2024 National K-12 Grade Champonships

 

 2024 National K-12 Grade Champonships

 

 

The USCF expertly ran their 2024 National K-12 Grade Championship last week in National Harbor, Maryland from December 6-8, 2024

 

k12

The tournament had thirteen sections: Kindergarten and grades one to twelve and consisted of over 2700 players from 45 states. Of those 2700, Illinois sent 77 players across all age ranges. The following players participated in their first US Chess National event at this event:

 9th - SHANE ASBRA

11th - RAJINDER SINGH ATLURI

 9th - JAMES BEDNARZ

 9th - PIERCE BLANCHARD

10th - SOHAN CHAMARTHI

11th - ARITRA JANA

11th - LUCAS LAZARO

11th - GRIFFIN LEWIS

 2nd - ADHVIK MOHAN

 K  - ANVITHA MOHAN

 6th - ANISHA SAHA

 4th - MADHUVANTI SATHISH

11th - SAMUEL TAN

10th - ISHAAN TANNEERU

 K  - ALEXANDER WU

10th - YUXUAN XIE

12th - IMMANUEL ZEREGA

 

12th Grade Championship Section

Illinois was represented by 13 players including:

Avi Kaplan

Joseph Dai

Rebecca Cortez

Somil Bose

Evan Haddox

Immanuel Zerega

Daniel Dligach

Alexander Alvarez

William Zalmezak

Akshay Naik

Yinuo Huang

Lucia Scrimenti

Weijun Bao

 

Of whom, Avi Kaplan won the section with 6.0 points

avi.jpg

Picture courtesy of Avi’s parents

Illinois Swept the class prizes for 1000-1299

Immanuel Zerega won 1st place

    Note from coach: Manu (Immanuel) Zerega broke his right wrist the week before the tournament, so he had to notate using his left hand

Daniel Dligach won 2nd place

dan3

 Daniel Supplied last game postion and his medal

Lucia Scrimenti won 3rd place

 

Weijun Bao won the class prize for under 1000 in the 12 Grade Championship

Picture

Finally, Evanston Township High School came in 5th place as a team.

 evanston

Picture courtesy of the High School

Players left to right: Lucia Scrimenti, Wayra Sheridan, Sam Kemeny, Will Zalmezak, Ryan Cowan, Adam Elgat, Manu Zerega, Adam Sklar, Alastair Keely-Walker, Lucas Lazaro, Daniel Dligach, Asa Lieberman, Griffin Lewis, Shane Asbra, Somil Bose.

11th Grade Championship section

 

Illinois was represented by 11 players including:

David Chen

Adam Elgat

Dimitrios Deligiannis

Alastrir Keely-Walker

Lucas Lazaro

Nithin Ramasamy

Griffin Lewis

Samuel Tan

Ryan Cowan

Rajinder Atluri

Aritta Jana

Samuel Tan won 3rd place class for 1000-1299

Lucas Lazaro won 1st place class for under 1000

Ryan Cowan won 2nd place class for under 1000

Pictures

10th Grade Championship section

 

Illinois was represented by 13 players including:

 

Justin Zhang

Asa Lieberman

William Wang

Theodore Han

Micah Mostovoy

Andy Cao

Yuxuan Xie

Atharva Naik

Ishann Tanneeru

Sohan Chamarthi

Vincent Lan

Joanna Marsten

Adam SklarYuxuan

Theodore Han won 1st place class 1300-1599

theodore

Theodore-s picture courtesy of his parents

 

Micah Mostovoy won 1st place class 1100-1299

Sohan Chamarthi won 2nd place class under 1000.

sohan 

Sohan's picture courtesy of his parents

9th Grade Championship section

 

Illinois was represented by 5 players including:

 

Timur Turba

Shane Asbra

James Bednarz

Wayra Sheridan

Pierce Blanchard

8th Grade Championship section

 

There were not any Illinois players who represented at the tournament.

