With a seventh-round draw, 3rd Grader Dimitar Mardov secured top honors for his grade at the K-12 Nationals ending December 18 in Nashville, TN.
Dimitar finished with 6.5/7, the same score as Luke Ye of Missouri. The two entered the competition with two of the three 1800+ ratings. Top-rated Brian Huang of California finished with 5.5, tied for 9th place. It appears Dimitar had the higher tiebreak over Ye, pending confirmation.
Fellow-Illinoisan Alex Zhao finished with 6.0, in a six-way tie for third place in the nation.
Despite entering the compeition several hundred rating points lower than the other two, Hudson Lutfiyya tied for the highest score in the Kindergarten section with 6.0/7. On tiebreaks, the Naperville youth received third place hardware.
With younger brother Ren contributing to the team score, All Saints Catholic Academy earned the third place trophy as a team, with higher tiebreaks than Collegiate School of New York.
Yuvraj Chennareddy tied for the second highest score in the First Grade competition with 6.0/7. On tiebreaks, the Decatur Classical (of Chicago) 1st-Grader claimed the fourth place trophy.
Jason Daniels has tied for second place in the nation among Eighth Graders at the K-12's.
Jason posted 6.0/7, tying with two others, but generating the top tiebreak of that group.
Rick Sun of Arizona tallied 6.5/7 to win the section, defeating Daniels in the next to last round.
Daniels finished strong with a win to secure the second place trophy.
Shreya Mangalam finished with 5.0/7 to tie for ninth place in the section, receiving a 10th place trophy.
Fourth grade was the most populous section with 205 entrants. Oak Park's Arthur Xu posted five wins, a loss and a draw for 5.5, good enough for a 12-way tie for sixth place. Arthur earned the seventh place trophy on tiebreaks.
Also faring well in Fourth Grade were Saanvi Adusuralli (5.0, T-18), Vrishank Ramnath and Vikram Oberai (both with 4.5, T-34).
Whitney Young wins National 10th Grade Championship! With 5.0's from Nikhil Kalghatgi and Matthew Stevens, and a 4.5 from Akhil Kalghatgi, The Chicago school blew away the competition for top honors scoring 14.5 versus 11.5 for Dalton of New York. Congrats to Coach Paul Kash for yet another National Championship!
Nikhil and Matthew were in a seven-way tie for fourth place in the section, with Nikhil (6th) and Matthew (8th) taking home hardware based on tiebreaks.
Amongst 7th graders, Aria Hoesley posted a 4.5/7, tying for 24th place.
Illinois' top 6th grade entry was Nicholas Ladan with a 4.5, tying for 29th place. With 4.0's were Deepak Salian and Margarita Tsyganova, and Spencer Vincent went 3.5.
The Land of Lincoln contributed three 4.0 finishers to the field of Second graders: Ekansh Mehotra, Linda Pham and Anthony Tsyganov all tied for 43rd place with that score.
5th Grade was one of the few where Illinois did not post a plus scorer: Keoni Osborne was an even 3.5/7 tying for 73rd place. Advaith Kodipparambil scored 2.5 in that section.
National Tournament Director Glenn Panner of Illinois is serving as the Chief TD of the event, with several other Illinois TD's serving in Nasvhille as well. Over 1540 competed in one of the thirteen grade-based sections.
| 2016 National K-12's Results for Top Illinois Finishers | ||||
| Grade | K | 1 | 2 | 3 |
| Name | Hudson Lutfiyya | Yuvraj Chennareddy | Ekansh Mehatora, Linda Pham, Anthony Tsyganov | Dimitar Mardov |
| Points | 6.0 | 6.0 | 4.0 | 6.5 |
| Tied for | 1st | 2nd | 43rd | 1st |
| Trophy | 3rd | 4th | - | Champion |
| Grade | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 |
| Name | Arthur Xu | Keoni Osborne | Nicholas Ladan | Aria Hoesley |
| Points | 5.5 | 3.5 | 4.5 | 4.5 |
| Tied for | 6th | 73rd | 29th | 24th |
| Trophy | 7th | - | - | - |
| 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | |
| Name | Jason Daniels | Deniz Gulecyuz | Nikhil Kalghatgi | Alex Parkel |
| Points | 6.0 | 3.0 | 5.0 | 3.0 |
| Tied for | 2nd | 38th | 4th | 39th |
| Trophy | 2nd | - | 6th | - |
Illinois had no 12th Grade entrants in a 31 player section.
Other Trophy Recipients: Alex Zhao (3rd Grade), Shreya Mangalam (8th Grade), Matthew Stevens (10th Grade)
The ICA thanks all who represented Illinois at this National event. We look forward to seeing many Illinois entrants at the 2017 SuperNationals right back in Nashville in May.