2013 All-Girl National Championships

280 young ladies from across the country competed at the 2013 All-Girl Nationals, held in Chicago April 26-28. Five Illinois players placed in the top-five of their respective sections. Crosstables

In the Under 10 age group, Shreya Mangalam went undefeated with four victories and two draws. Her 5.0/6 score placed her in a six-way tie for second in the contentious 72-player section.

Caeley Harihara won clear third with a 4.0/6 score in the Under 16. She defeated a Class A-player from Arizona in the fifth round.

The competition was organized by Illinois-based Renaissance Knights, with ICA-member Glenn Panner serving as Chief Tournament Director. The event included six rounds of Game/90 play with a 5-second delay.

USCF Top 100 Lists published April 2013

Some new names from Illinois have entered the USCF top 100 lists as of the ICA K-8 Championships held in Normal March 9 and 10.

David Zimmerman entered the list of top 7-year olds, Jonah Karafiol nabbed a spot amongst the top US 8-year olds and Emmett Madigan is now in the top century of 9-year olds.

Among high schoolers, Timothy Zhou is now a ranked 16-year old and David Paykin is a top-100 17-year old.

Aaron Gan retains his place as the top Illinois player aged 7 or younger. Amazingly the 6-year old has jumped 253 rating points in two months, placing him in the top 25 of all players 7-and-under. Aaron is actually the fifth-rated 6-year old in the country.

Karagianis Sweeps Open Section at GPO 49

Fifth round play at the 49th GPO,
(L to R) Jon Winick, Ivan Wijetunge,
Pete Karagianis, Tom Friske

It'd been almost five years since Scott Schmidt had played a USCF-rated tournament. Under those circumstances, you can forgive the Class B player from drawing a Class D opponent in the first round of the Greater Peoria Open. With the rust dutifully scraped off, Schmidt prevailed in his four subsequent rounds to win the Reserve Section of the 49th GPO.

Master Pete Karagianis went undefeated in the Open Section to claim the $250 first prize at the April 20-21st event, played at the AmericInn of Peoria.

April 2013 Chess Roundup

This month the youngins' take center stage.  First off, another teenager gets a GM norm. This time it's a Norwegian. The 2013 Junior Chess Congress has a record turnout.  (In case you were wondering the new record is 375.)  And the University of Illinois got ready to go to the President's Cup.  The final result was that the University of Illinois came in 4th. Here's a video story from CBS.

Here are the results from around the state:

March 2:  The Hoose 2013 Tournament in Bloomington, IL had 191 kids participating in 4 sections.  In each section, the sole winner had a perfect record.  Here are the winners for each section, Nathan Lee (Lower Primary), Nihar Mothikuru (Upper Primary), Ethan Catt (Elementary), and Balaji Iyengar (Junior High).  Crosstables.

Faraday's Hobbs grabs K-8 Under 750 Crown in Nashville

SuperNationals V: Part 3

Kiana Hobbs held a modest 429 USCF provisional rating heading into SuperNationals V completed April 7 in Nashville.

The Michael Faraday (of Chicago) 8th grader had played in only one-rated tournament, a Rated Beginners event in Wisconsin the year before, losing three matches and winning one game.

But today Kiana is a National Champion, having won all seven of her matches in her 329-player SuperNationals section, achieving the only perfect score in the bunch.

Miller, Willer Claim National High School Titles

SuperNationals V: Part 2

Not every sport allows relative newcomers -- or up-and-comers -- to participate at the national level. But the USCF thinks "outside the board," conferring championships in a variety of "under" competitions and four unrated divisions at SuperNationals V.

Under this set up, Illinois high schoolers acquitted themselves fantastically with co-champions in the K-12 Under 1200 and an outright champion in the K-12 Unrated.

Illinois Players Score at SuperNationals V

Matthew Stevens (L), Tej Rai, and Ricky Wang (R) collect their hardware in the Elementary division at SuperNationals V in Nashville, TN.

With 5341 competitors battling it out at the boards, Illinois players took home two of the seven individual championships conferred at SuperNationals V.

Aydin Turgut and David Peng are no strangers to tournament winner circles but they can now add "National Champion" to their chess resumes.

The quadrennial SuperNationals were held in Nashville, TN, April 5-7, 2013 with a strong Illinois presence in 20 sections.

Two weeks of international chess competitions in Naperville

By Mikhail Korenman
FIDE International Organizer

For the last four years the end of March is a traditional time to host an international chess activities that organized by the International Educational and Cultural Services 501-c3 non-for-profit organization.