7th Grade Championship section

 

Illinois was represented by 2 players including:

Ashvath Pittala

Arjun Kota

6th Grade Championship section

 

Illinois was represented by 1 player:

Anisha Saha

5th Grade Championship section

 

Illinois was represented by 1 player:

Anfad Saran

Anfad Saran won 2nd place class under 1100-1300.

Picture

4th Grade Championship section

 

Illinois was represented by 2 players including:

Avidhas Biswas

Maduvanti Sathish

3rd Grade Championship section

 

Illinois was represented by 2 players including:

Aiden Li

Bishrelt Munkshuld

Aiden Li won his section with 6.5 points.

 

aiden

Picture courtesy of his parents.

 

2nd Grade Championship section

 

Illinois was represented by 1 player

Adhvik Mohan

picture

Advik Mohan won 2nd place class 600-799

1st Grade Championship section

 

Illinois was not represented

Kindergarten Championship section

 

Illinois was represented by 2 players including:

Alexander Wu

Anvitha Mohan.

Picture

Alexander Wu won 3rd place class 400-599.

 

Linked here is a complete pre-tournament registration report for the event, courtesy of US Chess, and the US rating report. Following these links, you can view the full results across any sections instead of the abbreviated standings above.

Once again, we want to congratulate a remarkable turnout from our Illinois Chess Association players and the great assistance of Edwin Walker, head of our Warren Scholars program, for procuring much of the data used to report on. 

Finally, congratulations to all the players 

If anyone wants an article written or edited, please send an email to editot@il-chess.org

 

 

 

 

FIDE WORLD CADET CHESS CHAMPIONSHIPS 2024

FIDE WORLD CADET CHESS CHAMPIONSHIPS 2024

In Montesilvano, Italy from November 15 to November 26 over 700 players, representing over 70 countires particpated in the FIDE World Cadet Championship 2024. The US sent 46 players to compete across the three Open (U-12, U-10, U-8) and three Girls (U-12, U-10, U-8) sections of the 11-round Swiss System event.

Three players were from Illinois Aiden Li, Stella Xin and Elizabeth Xia. 

Winning the bronze in the Girls U8 was Stella Xin. Scoring 8.5 out of 11 earning the WCM title. Stella2024WC

Photo courtesy of Huijun Feng

Elizabeth Xia scored 8.0 in the Girls U8, finishing tied for fourth (3 way)

ElizbethWC 

Photo courtesy of Elle Yang

Aiden Li scored 8.5 earning fourth, in the Open U8.  Aiden had an outstanding perforumance leading 6 out of 6 going into the 7th round. 

aidenliWC 

Photo courtesy of Elle Yang

 

All the players were at this year’s ICA youth invitational. Aiden won the Rockefeller (K-5), Elizabeth came in 8th place in the Harring (Girls) and Stella came in 4th in the Harring (Girls) sections

 

November 2024 Top Youth

November 2024 Top 100 Youth

 

Welcome & congratulations to 13-year-old Nila Hari (1113) and Mahendra Lavanur (1862), who made the national Top 100 Girls lists for Regular Top Girls Age 13

 

