August 2025 Top Youth

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Written by WJS Director WJS Director

August 2025 Top 100 Youth

Congragations to the following people for outstanding improvements for August 2025.

Shivakumaran Minor VelaPandi first time Regular Top Age 7 and Under

Reshmitha Sai Dabburi reaching #84 from #100 Top Girl Age 11

Rohan Dileep Menon reach #58 from #74 Top Age 15

Justin Lee reach #22 from #35 Top Age 13

Bishrelt Aiden Munkhsuld, Top 8, has played in 29 tournaments so far in 2025

The following young ladies made the Top Women category

Natalie Wisniowski #51 

Stella Xin #60 

Aria Hoesley #65 

Robecca Cortez #76 

Elizabeth Xia #96 

Total players from Illinois 86.

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September 2025 Top Youth

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Written by WJS Director WJS Director

September 2025 Top 100 Youth

Congragations to the following people for their remarkable accomplishments for September 2025.

Three new players reach the top 100

 Shrinika Biswal Top Girl under 7
 Adam Elgat Top Age 17
 Adan Pena Faris Top Age 18

Movers and shakers

 Banoth, Shanaya has reached #69 from #93 Top Girl Age 9  
 Hari, Nila has reached #64 from #79 Top Girl Age 14
 Pittala, Ashvath Reddy has reached #63 from #77 Top Age 13
 Cortez, Rebecca has reached #70 from #84 Top Age 18
 Malladi, Sadkrith has reached #35 from #46 Top Age 18
 Sun,Yuanli has reached #66 from #75 Top Girl Age 12

Total Top 100 Players 88

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22nd Susan Polgar Foundation Girls' Invitational

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Written by Jacob Plotnick - Editor in Chief Jacob Plotnick - Editor in Chief

22nd Susan Polgar Foundation Girls' Invitational

The Illinois Chess Association proudly congratulates our two state representatives, Rebecca Cortez and Stella Xin, for representing Illinois at the 22nd Susan Polgar Foundation Girls’ Invitational (SPFGI), held from June 23–25, 2025. They earned their invitations by placing first and second, respectively, in the Haring Division at the 2025 Illinois Chess Association Youth Invitational. You can read the full write-up of that event here.

Founded in 2004, the Susan Polgar Foundation Girls’ Invitational has been hosted at Webster University in Missouri since 2012, with the exception of several years during the COVID-19 pandemic.

This year’s tournament featured 62 players representing 33 states and the District of Columbia.

Stella Xin finished with 4 out of 6 points, tying for 8th place (11th after tiebreaks). Rebecca Cortez scored 3.5 out of 6 points, tying for 18th place (23rd after tiebreaks). Both players demonstrated impressive skill and determination on the national stage.

Partial standings from the main event are listed below, and a complete spreadsheet provided by SPFGI—including Blitz, Bughouse, and Puzzle competition results—is available here. The official US Chess crosstables can also be found here.

Please join us in congratulating Rebecca and Stella for their excellent performances and for representing Illinois with distinction at one of the most prestigious national girls’ chess events in the country.

July 2025 Top Youth

Details

Written by WJS Director WJS Director

July 2025 Top 100 Youth

Congragations to the following people for outstanding improvements for July 2025.

Bishret Munkhsuld has reach #21 from #35 in Top Age 8.

Elizabeth Xia has reached #12 from #21 in Top Age 9

Stella Xin has reached #2 from #8 in Top Age 9 

Total players from Illinois 91.

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2025 ICA Youth Invitational

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Written by Jacob Plotnick - Editor in Chief Jacob Plotnick - Editor in Chief

Thanks to our new President, Dan Wilson, and our Warren Scholars Chairman, Edwin Walker—along with his technical expertise—the ICA took a fresh approach to selecting this year’s players. Invitations were extended to the highest-rated players in Illinois, with a goal of up to twenty players in each division. The four divisions were: Denker (High School), Barber (Grades 6–8), Rockefeller (Grades K–5), and Haring (Girls, Grades K–12).

The winners of each division will represent Illinois in their respective divisions in the U.S. Open in Middleton, WI July 28th-July 31st. The ICA will award each of the four winners a $300 stipend for travel to be able to participate in the tournament.

This year’s event featured a remarkable finish, with three of the four divisions decided by playoffs.

Denker (High School) 

Entering the final round, Anjaneya led with 3.5 points out of 4, while Anshul Shetty (both from Waubonsie Valley High School) had 3 points. Their game ended in a draw, giving Anjaneya a final score of 4 points. Meanwhile, Avi Kaplan, who started the round with 3 points, defeated Dario Pjevic, bringing his total to 4 points—tying Anjaneya.

This led to a two-game blitz playoff (G/3+2). Avi beat Anjaneya in both games, crowning him the 2025 Denker Champion. A complete crosstable is below:

Barber (Grades 6-8) 

Heading into the last round, Artemii Khanbutaev and Sachit Rajkumar were tied with 3.5 points each. Since they had already played each other earlier, Artemii drew Ashvath Puttala to finish with 4 points. Meanwhile, Ryan Zhang played Sachit Rajkumar and won, also ending with 4 points—forcing a playoff with Artemii.

