Unable to populate Form.CheckBox array programmatically in C#

I’m attempting to replace populating an array (named "_Checks") using hard coded values with programmatically populating the array values. The array elements are CheckBox.name for all of the checkBoxes on a winForm form.

The form has 10 rows of controls with each row's controls' enablement triggered by the state of the leading checkbox. Checking a lower level box “activates” all rows above it and deselecting a higher level box “deactivates” all rows (if any) below it.

The following code is working:

private CheckBox[] _Checks;
public PrizeTemplateWRKG() 
{
    InitializeComponent();
    _Checks = new CheckBox[]
    { LevelCheckBox00, ..., LevelCheckBox09 };  //array population via hard code [10 elements]
}
private void LevelCheckBox_CheckedChanged(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
    int mstrTag = Convert.ToInt32((sender as CheckBox).Tag);
    // logic for identifying checking or unchcking; excluded as irrelevant 
    HandleCheckboxes(mstrTag);
}

private void HandleCheckboxes( int mstrTag)
{
    // wrap following in checking/unchcking logic; excluded as irrelevant 
    for (int x = 0; x <= mstrTag; x++)
    {   _Checks[x].Checked = true;    }
}

I initially tried

CheckBox[] cbArray = (CheckBox[])Controls.OfType<CheckBox>().OrderBy(x => x.Name);

which won't complie (error: Cannot convert type 'System.Linq.IOrderedEnumerable<System.Windows.Forms.CheckBox>' to 'System.Windows.Forms.CheckBox[]')
Then tried:

List<CheckBox> cbList2 = (List<CheckBox>)Controls.OfType<CheckBox>().OrderBy(x => x.Name);

which will compile but throws an exception at run-tiime:

System.InvalidCastException: Unable to cast object of type 'System.Linq.OrderedEnumerable2 [System.Windows.Forms.CheckBox,System.String]' to type 'System.Collections.Generic.List1[System.Windows.Forms.CheckBox]'.

TL;DR I am able to find the checkboxes and create lists of checkbox names (which I intend to convert to an array with ToArray) but regardless of how I format extraction from Control.ControlCollection I end up with a string list/array and cannot convert the string to a Checkbox[] containing checkbox names. The closest I've come is using the Converter<TInput,TOutput> approach trying with both lists and arrays:

 _cbList = convrtR.ConvertAll(new Converter<string, CheckBox>(stringTOcheckbox));

public static CheckBox stringTOcheckbox( string slist2cblist)
{   return new CheckBox();   }

but the result is an array populated with “System.Windows.Forms.CheckBox, CheckState: 0” elements.

Any help will be appreciated.