US RankNameRating
Top Girls Age 7 and Under
2 Tang, Emily Jiaying 1328
52 Balivada, Poorvika 592
Top Age 7 and Under
16 Tang, Emily Jiaying 1328
29 Li, Ethan 1209
89 EMIN BILGIC 940
Top Girls Age 8
2 Xia, Elizabeth 1811
3 Xin, Stella 1795
4 Mahesh, Praakruthi 928
21 VALERIE YAN 1209
35 Kumar, Eesha 1002
46 Gopal, Sri Akshika 911
52 Batmunkh, TSelmeg 882
100 Wisniowski, Nicole 644
Top Age 8
1 Li, Aiden Linyuan 2031
7 Xia, Elizabeth 1811
8 Xin, Stella 1795
72 Munkhsuld, Bishrelt 1314
Top Girls Age 9
23 Nali, Sahasra 1297
41 Biswas, Avidha 1114
70 Amireddy, Sadhvi 903
71 Banoth, Shanaya 896
Top Age 9
72 Tang, Edward Jiayi 1531
Top Girls Age 10
69 Bothe, Devaanshi 1009
Top Age 10
78 Silvestre, Lucas 1668
Top Girls Age 11
29 Zhan, Amy 1559
30 Saha, Anisha 1556
53 Sun,Yuanli 1298
Top Age 11
16 Tikhomirov, Matthew 2046
75 Rajkumar, Sachit Srinivas 1844
Top Girls Age 12
30 Bowman, Deborah 1558
34 Chen, Victoria 1480
52 Ranjan, Nysa 1259
Top Age 12
14 Khanbutaev, Artemii 2120
28 Baker, Aidan 2017
39 JUSTIN LEE 1984
60 Pittala, Ashvath Reddy 1921
98 Vanama, Agastya 1822
Top Girls Age 13
12 Wang, Gaofei 1774
41 Sharad, Suhana 1484
47 Jiandani, Mehak S 1429
73 VANSHIKA BANDARU 1200
88 Hari, Nila 1113
Top Age 13
87 Zhang, Ryan 1879
92 MAHENDRA LAVANUR 1862
Top Girls Age 14
36 Manimaran, Shivani 1700
76 Bothe, Nysa 1281
93 Sheridan, Wayra 1197
Top Age 14
16 Rao, Anjaneya Sripathy 2256
22 Shetty, Anshul P 2218
78 Chennareddy, Yuvraj 1999
89 Das, Debarghya 1971
Top Girls Age 15
8 Chennareddy, Sire 1087
22 Pham, Linda 1718
30 Girish, Niyathi 1634
Top Age 15
41 Mehrotra, Ekansh 2128
70 Feng, Jay 2036
Top Girls Age 16
24 Raj, Ria 1747
28 MERRILL LEE 1715
55 SOLOMIIA KUCHER 1442
89 JOSEPHINE GRACE SWAN 1200
Top Age 16
1 Mardov, Dimitar 2588
43 Zhao, Alex 2167
51 Gangavarapu, Sreekar 2130
75 Dmitriev, Andrey 2061
89 Justin Zhang 2026
Top Girls Age 17
21 Himani Musku 1666
28 Oberai, Anisha 1585
29 Adusumalli, Saanvi 1548
43 Schneider, Rosali 1319
58 Pashyan, Sofia 1205
70 Liu, Catherine 1118
73 LUCIA J SCRIMENTI 1062
Top Age 17
8 Vikram Oberai 2055
29 Xu, Arthur 2238
59 Malladi, Sadkrith 2110
99 WHITMAN KOSAK 2018
Top Girls Age 18
2 Wisniowski, Natalie 2096
8 Cortez, Rebecca 1947
13 Luster, Shakira Makayla 1789
68 Wong, Megan E 989
Top Age 18
8 Kaplan, Avi Harrison 2378
44 Heller, Jack 2141
60 Wisniowski, Natalie 2096
91 Anthony Chen 2000

 

The lists compiled by US Chess are based on regular ratings achieved and processed by the third Wednesday of the previous month

If you believe a person was inadvertently omitted from this list, please kindly contact wjs@il-chess.org.

2024 Illinois All Grade Championship

2024 Illinois All Grade Championship

 

The Illinois Chess Association is happy to congratulate Jeff Diorio from Elite Chess for brilliantly organizing our 2024 Illinois All Grade Championship in Naperville, Illinois on November 9, 2024.

The tournament had nine sections: 2nd through 8th grade, while kindergarten was combined with 1st grade, likewise for high school(9th through 12th grade). In total, over 350 kids participated, of whom, we are pleased to see 50 new faces from last year. We had 10 ICA members play in the event. Further, we had better than expected representation from downstate, including the following four schools that won trophies:

Chiddix - Normal 7th Grade, 3rd Place

Grove - Normal 5th Grade, 2nd Place

Benjamin - Bloomington 4th Grade, 3rd Place

Thomas Metcalf - Normal 3rd Grade, 1st Place

trpphy

Trophies on display - courtesy of Elite Chess

 

Listed below are the results for the different sections:

High School

Nathaniel was the outright winner with a perfect four points. After Nathaniel, four players tied with 3 points, four players tied with 2 points and a further four tied with 1.5 points. Final order after tie-breaks for trophies are listed below.

nar

Nathaniel receiving his trophy; courtesy of his parents

 

HS

Eighth Grade

 

Gene Tcheng was the outright winner with a perfect 4 points. Avanish Ram Amarnath came in second alone with 3.5 points. Then, seven players finished with 3 points and two with 2.5 points. Final order after tie-breaks for trophies are listed below.

 

8

Seventh Grade

 

There was a two way tie for first place with a perfect 4 points, opposed to the previous outright winners. Artemii Khanbutaev won on tiebreaks, leaving Kavin Sivagnanam in second. There were ten players with 3 points. Final order after tie-breaks for trophies are listed below.

 artemi

Artemil receiving his trophy; courtesy of his parents

 

7

Sixth Grade

 

Alexander Pan was the outright winner with a perfect 4 points. Two players tied with 3.5 points, but Anisha came in second based on tiebreakers. There were a further 13 players tied with 3 points. The final standings after tie-breaks for trophies are listed below.

ALEX

Alexander with trophy; courtesy of his parents

6

Fifth Grade

 

There was a two-way tie for first place with 4.5 points. However, Lucas Silvestre won on tiebreaks and Sarang Athreya Sankrithi came in second. There were six players with 4 points and an additional four players with 3.5 points. Below you can find the final order after tie-breaks for trophies.

 

LUCAS

Lucas receiving his award; courtesy of his parents

 

5 

Fourth Grade

Krish Vignesh was the outright winner with 4.5 points. Four players had 4 points, of which Pradhyum came in second on tiebreaks. There were a further 6 players with 3.5 points. The final standings after tie-breaks for trophies are listed below.

KRIS

Kris with trophy courtesy of his parents

4

Third Grade

Bishrelt  Munkhsuld was the outright winner with a perfect 5 points. After him, six players had 4 points, two players had 3.5 points and twelve players had 3 points. The final standings after tie-breaks for trophies are listed below.

BIS

Bishrelt with trophy courtesy of his parents

3

Second Grade

Emily Jiaying Tang was the outright winner with a perfect 5 points. Following her, four players had 4 points, two players with 3.5 points and seven players had 3 points. Final order after tie-breaks for trophies (top ten only) are listed below.

EMILY
  

Emily – Courtesy of her parents

2 

 

Combined Kindergarten and First Grade

Shivakumaran Minor Vellapandi was the outright winner with a perfect 5 points. Afterwards, six players had 4 points, one player had 3.5 points and eight players had 3 points. Of which the final standings after tie-breaks for trophies are listed below.

 minor

 Shivakumaran Minor Vellapandi – Courtesy of his parents

 

k1

We are also proud to congratulate the following players across all sections for increasing their ratings by over 50 points and wish them the best of luck to perform as well in their next tournaments as they did in this one.

