Youth News
Liu Ties for 6th At National Girls', Schmakel 6th in Denker
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- Written by Bill Feldman Bill Feldman
- Published: 31 July 2014 31 July 2014
With three wins, a loss and a pair of draws in the last two rounds, recent Whitney Young graduate Sam Schmakel's remarkable high school chess career came to a close at the 2014 Denker Championships in Orlando.
With 4.0/6, Sam finished in an eight-way tie for 6th, placing 7th on tiebreaks. His loss came at the hands of California's Nicky Korba who finished third. Sam entered the invitiational event as the top-rated player, 18 points higher than the outright champion, Christopher Gu of Rhode Island.
Miranda Liu also posted a fantastic 4.0/6 in the 44-player Girls' Invitational finishing in another eight-way tie for sixth, also placing 7th on tiebreaks.
Illinois Youth in USCF Top 100 -- July 2014
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- Written by Bill Feldman Bill Feldman
- Published: 26 July 2014 26 July 2014
With ascendancy above USCF ratings of 2000 for 14-year old Anshul Adve and 15-year old Jonathan Hrach, for the first time ever, Illinois has 15 junior experts and four masters (or greater) as of the official July listings. This quota comes despite the loss of Chengliang Luo who aged out of the 18-and-under report.
With Hanson Hao at 1999 and Jacob Furfine at 1996, it's likely this strong crew will soon have some additional company.
Anshul's rating climbed 92 points while Jonathan's was up 52. Dramatic increases also came from Martin Stukan (130) and Nikhil Kalghati (138). Others with strong USCF rating enhancements this month were Marissa Li (99), Jason Daniels (71), Akhil Kalghatgi (also 71), Alex Bian (61), Max Zinski (51) and George Li (40).
Illinois Youth in USCF Top 100 -- June 2014
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- Written by Bill Feldman Bill Feldman
- Published: 07 July 2014 07 July 2014
Several changes in how the USCF processes its top 100 lists, as well as a change in personnel, lead to the delay in publication of this month's tallies. The rules also changed regarding the timing of the birthday calculation.
On the local front, numerous birthdays transitioned many top Illinois players to its incremental counterpart: Aaron Gan, Martin Stukan, David Peng, Shreya Mangalam, Edward Zhang, James Wei and Sam Schmakel. Happy Birthday to you all!
For David Korobov, turning 19 means the end of his run on the youth top 100 lists but I'm sure we'll continue to see great things from David, an expert, who tied for seventh out of 86 at the recent Fineberg Memorial.
Arthur Xu Enhances OTB Rating at Online ChessKid Nationals
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- Written by Bill Feldman Bill Feldman
- Published: 16 June 2014 16 June 2014
7-year old Arthur Xu was one of 30 American juniors to participate in the Third Annual ChessKid National Invitational completed June 8. Arthur received his invitation before his most recent birthday and therefore competed in the 6-and-under section where he finished 2.5/5, raising his USCF rating 36 points.
Even though the event was held entirely online, the USCF sanctioned the round robin as if it were an over the board tournament. Juniors competed in five sections over three days.
In the final round, Arthur drew the section's runner up, Lucas Foerster-Yialamas of New York, despite being outrated by 300 points.
6 Score from 4 States Compete For 2 Days at '14 Ice Harbor
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- Written by Bill Feldman Bill Feldman
- Published: 25 May 2014 25 May 2014
Over 120 junior competitors from four states competed the weekend of May 17-18 at the Ice Harbor Scholastic in scenic Dubuque, IA. 11 entrants from Illinois walked away with nine individual trophies from the main event.
The field represented 50 more players than the previous Ice Harbor which debuted in 2013, conflicting with Mother’s Day weekend. Organizer James Hodina is already promising 2015 will be even bigger and better.
Wisconsin entrants won two of the three Open sections, and one of the two Under sections. A Minnesotan grabbed the K-6 Open while an Iowan nabbed the K-6 Under 800 via tiebreak. Illinois players managed ties for second in the K-12 Open and the K-6 Open.