XX1 Chicago Latino Championships in Pilsen on November 30th

Thanks to Hector Hernandez for running the 21st edition of this labor of love!

5SS G/30. Non-rated. Chicago Public Library Lozano Branch, 1805 S. Loomis Street, Chicago, IL 60608. Schedule: Registration is from 9-9:30 am on the day of the event only. Time: 9:00 am - 4:30 pm 5. Rounds: 10:00 am, 11:15 am, 1:00 pm, 2:15 pm, 3:30 pm. Sections: Section I: Open to players 15 years of age and older. Section II: Open to players 14 years of age and younger. Prizes: 10 trophies awarded in each section. Entry fee: Free. For more information: hernande@chipublib.org or (312) 746-4329

Penny Xu featured in News-Gazette

Penny, a sophomore at Urbana High School, was profiled in yesterday's News-Gazette.  She's brilliant, charming, and...she lives Downstate.  (Again, nobody's perfect.)

But Penny has impeccable Chicago credentials: while she's had many great teachers over the years, I only recently discovered that she was started on her championship path by the legendary Hector Hernandez at the Rudy Lozano Public Library in Pilsen.  And Serge Minin, mentioned en passant, starred for the powerhouse Niles North teams of a couple decades ago.

Chicago Latino Chess Championship XX: How Many Can We Fit in Here?

The 20th annual Chicago Latino Chess Championship is complete, with a record-smashing 93 participants. This year's upper section alone was larger than last year's entire tournament!

Jimi Akintonde of Whitney Young High School swept Section I (age 15 and up), followed by Justin Rajsky with 4.5/5 and Felipe Quiroz, Edward Zhang, Ricardo Román, Phillip Parker-Turner and Mark Jungo with 4.0/5. Parker-Turner and Jungo were so thoroughly tied, by every standard tiebreak measure, that their trophy order had to be decided by a blitz game (which all parties preferred to a coin flip). Parker-Turner prevailed.

In Section II (age 14 and under), Ricky Román of Nightingale School finished first with a perfect 4.0/4, followed by Teja Munagala of Center Grove School in Greenwood, Ind., and Abdel Raoul of the University of Chicago Lab School with 3.5/4. Seven young players followed with final scores of 3.0/4 to win the remaining trophies: Iggy Bielobradek (Komarek, North Riverside), Kaleb Tucker (Beasley), Joseph Buklis (Decatur Classical), Daniel Román (Nightingale), Susan Huang (U. of C. Lab), Daniel Zhang (South Loop) and Elias O'Malley (Decatur Classical).

Ten place trophies were awarded in each section. The tournament is held at the Rudy Lozano Branch Library in Pilsen, home of the Knight Moves Chess Club.

In Pilsen: Chicago Latino Chess Championship XX!

Twentieth edition: wow!

The site is the Chicago Public Library Lozano Branch on 1805 S. Loomis (Loomis is 1400 West: folks coming from the Loop may find the CTA's #60 bus - Blue Island/26th - handy).  No entry fee: lots of trophies!  Registration is from 9 to 9:30 a.m., Saturday, Nov. 24; play begins at 10 a.m.  You'll be home in time for dinner.

See the ICA Tournament Calendar for details!

"Library is heart of a neighborhood"

And the Rudy Lozano Public Library is the heart of the Pilsen chess community.  The city's budget cuts now mean that Rudy Lozano and the city's other neighborhood libraries are only open five days a week.

Story in today's Sun-Times.

National Chess Day at Rudy Lozano Library

Keith Ammann reports on the action at Hector Hernandez's stomping grounds on the ICA website.


Here's an interactive version of the game featured in the article, as annotated by Keith: