Peoria High School Tournament
Front L-R:   Jason Chien, Gordon Ruan, Josh Dubin, James Pavese
Back L-R:   Ilan Meerovich, Zach Kasiurak, Eric Rosen, Michael Auger
Not present:   Tony Cao, Trevor Magness, Gopal Menon - Photo by Betsy Dynako

Letters were recently mailed to 35 students across the state notifying them that they have been named as 2009 Warren Junior Chess Scholars. The group includes 30 boys and 5 girls. Twelve of the Warren Scholars are age 8 or under, and 11 are in high school. Eleven students are receiving the honor for the first time. Each student's school principal is also being sent a letter about this special achievement.

The high school Warren Scholars will be presented with a special award on Saturday, February 14, at the closing ceremony of the state high school team chess championships in Peoria. Warren Scholars in Grades K-8 will receive their awards at the K-8 state chess championship in Bloomington in March. In addition, Warren Scholars will receive an invitation to participate in a get-ready-for-nationals seminar on March 28 in Skokie.

To qualify, students needed to rank in the top 50 players for their age on the USCF Februrary 2009 supplement, and in the top 35 on at least one supplement between February 2008 and February 2009. Students who miss the mark by 10 rating points or less are deemed qualified. Students who achieved ratings in games played through Feb. 1 that would have made them qualified had they been reflected in the supplement, are still deemed qualified. For girls, qualification consisted of being in the top 50 for girls under 13 or girls under 16 on at least one USCF list between June 2008 and February 2009. Additionally, to be deemed qualified, all players 10 years and older must have played at least 10 regularly rated (not quick-rated) games in non-scholastic events in the past 12 months.

Congratulations go to:

K-8 Players		High Shool Players
Anshul Adve	Conrad Oberhaus	Michael Auger
Alex Bian	Adele Padgett	Tony Cao
Victoria Bian	William Radak	Jason Chien
Jack Curcio	Chetan Baddam Reddy	Josh Dubin
Vincent Do	Michael Rhodes	Zach Kasiurak
Sonam Ford	Sam Schmakel	Trevor Magness
Ian Gilchrist	Matthew J. Stevens	Gopal Menon
Caeley Harihara	Sonya Vohra	Ilan Meerovich
Zachary Holecek	James Wei	James Pavese
Zhaozhi (George) Li	Jack Xiao	Eric Rosen
Bryce McClanahan	Penny Xu	Gordon Ruan
Gavin McClanahan	Haoyang Yu