Bell Elementary School, Chicago) both
earned perfect scores of 5 points, with Brody Frapolly
taking 1st place on tiebreaks and Coleman McJessy 2nd
place. Erik Csima (Lone Tree Home School, Lone Tree,
Colorado), Finn Buck (Homeschool, Cambridge, Wisconsin),
Dylan Cotter (Crow Island School, Winnetka, Illinois)
and Jacob Fox (Dewey Elementary School, Evanston,
Illinois) took 3rd through 6th places with 4 points.
Georgia Wolf (Thorp Scholastic Academy, Chicago) won the
1st place under-900 prize with 3.5 points. Nikita Smyrno
(Ivy Hall School, Buffalo Grove, Illinois) won the 1st
place unrated prize with 3.5 points, and Alex Ortiz
(Galileo Math & Science Academy, Chicago) and David
SIlva (Canty Elementary School, Chicago) took 2nd and
3rd place unrated with 3 points.
Dewey Elementary School in Evanston, Illinois won the
1st place K-6 Junior Varsity team trophy. Bernard Zell
School in Chicago took 2nd place and Thorp Scholastic
Academy in Chicago took 3rd place.
In the K-3 Varsity section, Derek Mizushima who came all
the way from Potomac, Maryland took clear 1st place with
a perfect score of 5 points. Ronin Moore (Sherwood
School, Highland Park, Illinois) took clear 2nd place
with 3.5 points. Ranadheer Tripuraneni (May Whitney
School, Lake Zurich, Illinois), Megan Wei, Michael Wu
(both Laura Sprague School, Lincolnshire, Illinois) and
Kevin Wang (Oak View Elementary School, Fort Wayne,
Indiana) took 3rd through 6th places with 3 points. Sean
Li (May Whitney School, Lake Zurich, Illinois) won the
1st place under-900 prize.
Laura Sprague School in Lincolnshire, Illinois won the
1st place K-3 Varsity team trophy. May Whitney School in
Lake Zurich, Illinois took 2nd place.
In the K-3 Junior Varsity section, 4 players tied for
the best score with 4 points. Jesse Prilutsky took 1st
place with the best tiebreaks. Erik Csima who came all
the way from Lone Tree, Colorado took 2nd place, Edward
Esgar (Sherwood School, Highland Park, Illinois) took
3rd place, and Vishay Ram (Fry Elementary School,
Naperville, Illinois) took the 1st place under-500 prize
-- all of them scored 4 points. Finn Buck (Homeschool,
Cambridge, Wisconsin) took 4th place with 3.5 points,
and Allan Lopez (Three Oaks School, Cary, Illinois) and
Annie Xu (Half Day Elementary School, Lincolnshire,
Illinois) took 5th and 6th places with 3 points. Sonny
Zhou (May Whitney School, Lake Zurich, Illinois) and
Annie Clement (Jane Addams School, Palatine, Illinois)
won the 1st and 2nd place unrated prizes with 3 points,
and Sam Zacks (South School, Glencoe, Illinois) won 3rd
place unrated with 2.5 points.
Finally, Amanda Csima from Lone Tree, Colorado won the
1st place kindergarten prize with an amazing 3 points.
William Zhu (Laura Sprague School, Lincolnshire,
Illinois) won the 2nd place kindergarten prize with 2
points, and Colin Mizushima from Potomac, Maryland won
the 3rd place kindergarten prize with 1.5 points.
Lone Tree Home School in Lone Tree, Colorado won the 1st
place K-3 Junior Varsity team trophy.
Standings
K-3 & K-8 Championships photos
K-6
& K-12 Championships photos
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