SCOTT Matthew Escalera continued to make waves for the chess-loving Filipino-American community in the US (United States).
The seven-year-old Escalera topped the 2020 Greater Chicago K-12 Championship K-3 division on February 1 at McCormick Place, the largest convention center in North America, located in Chicago, Illinois.
The first grader from Oliver Holmes Elementary Oak Park, whose father Ren Vincent hails from Cagayan de Oro, finished the tournament with a perfect 4 of 4 performance.
Escalera nailed the title after defeating his last round opponent Franklin Godinho of Roycemore School of Evanston, Illinois in the four-round Swiss System tourney.
“This is a prestigious tournament in Chicago for kids in the whole Chicago,” said Ren.
The event was well attended by Chicago Public Schools, Chicago Greaterland Schools (Suburbs) areas, including those from as far as Midwest region, gathering around 700 young chess players.
Considered the largest and most prestigious USCF rated tournament in Chicago, it was sponsored by The Renaissance Knights Chess Foundation, the Kasparov Chess Foundation, the Chicago Public Schools Academic Chess program and SBB Research Group.
It can be recalled that the FilAm chess toddler made a good start in 2020 after finishing joint second place in the 2020 National Junior Chess Congress last month in Santa Clara, California.