A total of 139 students in kindergarten through eighth grade wrapped up their scholastic chess season by competing at last Saturday’s Evanston Scholastic Chess Championships. The tournament was organized by Evanston Scholastic Chess, a nonprofit that serves young chess players and school-based chess clubs in the Evanston/Skokie attendance area. Chute Middle School hosted and supported the event.
Players and schools at the tournament competed in four grade-based championship sections, for grades K-1, 2-3, 4-5 and 6-8, and two reserve sections, for grades 2-3 and 4-8.
In the grades 6-8 championship, Chute Middle School finished strong, with several wins in the last round of the tournament, to edge out Nichols Middle School and Chiaravalle Montessori for the team championship. Shane Asbra of Chute and Nimish Vats of Haven Middle School were the individual co-champions in this section; each player won all four of his games. Wayra Sheridan of Nichols, Daoud Al-Dajani and Onyx Lo of Chiaravalle and Yusuf Bilgic of Chute also earned individual awards by finishing with 3-1 records.
In the elementary school championship sections, Orrington won team titles in the sections for grades 2-3 and grades 4-5, while Dawes Elementary School finished on top in grades K-1. The top individual finishers in grades 4-5 were both from Orrington Elementary School: Shivam Nandwana followed by Hudson Foreman.
In grades 2-3, Adrian Horopciuc of Walker Elementary School finished in first place while Noah Foreman of Orrington and Nathan Drouillard of Chiaravalle tied for second. Emin Bilgic of Walker was the champion in grades K-1, and there was a three-way tie for second place between Teddy Karlin of Lincolnwood, Harbin Sweeney of Chiaravalle and Liam Kidan of Roycemore School.
Several players tied for first place in the grades 4-8 reserve: Ziad Abuzayyad and Gavin Mansfield of Nichols, Ethan Schulkin of Chicago Jewish Day School, Andrew Solverson of King Arts School and George Demet of Chiaravalle. Cooper Chapman and Mika Solverson, both from King Arts, were the top finishers in the grades 2-3 reserve section.
Evanston Scholastic Chess will conduct its next series of tournaments during the 2024-25 school year, beginning in the fall. The organization is also working on possible activities for the summer. For more information, visit eschess.org.