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 Zimmermann 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.

Aaron and David (Zimmermann) drew in the sixth round of the K-1 competition in Normal, with Aaron taking first and David second based on tiebreakers.

David Peng (2nd in age 9), Aydin Turgut (3rd in age 8), Adarsh Jayakumar (4th in age 18) and Sam Schmakel (8th in age 16) remain the Illinois players in the top ten of their respective age groups nationwide. David (K-6) and Aydin (K-3) both claimed National Championships at SuperNationals - but that did not factor in to these listings.

Jason Daniels, Vincent Do, Alex Bian, Zhaozhi Li, Jonathan Kogan and Matthew Wilber are all top 20 Americans of their respective age groups. Miranda Liu is 19th among young ladies under 13, 11th among girls 11 or younger.

Aged 18 years or younger, Illinois currently boasts three masters, Sam, Jonathan and Adarsh, along with a minion of ten experts.

US RankNameRating
Age 7 and under
25 Aaron Gan (age 6) 1376
67 David Zimmermann 1152
69 Jai Mahajan 1149
Age 8
3 Aydin Turgut 1839
  Stefan Musikic 1476
54 Brian Hope Gong 1365
73 Suraj Ramanathan 1315
92 Jonah Karafiol 1234
Age 9
2 David Peng 2111
17 Jason Daniels 1717
60T Shreya Mangalam 1494
80 Emmett Madigan 1425
84T Ricky Wang 1419
92T Michael Geohas 1407
Age 10
  None from Illinois
Age 11
18 Vincent Do 1931
44 Hanson Ho 1780
55 Akhil Kalghatgi 1743
69 Nikhil Kalghatgi 1688
71 Miranda Liu 1684
Age 12
17 Alex Bian 2068
34 Matthew Stevens 1951
50T Abe Sun 1874
61T Jack Curcio 1843
72 Daniel Bronfeyn 1797
92 Blair Hu 1734
94 Jack Xiao 1728
Age 13
14 Zhaozhi Li 2117
45 Anshul Adve 1924
75T Bryce McClanahan 1812
84 Ian Gilchrist 1792
Age 14
38 Zachary Holecek 2007
61 Spencer Lehmann 1906
69T Jonathan Hrach 1875
Age 15
  None in Illinois
Age 16
8 Sam Schmakel 2292
33T Gavin McClanahan 2059
42 Max Zinski 2015
44T Nathan Kranjc 2007
74 Penny Xu 1906
77T Jimi Akintonde 1884
90T Timothy Zhou 1840
Age 17
14 Jonathan Kogan 2248
66T Charles Swan 1960
71 Chengliang Luo 1940
87 David Paykin 1881
91T Christian Kavouras 1871
Age 18
4 Adarsh Jayakumar 2347
16 Matthew Wilber 2183
29 Robert Moskwa 2087
31 Kent Cen 2076
77 Benjamin Stern 1925
91 Rafeh Qazi 1889
Girls Under 16
52 Miranda Liu (11) 1684
Girls Under 13
19 Miranda Liu (11) 1684
53 Shreya Mangalam (9) 1494
61 Cassie Parent (12) 1453
81 Anjali Toly (12) 1387

Miranda, Shreya and Penny Xu remain in the top 100 of their age groups, irrespective of gender.

Among females under 21, Penny (holding still at 1906) is 40th , 18-year old Madeleine Reiches is 93rd (USCF rating of 1699) and Miranda is 99th.

Under 21 Males

Overall nationwide in under-21 rankings, U of I freshman Eric Rosen is 26th based on his 2391 rating, Adarsh is 39th, Sam is tied for 57th and Jonathan is 89th.

According to USCF specifications, ratings as of March 15 were used for this report and the top 100 lists were published April 22. This means that Illinois K-8 Championship post-event ratings were used, but that SuperNationals results will not factor in until the June lists.

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