300 Compete at 2014 All-Grade in West Chicago

Peoria's Andrew Fei has added Illinois Champion to his chess resume sweeping all four rounds to claim the Grades 9-12 Championship of the 2014 All-Grade.

In the third round, Fei beat Dunlap High School teammate Yiliang Li. Yiliang had defeated Trevor Huang in the first round with both Yiliang and Trevor tying for second with 3.0/4 postings.

With Maxwell Jong contributing his 2.5 score to the tallies from Andrew and Yiliang, Dunlap won the team championship over Hinsdale Central. 

Three schools won a pair of team championships: Indian Trail (Highland Park) won Kindergarten and First Grade, Wheaton Christian won Grades 4 and 7, and Highcrest (Wilmette) won Grades 5 and 6.

The All-Grade was organized by Illinois Chess Teachers (Blair Machaj and Paul Raso) with Jeff Wiewel serving as Chief TD, assisted by Gary Janssen. Crosstables can be viewed here. Benjamin Middle School in West Chicago was the host site for the one-day tournament, held November 8.

Akhil Kalghatgi got the better of his twin, Nikhil, in the fourth round of the 8th Grade section, finishing 4.0/4 and raising his USCF rating above 2000. Nikhil defeated Patrick Li in the second round and Elijah Patterson in the third round with Nikhil, Patrick and Elijah finishing in a three-way tie for second place. With their combined scores, Akhil and Nikhil earned Whitney Young the team championship.

Jeremy Margolin outclassed the 7th Grade field, with a pre-event USCF rating over 470 points higher than the next entrant. Margolin was a perfect 4.0/4 on the day, ahead of runners up Paul Peterson, Abiru Raut, and teammates Elizabeth Peterson, Caleb Rathbun and Ryan Morris, all with 3.0/4. Elizabeth, Caleb and Ryan earned the team trophy for Wheaton Christian.

There was a three-way tie atop the 6th Grade section with Kevin Ho, Adrian Calinescu and Vishal Chandrasekar taking top honors. In the final round Kevin defeated top-rated David Wallach while Adrian and Vishal drew head to head. All three finished with 3.5/4, a half-point ahead of a seven-pack of 3.0 scorers. Calinescu lead Highcrest (Wilmette) to the team championship, along with scores contributed by Alex Yasumoto, Justin Weinzweig and Max Malecki, all in the 3.0 score group.

Aria Hoesley swept all five of her games to win the 58-player 5th Grade section. Jack Bradley took second with 4.5/5. Six players tied for third with 4.0 tallies including Pavan Sureshkumar and Michael Geohas. Pavan and Michael, along with Luca Williams, earned Highcrest the team trophy. 12 teams competed for the Fifth Grade team championship.

Fourth Grade competition saw Peter Zheng post the only perfect 5.0 score atop a field of 45 entrants. There was a six-way tie for second at 4.0/5 with Pierce McDade, Nicholas Ladan, Anusha Nadkarni, Spencer Vincent, Matthew Berner and Ayush Banerjee. None of these individual accolades made a difference in the team results where Wheaton Christian edged Indian Trail on tiebreaks, both with 8.0 points. Aiden Weisenborn, Nicholas Limbers and Seth Pierson contributed to Wheaton Christian's team championship. 

Chris Von Hoff swept his five opponents in the 43-player Third Grade section. Nathan Lee was a half-point back at 4.5, ahead of a five-pack at 4.0 who tied for third place. Among those 4.0's was Caden Liu, who along with Andy Xi, George Angelov and Noah Zyung, earned Ramona (Wilmette) the team championship, edging Indian Trail by a point. Others at 4.0/5 were Surya Nookarapu, Esma Frieden, William Tallard and Austin McMurtrie.

There was a three-way tie for first in the 52-player Second Grade group with Eduard Danilyan, Zalan Gyorgy and Avi Kaplan all finishing 4.5/5. Eduard and Zalan drew head-to-head in the last round, while Avi drew Bowen Liu. Bowen was among a six-pack of 4.0 finishers who tied for fourth place, also including Vrishank Ramnath, William Cahill, Bruce Tang, Seth Parent and Bowen's teammate, Alex Fei. Along with Joshua Wang's 3.0 contribution, Alex and Bowen earned Hickory Grove (Dunlap) the team trophy with 11 points, ahead of Avery Coonley and ten other schools.

Dimitar Mardov and Alex Zhao drew head to head in the fourth round of the First Grade competition and wound up tying for first place with 4.5/5 scores. Ethan Ding took third, a half-point back at 4.0. 20 players competed in the section. There was a seven-way tie for fourth place with 3.0 scorers.

Eight players competed in the Kindergarten sectiion with Nathan Wong posting the top score at 4.5/5. Nathan drew Zachary Tallard in the second round, with Zachary claiming second place from a 4.0 result. Zachary later drew Francesca Schneider who took third place with 3.0.

Indian Trail won both the First Grade and Kindergarten team awards, although Germantown Hills had an identical score in the Kindergarten section but was given second place on tiebreaks.

Team results have been posted here and individual results in tiebreak order have been posted here.