In the two-game blitz (G/3+2), Artemil defeated Ryan in both games, securing his title as the 2025 Barber Champion. A complete crosstable is below:

Rockefeller (Grades K-5) 

Before the final round, Matthew Yu and Lucas Silvestre were tied with 3.5 points each. Due to pairing rules, Matthew drew against Ryun Fei, while Aiden Li, who entered with 3 points, defeated Lucas, leaving both Matthew and Aiden tied at 4 points.

Similarly to the previous sections, the two-game blitz playoff (G/3+2) saw Aiden defeat Matthew in both games, making him the 2025 Rockefeller Champion. A complete crosstable is below:

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Haring (Girls) 

In the final round, Rebecca Cortez and Stella Xia were tied with 3.5 points each. Rebecca defeated Stella to claim the 2025 Haring Championship.

Additionally, there was a three-way tie for third place with 2.5 points between Elizabeth Xia, Victoria Chen, and Emily Tang entering the final round. Elizabeth and Victoria drew their game, finishing with 3 points; while Emily lost to Linda Pham. A complete crosstable is below:

Congratulations to everybody who participated; being able to participate is a testament to your effort and skill thus far. And best of luck to our state champions in Wisconsion!

Parker Beats St. Ignatius for CCC Tournament Title

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Written by Brother Rice Chess Coach Sean Kirchman - posted by Jacob Editor in Chief Brother Rice Chess Coach Sean Kirchman - posted by Jacob Editor in Chief

   Eight of the eleven high school teams part of the Chicago Chess Conference (CCC) competed on Saturday, January 25th in the postseason CCC Tournament hosted by St. Ignatius College Prep, a private, coeducational Jesuit Catholic school located in the Near West Side neighborhood of Chicago. With the beautiful 4th floor library as the setting, students from St. Rita, Mt. Carmel, DePaul, Brother Rice, De La Salle, St. Rita, St. Patrick, Francis W. Parker, and St. Ignatius sat down at their chess boards at 10:15am to battle for conference glory. Tensions were already high after the final CCC regular season match (Game 30 minutes, 5-second delay) that wrapped up just minutes earlier, with St. Ignatius going undefeated and earning 10 season wins and Parker finishing second for their second year in the CCC with 9 wins and 1 loss to Ignatius. It was clear that Ignatius and Parker would be fighting for supremacy once again.

  The tournament rules included a time control of game 45 minutes, 5-second delay, three to four rounds depending on when a clear winner was determined, teams composed of 8 players with a total of 68 points to be earned by a team in a match, and teams in each pairing being white (playing with the white pieces on boards 1, 3, 6, and 8 & black on 2, 4, 5, and 7) or black (playing with the black pieces on boards 1, 3, 6, and 8 & white on 2, 4, 5, and 7). Round 1 of the tournament saw a win for Parker (black) over De La Salle (white) 56-12, a win for St. Ignatius (W) over Mt. Carmel (B) 44-24, a win for DePaul (W) over St. Patrick (B) 52-5, and a draw for Brother Rice (W) and St. Rita (B) 34-34. Round 2 featured a win for Parker (W) over St. Rita (B) 56-12, Mt. Carmel (W) sweeping Brother Rice (B) 68-0, a win for St. Ignatius (B) over DePaul (W) 50-18, and a win for De La Salle (B) over St. Patrick (W) 43.5-13.5. By round 3, only St. Ignatius and Francis W. Parker remained undefeated, setting up a rematch between the season champions and the team that had put up the best fight against them.

   A hard-fought match for the 2025 CCC Tournament Title resulted in a strong win for Francis W. Parker (B) over St. Ignatius (W) 47-21. Other results included a win for Brother Rice over St. Patrick, a win for Mt. Carmel over St. Rita, and a win for DePaul over De La Salle. Titans of chess in the Chicago area had clashed, and Parker overthrew the multiyear CCC Tournament winning streak of Ignatius. When the dust settled, I asked the coaches of both schools what happened.

What do you think has made your Chess Team so successful this season?

St. Ignatius Chess Coach and CCC President Hector Hernandez -

“Having students who show commitment, dedication and hard work. Some people say I have a passion for chess, and I communicate that to my students. Not long ago, a friend commented, ‘Your students always finish at or near the top!’”

Francis W. Parker Chess Coaches Matt McCaw & Lisa Williams -

“Chess really took off at Parker in the last few years. Many of our students benefited from an after-school program that we've had in the lower school for a few years, while many others took up serious play online which led them to consider pursuing serious over the board play. We also benefited from having some students join us who had been active in the CPS chess program for many years. After a promising first season we benefited from having more structured practice, more game review and from the increased interest based on our results and participation at State last year.”

What do you think led to the win against St. Ignatius after losing to them in the regular season?

“We spent a lot of time reviewing our mistakes from our first meeting and tried to go into the match with a better plan.”

What do you think led to the loss against Francis W. Parker?

“Problems in the openings and playing three tough matches prior to the Parker match. The match just before the tournament started, vs. Mt. Carmel, was played at G30 time control. One of my players needed to win his game to take the first-place Individual trophy in the Conference, but he lost, with time likely contributing, and this may have affected his performance for the later rounds. The Conference tournament was played at G45, instead of the usual G55. Again, faster than what our players are used to. We were also missing our Board 4 player, forcing everyone below him to play a board higher. Parker wanted the win more than us.”

Caption 1:

Teams battle it out in the St. Ignatius library during round 2 of the tournament.

Caption 5:

Francis W. Parker (left) and Saint Ignatius (right) face off in the final round.