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.

#	Name	Rd 1	Rd 2	Rd 3	Rd 4	Rd 5	Rd 6	Total	T-Mod. Med
1	FM Ruiyang Yan	W16	W12	W10	W8	D2	W5	5.5	21.5
2	WIM Chloe Gaw	W38	W41	W18	D5	D1	W12	5.0	20.5
3	Lilianna Gao	W46	W26	L5	W13	W11	W14	5.0	19.5
4	WFM Aimee Yang	W33	L18	W38	W41	W19	W8	5.0	17.0
5	Elizabeth Braddy	W35	W44	W3	D2	W9	L1	4.5	22.5
6	Vivian Yang	D42	W30	W31	L9	W22	W20	4.5	17.0
7	Wan Qin Li	W59	D13	L9	W42	W29	W21	4.5	17.0
8	Emel Bayrambeyli	W56	W23	W11	L1	W26	L4	4.0	21.0
9	Keya Jha	W40	D27	W7	W6	L5	D10	4.0	20.5
10	Caroline Q Jiang	W36	W17	L1	D20	W27	D9	4.0	20.0
11	WCM Stella Xin	W34	W20	L8	W22	L3	W19	4.0	19.5
12	Joy Zhang	W53	L1	W33	W43	W28	L2	4.0	19.0
13	Ellery Zhang	W48	D7	D29	L3	W30	W39	4.0	18.5
14	WCM Anagha Aniket Sinkar	W32	D31	D27	W37	W15	L3	4.0	18.0
15	Freya Austin	W45	L19	W34	W16	L14	W35	4.0	17.5
16	Candice Liang	L1	W53	W51	L15	W32	W26	4.0	17.5
17	Bonnie He	W55	L10	W24	L26	W36	W28	4.0	16.5
18	Aarna Nitin Warekar	W49	W4	L2	W29	L21	D24	3.5	20.0
19	Tanya Gurpur Madke Prabhu	W60	W15	W21	D28	L4	L11	3.5	19.5
20	Parinya Jain	W52	L11	W36	D10	W23	L6	3.5	19.0
21	WCM Khanim Ismayilova	D30	W25	L19	W32	W18	L7	3.5	18.0
22	Marina Xiao	W51	W37	D28	L11	L6	W44	3.5	17.0
23	Rebecca Cortez	W43	L8	W39	D27	L20	W33	3.5	16.5

                                                                                                                    

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.