Scholastic Chess Scholarship Tour The 2024-25 school schedule features our new Grand Prix Chess Tour program that offers scholarships for some lucky players to attend the USCF K-8 Championships in Bloomington or the Nationals in Orlando, Florida at the end of the chess season. Learn how you can paticipate and perhaps win a trip to the Nationals at Orlando, Click ==> here <== and get all the details.
The Hult Youth Chess Club (K-12) will meet online every Friday night at 6:30 on Zoom with a 7pm tournament on chess.com. You can join us by using these links:
Friday November 15th 2024
6:30 pm: Zoom Meeting 147 555 122
7:00 pm: Hult Chess Club @chess.com tournament 5224697 .
Registration starts at 6pm, but the games won't start until 7pm on Friday.
See you online soon!
The Illinois All Grade tournament crowns state individual and teams champions for each grade level. This state tournament is usually held in November and rotates between the Chicago metro area and central Illinois with downstate tournaments ocurring in the odd numbered years. Peoria has held the All Grade in 2011, 2015, 2017, 2019 & 2021.
Last year's All Grade tournament was held November 13th 2021, at Peoria at the Civic Center. The next one appears downstate in 2023. We hope to bid on it once again and bring it to Peoria. Results are posted elsewhere, just click on the All Grade name when you see it.
Although the Peoria Championship has been held for many years, there are times when the tournament was inactive and times where the records of previous champions have been lost. Since 1997, the Greater Peoria Chess Federation has run a championship every year, except 2020 during the Covid pandemic.
The Championship is an invitational event. Invitations are given to the defending champion and to top finishers in club & weekend tournaments. Qualifications are listed here. Since the list was started in 1997, Mike Leali is the leader with 8 titles.
2022 wss the first year of the official Peoria Speed Championship. The tournament format has been has been used for many years as an unofficial championship with crazy names like Pound Pete, Maul Mike etc where Pete and Mike were the rigning champions. Some years saw mul;tiple cha,pions; other years saw no speed tournamnets being held.
This coming year we are adding a new feature, the tournament will be rated with USCF Quick & Blitz ratings.
2020 marks the third Von Steuben Winter chess tournament for grades K-8. This tournament consists of 4 Divisions: Lower Primary K-1, Upper Primary 2-3, Elementary 4-5 & Junior High 6-8. (Students may play up, so please register for the division the student is to compete. Von Steuben's chess coach and tournament organizer is Emily Dawson.
We look forward to seeing you at the tournament at Von Steuben school in Peoria on Saturday February 3rd.
The Illinois Elementary School Association holds it's yearly tournament every February at the Peoria Civic Center. Although there is no direct affiliation between the GPCF and the IESA, the GPCF cooperates in making the Illinois Elementary School Championship a success. We provide a number of directors and scorekeepers for the IESA run tournament. Many of the local students who participate have been schooled by GPCF coaches or attended the Hult Chess Club. The GPCF provides sets and boards for the IESA state tournament.
The Illinois High School Association holds it's yearly tournament every February at the Peoria Civic Center. Although there is no direct affiliation between the GPCF and the IHSA, the GPCF cooperates in making the Illinois High School Championship a success. We provide a number of directors and scorekeepers for the IHSA run tournament. Many of the local students who participate have been schooled by GPCF coaches or attended the Hult Chess Club.
Rev 24.09.26
All dates are tentative and subject to change. The dates shown are the result of discussions with coaches & organizers of events from last year and their preferred dates. Please check this schedule for details as the dates approach.
While perhaps still subject to change, this schedule is likely predictive. If you or your school want to hold a tournament and are not on this list, I would suggest that you find an open date to hold it on, as established tournaments tend to have a following that may impact your potential turnout.
Click on the tournament name for the announcement & registration, click on Results to see the previous year's USCF cross tables. Please report any errors you find.