Name

Grade

PreRating

PostRating

Minor Vellapandi, Shivakumaran

0

666

914

Amouei Torkmahalleh, Raymand

1

422

543

Biswal, Shrinika

1

146

279

Garetto, Lucca

1

108

164

Kobe, James

1

104

208

NORA MAXFIELD

1

156

278

Wang, Mason

1

198

382

Yang, Miesen

1

504

585

ADLER AKHMETOV

2

118

341

Geht, Charles

2

413

508

Gerelt Od, Robert

2

141

221

Kirkman, Frankie

2

262

345

Mehta, Ness

2

340

410

Mohan, Adhvik

2

732

782

Tata, Ayansh

2

605

698

Athira Ajeesh, Adharv

3

466

598

Banoth, Shanaya

3

840

900

Bian, Brandon

3

316

479

De Zoysa, Ryan

3

117

234

EZRA POFFENBARGER

3

672

819

Gray, Nathan

3

243

439

Lakshmi Narayanan, Vidyut

3

731

820

Munkhsuld, Bishrelt

3

1294

1363

PHILLIP WHITT

3

105

242

Raina, Ansh

3

379

555

TANISH SEN

3

816

908

Wolkowitz, Ryan

3

190

244

YASH GAWAS

3

515

644

ANDREW LEE

4

512

592

Fee, Leo

4

829

923

PEARL INFANTE

4

101

164

Vignesh, Krish

4

1050

1107

Yun, Jaden

4

363

414

Zhang, Albert

4

637

818

ERKHEMBAYAR ERDENEOCHIR

5

480

554

Huang, Sam

5

280

336

LUCAS MILLARD

5

714

771

Midha, Shivansh

5

720

773

Shikhare, Aayush

5

428

543

Vepari, Kaarthisha

5

241

300

Wiseman, Zachary

5

137

193

Wu, Isalinda

5

297

480

Bayartamir, Bill

6

855

980

Herbert, Maddox

6

149

284

Jadhav, Sameehan Nikhil

6

859

928

LOHITH REDDY GONGATI

6

727

808

Zhou, Wellington

6

239

314

Boppudi, Sahasra

7

734

926

Brown, Noah G

7

543

665

ESEN MUNKHTUR

7

952

1022

Kim, Shiloh

7

475

682

Murugan, Yugan

7

202

414

Polenska, Micah

7

283

405

Prasanna Venkatesh, Mukund Vasudev

7

664

738

SAMUEL KELLY

7

981

1055

Sienkiewicz, Luke

7

706

771

Wu, Ethan

7

488

560

Zhou, Louis

7

333

412

Amarnath, Avanish Ram

8

915

1197

Ingrum, Rylan

8

643

694

Itagi, Anish

8

963

1087

JOSIAH BOVEY

8

1154

1243

Larson, Andrew

8

344

415

VIKHYATH CHATRATHI

8

929

1036

Kane, Jack Aidan

9

706

774

GANNON BATES

11

932

1114

Borne, Gavin

12

964

1136

Jaynes, Logan

12

748

884

 

The following players are members of the Illinois Chess Association who participated. Thank you for your support.

icamem 

Linked here is a complete cross-table for the event, courtesy of King Registration, and the US rating report. Following these links, you can view the full results across any sections instead of the abbreviated standings above.

Once again, we want to congratulate everybody who participated and gave it their best in the tournament and to congratulate Jeff Diorio and Elite Chess for running the tournament so smoothly on behalf of the Illinois Chess Association.

 

2024 US Open Denker High School Invitational Winner – Avi Kaplan

Avi Kaplan travelled to Norfolk, VA to represent Illinois in the 2024 US Chess Championship national invitational. Each state sends one person. Illinois determines who to send from an Illinois Chess Association state invitational, which AVI won with a score of 4.5/5 points. 50 states + DC send their qualifying chess delegate to compete, with California sending two for northern and southern regions.

The US Open Denker Invitational is 6 rounds starting July 27th with one game, two games on 28th and 29th and last game on 30th. Time control was G90+30.

Avi was undefeated. He had four wins and two draws giving him a total of 5 out of 6 points. Two other high school players had a total of 5/6 creating a three-way tie. Avi was given second place in the tiebreakers. For his efforts, other than being co-champion of the “Denker Tournament of HS Champions” Avi received a $3000 college scholarship. Illinois Chess Association also gave him a $250 travel stipend.

Here is Avi receiving his award.

avipic.jpg

                        

The complete cross-tables can be found here.

https://www.uschess.org/results/2024/usopen/?page=STANDINGS&xsection=denker

Here is Avi’s game for round six. He had a wonderful accuracy rating of 92.4% from Chess.com

avigame.jpg

The Illinois Chess Association wants to congratulate Avi for bringing home the Denker Co-Champion and being part of the team that brought to Illinois the team co-champion.

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