Youth News
Champaign Chess Challenge
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- Written by Rachel Schechter Rachel Schechter
- Published: 03 May 2018 03 May 2018
Chess players from Bloomington-Normal, Peoria, and Decatur matched wits with our own local talent to produce six perfect scores (4.0) in the April 15 Champaign Chess Challenge: Jaden Wang, Navid Tajkhorshid , Himani Musku, Vincent Fang, Joyce Zheng and Elbert Fang.
Hard-fought. Well-played. Here’s how this USCF K-12, 4-round, 80 player contest finished: Grades 6-12: Jaden Wang, 4.0, 1st Pl; Navid Tajkhorshid 4.0, 2nd Pl; Leonardo Ludaescher 2.0, 3rd Pl. Jay Ganesan, Simon Peyma Anari, Nora Sun, Savindi Devmal, Samuel Balogh and Kiran Naidu also scored 2.0.
Grades 4-5: Himani Musku, 4.0, 1st Pl; Max Chen, 3.5, 2nd Pl; Jeffrey Yao, 3.0, 3rd Pl. Kaylee Zheng, Catherine Liu, Kaixuan Liu, and Mrithuun Rajkumar also scored 3.0.
Grades 2-3: Vincent Fang, 4.0, 1st Pl; Joyce Zheng, 4.0, 2nd Pl; Anthony Yang, 3.0, 3rd Pl. Yao Chang, Anirudh Shome, Abhiram Karnatapu and James Yan also scored 3.0.
April 2018 US Top 100 Lists for Girls
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- Written by Eva Harrison Eva Harrison
- Published: 23 April 2018 23 April 2018
The most recent lists compiled by US Chess features 44 female players from the State of Lincoln among the best 100 in the country for their age group. New on the list in the ‘Age 7 and Under’ group is Amaira Mittal at rank 63. Congratulations!
A shout-out to those who increased their rating over the previous month: Sukhi Doddi, Mehak Jiandani, Siri Chennareddy, Shanthini Saravanan, Sruthi Bharath Kumar, Anisha Oberai, Layla Rodriguez, and Tori Elizabeth Kafer. Way to go...
These lists are based on ratings achieved and processed by the third Wednesday of the prior month, in this case March 18, 2018.
March 2018 US Top 100 Lists for Girls
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- Written by Eva Harrison Eva Harrison
- Published: 21 March 2018 21 March 2018
Congratulations to all of the Illinois girls who made one of these elite lists this month.
Many posted rating increases over last month but the following junior players had triple-digit rating gains:
- 13-year Ashley Mai Yan, who went from 1756 to 1862 (from no. 16 to no. 11 nationwide) with her stellar performance at the 2018 USAT North;
- 12-year old Anusha Nadkarni, who increased her rating from 1265 to 1375 and ranking from no. 56 to no. 44;
- 9-year old Shanthini Saravanan, who was rated 524 a month ago and is now 833, which earned her a spot on the list again (she was featured several months ago in the ‘Age 8’ group);
Champaign-Urbana Sunday Chess Challenge A Success!
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- Written by ICA Staff ICA Staff
- Published: 20 February 2018 20 February 2018
40 seats were available. And 40 young chess players rose to the occasion of the Sunday Chess Challenge, held on back to back weekends (2/11 & 2/18) at the Champaign Public Library: 4 rounds, accelerated Swiss, g/30/ d/5. Of the 40 players, K-8, 23 were USCF newcomers, flexing their rated chess muscles for the first time. Welcome brave souls and kudos to all! Here’s how it played:
Rated: 1st Pl Anthony Yang (4.0); 2nd Pl Navid Tajhorshid. Six players tied for 3rd Pl, each scoring 3.0: Joseph Torrellas, Jeffrey Yao, Kaylee Zheng, Jonah Singer, Dhiya Gopalakrishnan Sasikala, and Jonathan Ouyang.
Unrated: 1st Pl Yao Chang (2.5). Eight players tied for 2-3 Pl, each scoring 2.0: Samuel Balogh, Jiwoo Kim, Tianyou Liu, Arya Thirodira, Alyssa Stevens, Raymond Zhang, Sohum Gurrapu, and Marshall-Flynn Mitchell.
Record Number of Girls Featured in Top 100 Lists
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- Written by Eva Harrison Eva Harrison
- Published: 20 February 2018 20 February 2018
With a total of 50 girls, Illinois has a record number of female players in the top 100 lists compiled by US Chess. Thirty-six of the players have a rating above 1000 and three—Experts Marissa, Shreya and Miranda—are rated above 2000.
Nandini Prakash and Sukhi Doddi continue to rise up the ranks, with the seven-year olds now in 5th place and 55th place, respectively. This month, Illinois has 6 girls appearing in the Top 100 Age 7. Welcome back, Hili Bareket!
Our group of 8-year olds is headed up by Linda Pham. Linda’s rank at #24 this month does not yet include her good performance at the Jane Addams Memorial and CCC Plus-Score tournaments.