Illinois Scholastic players acquitted themselves well at the 2012 K-12 Nationals completed December 2 in Orlando, Florida — crosstable. Illinois natives finished with plus scores (at least 4.0 out of 7) in nine of the 13 age groups, including four top ten finishers. The Land of Lincoln also took home the hardware in side events with two top five finishers in both K-12 blitz and bughouse.
All tolled, over 1300 players participated in the three-day 2012 K-12 Nationals.
Top 10 finishers in Main Event
11th grader Sam Schmakel went undefeated in his grade section with a 6.0 out of 7 scoring to place second on a tie-break. Sam’s only blemishes were 2 nd and 4th round draws.
Mathew Stevens scored 6.0 out of 7, placing third through tie-breaks in the 6th grade section.
10th graders Nathan Kranjc and Gavin McClanahan both achieved 5.0 out of 7 scores, placing 6th and 8th respectively in their section.
Side Events
In K-12 Blitz Competition, Sam took 4th place with 9.5 out of 12, edging out 12th Charles Swan who scored 9.0, earning 5th.
Max Zinski took 10th on tiebreaks with 8.0 points. Phillip Parker-Turner took 16th, also with 8.0 points. Jimi Akintonde took 20th with a 7.5 score. 73 players competed in the K-12 blitz event.
In K-12 Bughouse, the team of Akintonde and Schmakel claimed third out of 32 duos, narrowly edging the team of Parker-Turner and Mark Waechter who placed fourth.
In K-6 Blitz, Nikhil Kalaghati scored 8.0 out of 12 to finish in 9th out of 65. Brother Akhil finished 26th with a 7.0 score and Shashank Bala finished 21st with an identical 7.0 result.
Plus Score Finishers by Grade
12th Grade: Charles Swan placed 21st,, Mark Waechter 24th and Sean Cates 29 th
11th Grade: Schmakel 2nd, Arjun Nandy 18th, Phuc Hoang 20th
10th Grade: Kranjc 6th, McClanahan 8th, Max Zinski 15th
9th Grade: Phillip Parker-Turner 15th
8th Grade: Bryce McClanahan 18th
6th Grade: Stevens 3rd, Akhil Kalghatgi 14th, Nikhil Kalghatgi 33rd, Shashank Bala 55th out of 131 entrants.
5th Grade: Tej Rai 26th out of 125 entrants.
4th Grade: Shreya Mangalam 16th, Edward Zhang 53rd out of 163 entrants.
3rd Grade: Suraj Ramanathan 22nd, Adam Pastor 24th out of 145 entrants.
3.5 out of 7 Scores
10th Grade: Jimi Akintonde 27th
1st Grade: Samuel Pastor 48th
Team Awards
In team competition, Benet Academy of Lisle earned third place hardware for 10th Grade.
Chicago’s Whitney Young High School placed fourth for Grade 12, 7th in Grade 11 and 6th in Grade 9.
Glen Ellyn’s Glenbard South High School placed 8th in Grade 12, 10th in Grade 11, 8th in Grade 10, and 12th in Grade 9.
South Loop Elementary, thanks to the Kalghatgi brothers, took home 7th place honors in Grade 6.