Morgan Park, Naperville Attract Strong Fields June 21

Nothing says "first day of summer" better than a pair of competitive northern Illinois tournaments with sizeable fields. Both events attracted nearly 100 competitors. 

In the western suburbs, Elite Chess offered its Summer Open in conjunction with its camp season, featuring relatively quick time controls: Game/45 with a 5-second delay in four rated sections. There were also several unrated competitions held simultaneously. Naperville North High School Coach Jeff Di Orio's four-round tournament attracted 16 to the "Championship" section including two USCF-experts.

As the dust settled, Di Orio's past and present students nabbed three of the top four spots. Bradley Guan took clear first, beating Experts in the final two rounds. Anuj Dahiya and Tony Zhou finished in a three-way tie for second along with Guan's fourth-round victim, Greg Bungo.

In the Under 1400 section, juniors Patrick Rao and Vrishank Ramnath drew in the fourth round, giving both 3.5/4 and a co-championship. A half-point back was Kevin Ho with two wins and two draws.

Micah Hill had the lone 4.0/4 score in the Under 1000 section and Arin Nair accomplished the same feat in the U600.

36 miles to the southeast, Fred Gruenberg was putting the fun back into chess with the first-ever Tom Fineberg Memorial in the Morgan Park area of Chicago. 86 players competed in more than one round, all in one giant section.

By day's end, competitors were well-fed, some fond memories of Coach Fineberg were recalled and the crosstables showed three perfect 4.0 tallies. Another trio finished a half-point back in a three-way tie for fourth at 3.5/4.

As the scoreboard showed, titles were of weak predictive value, with a Class C player, and a Class A player joining a USCF-master, ahead of a GM and other elites. Brian Bolton, John Bucky and Marvin Dandridge all went 4-0-0 while GM Dmitry Gurevich and Dr. Joe Cima drew in the second round, tying with Rene Ancheta, all posting 3.5/4's on the day.

Bolton had only played ten regular-rated tournaments since 2006, including five of the first six Chicago Class events (missing the 2012 tournament). In fact, in each of the Chicago Classes, Bolton has seen his rating decline playing against Class C competition. 

With the 7th Chicago Class just around the corner, Bolton should have no trouble coming up with the entry fee given his $400 pay day on Saturday!

Bucky and Dandridge earned similar checks, with Ancheta earning the Under 2200 award and Dr. Cima nabbing U2000 honors.

A four-way tie among U1800 competitors with 3.0 scores included a trio of Warren Junior Scholars, including Nikhil Kalghatgi, Marissa Li and Ed Zhang, along with Wayne Ellice.

Andrew Bell and Conrad Manaugh split first and second place prize money for U1600's, also with 3.0/4.

NTD Glenn Panner and Sevan Muradian officiated the Fineberg Memorial with crosstables available here.

NTD Jeff Wiewel was the Chief TD for the Elite Summer Open with crosstables available here.