Bloomington Normal Area Scholastic Chess hosted its 30th annual Martin Luther King, Jr. event. The scholastic tournament played out in four sections at the Bone Center of ISU on January 16.

Pragyan Misra had the lone perfect 5.0/5 score in the Lower Primary with 62 competing. Pragyan saw his rating go up 120 points.

Harshvardhan Bhangale and Jack Kerr were only a half-point back with 4.5/5 scores with Jack enhancing his rating by 239!

Sohum Mehta held form as the highest rated player in the Upper Primary winning all five of his matches. 92 competed in the section.

Also in the Upper Primary, Kaya Turgut and Harshal Joshi both posted 4.5's to tie for second place (Editor's note: tiebreak order for the tournament was not available as of this posting).

In the Elementary section, Bruce Tang had the only five-for-five result, raising his rating 80 points while claiming the championship trophy. The Elementary competition saw 95 entries.

Keaton Ash and James Douglas both posted 4.5's in the Elementary, with Keaton's rating increasing a remarkable 373 rating points.

Jacob Davis won the championship in the Junior High section with four wins in four matches. Tejas Katam, Ayush Banerjee and Anusha Nadkarni were all a half-point back with 3.5/4, tying for second place. 58 competed in the Junior High division.

Although the Bone Center will soon begin renovation, the Illinois K-8 Championships will take place at a nearby hotel over the weekend of March 11-12, also sponsored by BNASC.