Date | Event | Location | |
Jun 29 | Mid Year Open | Springfield | Results |
Aug 1-3 | Midwest Chess Camp | Peoria Academy (K-8 & HS) and Tournament | Results |
Aug 10 | GPCF Fund Raiser | Olympia Bar & Grill | |
Aug 24 | Bradley Summer Open | Michael Student Center (Open & Reserve) | Results |
Sep 14 | Fall Scholastic | Peoria Academy (K8 & HS) Register at the door | Results |
Oct 12 | * National Chess Day Scholastic | Quality Inn Peoria (K-8 & HS) | Results |
Oct 19 | + St Philomena | St Phils (K-8 & HS) | Results |
Oct 26 | Jacl O Lantern Open | Springfield) | Results |
Nov 9 | + Morton Invitational | (IESA, IHSA season kickoff) | Results |
Nov 16 | + Reservoir Gifted Academy | Peoria (K-8 & HS) | Results |
THANKSGIVING BREAK | |||
Dec 7 | + Germantown Hills | Germantown Hills (K-8 & HS) | Results |
Dec 14 | + Brimfield Invitational | (K-8 & HS) | Results |
WINTER HOLIDAY BREAK | |||
Jan 11 | + Liberty Leadership | (K-8) | Results |
Jan 18 | + St Mary’s | Metamora (K-8) | Results |
Jan 20 | Martin Luther King Day | ISU Bone Center, Normal (K-8) | Results |
Jan 25 | *+ Mark Bills Classic | (K-12) | Results |
Feb 1 | * Bradley Winter Open | Michael Student Center (Open & Reserve) | Results |
Feb 1 | # IHSA Sectionals | Washington | |
Feb 8 | Peoria Public Schools | Lincoln School (K-12, PPS D150 Schools only) | Results |
Feb 8 | Private Schools | Lincoln School (K-12, Private Schools only) | Results |
Feb 8 | Lincoln Open | Lincoln School (K-12, Open to All) | Results |
Feb 14-15 | # IHSA | Peoria Civic Center (HS) | |
Feb 22 | #* Peoria County | Mark Bills (Peoria Only, 3-8) | Results |
Feb 22 | #* Tazewell County | Marquette Heights (Tazewell Only, 3-8) | Results |
Feb 22 | #* Woodford County | Mark Bills (Woodford Only, 3-8) | Results |
Feb 28-Mar 1 | # IESA | Peoria Civic Center (6-8) | |
Mar 9-11 | IL K-8 Championship | Bloomington (ICA K-8) | Results |
Apr 18-19 | Greater Peoria Open | Holiday Inn Grand Prairie (Open & Reserve) | Results |
May 9-11 | SuperNationals VIII | Orlando FL | |
May 16 | Spring Scholastic | Peoria Academy (K-HS) | Results |
* Unconfirmed, Subject to Change | |||
# NOT USCF rated | |||
+ GPCF Grand Prix |
Changes marked in bold italics
All tournaments are rated unless marked as unrated. IHSA, IESA and the Tazewell County tournaments are not rated. Rated tournaments require USCF membership, available online or at the tournament.
Scholastic tournament participants should check with the tournament officials to see if the special GPCF discount is available for the purchase of your USCF membership. To be eligible you must be a new or expired member who's membership expired on or before the month of the tournament.
Please check details of all tournaments you may plan to attend by clicking on the tournament name. Clicking on completed tournaments should show the final results.
Open tournaments are open to any qualified player (USCF membership, etc). Reserve is limited based on rating. Scholastic tournament eligible grades are also listed. Other qualifications are written in the text.
The Illinois High School state finals were played at the Peoria Civic Center February 11th & 12th. Four Peoria Area schools finished with plus scores (in order of tie-break finish): Dunlap, Washington, Metamora, and East Peoria. They were followed by Brimfield, Richwoods, Limestone and Morton. All schools had to survive the sectionals to qualify for state. Local HS chess should be heating up next year as only Metamora had a preponderance of seniors on their squad.
The state title went to Lincolnshire (Stevenson), who was lead on top board by former Peorian, junior Rohit Guha. A special hat tip to sophomore Noah Li, playing board 8 for Dunlap, who scored a perfect 7 wins in 7 games. Scoring 6 points were Washington's William Forbes (3rd board) and Metamora's Lucas Miller (4th board).
.Most schools choose to organize into conferences to arrange for a competitive season. The CICL chess conference is composed of high schools in Central Illinois.
The Peoria area high school chess teams came together to form the West division of the Central Illinois Chess League 8 years ago in 2014. Each school is required to play the others in weeknight matches. Division awards for teams and individuals are presented based on these matches. Two local schools hold tournaments, Morton in November and Brimfield in December or January. Our schools join the East and Central divisions at two Central Illinois Chess League sponsored tournaments, Trahan in October and the Illini Classic in January. IHSA Sectionals are held at the end of January with State following in February.
A full report of the results can be found here
Hats Off! to our coaches who spend a lot of time bringing chess to their teams.
School | Coach | ||
---|---|---|---|
Brimfield | Bernales, Robert | robert.bernales@brimfield309.com | |
Dunlap | Shea, Jason | jshea@dunlapcusd.net | |
East Peoria | Laughlin-Dimitroff, Tamme | tdimitroff@ep309.org | |
assistants | Tia Bailey, Bryson Lovell | ||
Limestone | Stromberger, Connie | cstromberger@limestone310.org | |
Manual | Stevens, Adam | adam.stevens@psd150.org | |
Metamora | ?Karch, Jessica | jkarch@mths.us | |
Morton | ?Serrurier, Kim | kimberly.serrurier@mcusd709.org | |
Notre Dame | Boeker, B | b.boeker@pndhs.org | |
Peoria High | Schroeder, Robert | Robert.schroeder@psd150.or.g | |
Princeville | Keyster, Geneva | gkeyster@princeville326.org | |
Richwoods | Hickman, Shad | shad.hickman@psd150.org | |
Washington | Madsen, Dave | jdmadsen@wacohi.net | |
assistants | Laura McCue-Newport, Joshua Madsen, Jackson Biagini |