Fremont students find success at chess tournament

Eight Fremont students participated in the Illinois Scholastic chess tournament last month in St. Charles. About 700 kids from around the state competed in the two-day, seven-round tournament.

The Fremont fourth- and fifth-grade team, consisting of Jeff Bikus, Brendan Callas, Jack Dahlinger, Charles Fang, Ben Krauss and Yianni Wiechering, tied for third place in the team competition. Out of 35 schools competing, Fremont finished just behind top finishers Half Day/Sprague in Lincolnshire and Washington Gifted Academy in Rockford.

Individually, fourth-grader Bikus finished in eighth place overall with 5.5 wins. Krauss and Dahlinger each took home 4.0 wins; Fang, 3.5; and Callas and Wiechering 2 wins apiece.

In other sections, Bikus won 4.5 matches in the sixth- to eighth-grade competition, good for 29th place overall and fourth place among Illinois sixth-graders. Jack Bikus finished with 3.0 wins in the K-1 section, good enough for 42nd place.

Fremont Intermediate School is a third- through fifth-grade school serving 701 students living in the communities of Mundelein, Wauconda, Hawthorn Woods, Grayslake, Ivanhoe, Round Lake, Round Lake Park, Long Grove and Libertyville.