Peng Places 5th at World Youth in U12; Turgut 14th in U10

Candidate Master David Peng of Northbrook placed fifth at the 2014 World Youth Under 12 Boys competition completed today in South Africa.

An 11th-round loss to co-champion Viachaslau Zarubitski of Belarus dropped David from his perch as the sole leader. Rayan Taghizadeh of California also wound up in a four-way tie for first with 8.5 points, a half-point ahead of Peng.

David was the 21st-ranked U12 entrant based on pre-event FIDE ratings. He was sixth-ranked among 11 Americans in the section. Both his losses came to top 10 finishers playing as black. He was undefeated playing white, including 6th- and 10th-round draws. 

Aydin Turgut was defeated by German Vincent Keymer in the final round of the U10 Boys competition, leaving Aydin with 7.0/11 points. With tiebreaks, Aydin finished atop a six-way tie for 14th. 

Read more ...

Illinois Youth in USCF Top 100 -- August 2014

For the first time in history, Illinois hosts 20 juniors at or above the Expert mark, thanks to the addition of Akhil Kalghatgi. Quite a way to celebrate turning 13!

All tolled, Illinois has 101 USCF-rated players with recent activity and ratings above 2000.

Joining (or re-entering) the ranks of the national Top 100 lists this month were Naperville North's Bradley Guan and IMSA's Timothy Zhou, along with Aiden Carey and Brian Gong.

Zhou had been a regular on the lists before a 13-month absence from rated-play. After the cut-off date for this list, Zhou surpassed the 2000-mark himself with his performance at the 2014 Illinois Open.

Read more ...

Updated: Peng, Turgut Among 70 Americans At '14 World Youth

Illinoisans David Peng and Aydin Turgut are among 70 youth from the United States now in Durban, South Africa competing in the 2014 World Youth Championships. The tournament begins September 20th and continues through September 29th.

Candidate Master Peng (FIDE 2011) is competing against 111 others, including a dozen entrants from the US, in the U12 Open section of the tournament. Top rated in that section is Wisconsan Awonder Liang (FIDE 2323). Peng won the U10 Open section silver medal, behind Liang, at the 2013 World Youth Championships in the United Arab Emirates.

Turgut (FIDE 1851) is the official US representative in the U10 Open section, competing in his third World Youth Championships. His FIDE rating places him 14th among all competitors, second amongst Americans behind Californian Andrew Hong.

Read more ...

63 Compete at Northbrook Labor Day Scholastic

It took perfect scores to win both sections of the 2014 Labor Day Scholastic, held August 30 in Northbrook. 63 players competed in the five-round Quick-Rated event, organized by Chess For Life at the site of the 2014 Illnois Open.

The Illinois Chess Association received a generous portion of the event proceeds. Results can viewed in tiebreak order here and in pre-event rating order here

In the Under 1200 section, Micah Hill prevailed head-to-head over previously undefeated Evan Liu to earn top honors. All of Evan's opponents on the day had plus-scores (3.0 or better) giving him the top tiebreak of four 4.0 scorers to place second. 

Micah raised his USCF Quick Rating 162 points to 1165 while Evan went up 114 points to 1105. 

Read more ...

Lou, Carey, Jungo Earn Honors at Oak Park Library

More than 20 junior competitors battled it out in three sections at the Oak Park Library in a four-round event August 23. 

The tournament was directed by Keith Ammann.

In the 18-and-under section,  16-year old Mark Jungo of Chicago posted the top score, 3.5/4. Mark had recently competed at the World Open in Virginia. Darak Nowak of Park Ridge took second with a 3.0 result and local Oak Parker Philip Linninger, 18, nabbed third place honors. 

In the 13-and-under division, Aidan Carey went undefeated with three wins and a draw for a 3.5 result. Aidan is also from Oak Park. Desi Nainar of Lake Bluff had 3.0/4 while 7-year old William Cahill of Wheaton was 2.5/4.

Read more ...