With a seventh-round draw, Jeffrey Guerrero secured the Under 1200 Championship at the US Chess National High School Championships in Atlanta concluded April 3.

Guerrero, a Highland Park High School senior, posted a 6.5/7 tally, two points better than his performance in the same section at the 2015 Nationals in Columbus.

He finished in a tie with Missouri's Emanuel Gerbi, but Jeffrey's tiebreak was calculated as higher. Naperville North's Ryan Guan placed third with the highest tiebreak among 6.0's.

Paced by Guerrero, the HP team won the team title with 21.5, a half-point better than Naperville North and a team from St. Louis. On tiebreaks, Naperville North placed second.

In an interview facilitated by HP Coach Pablo Alverez, Jeffrey told the ICA, “I have worked hard over the last few years to improve my game and have seen improvement every year.  Finishing number one was very exciting but I am more excited that our team finished first.”

The scores counting towards the Highland Park champion included Guerrero, Ben Pacheco (5.5), Patrick Tippens (5.5) and Andrew Barnett (4.0).

The 5.5's tied for 12th place (through 24th place on tiebreaks).

Naperville North's score was comprised of Ryan Guan (6.0), Zach Newman (5.5), Jatin Mathur (5.0) and Maya Ross (4.5).

357 competed in the section; Overall 1444 players competed primarily in six sections in Atlanta.

In the 284 player Championship section, Illinois came home with three individual trophies, all with 5.0/7 scorers: Alex Bian (21st), Nathan Hozmueller (24th) and Jonathan Hrach (25th).

Whitney Young took home the fifth place team trophy in the top section, tying for fourth, receiving the fifth place trophy on tiebreaks. Matthew Stevens paced the squad with 5.0 while Akhil Kalghatgi contributed 4.5. Nihil Kalghatgi and Phillip Parker Turner both posted 4.0's.

In the Under 1900 competition -- a section not present at last year's competition -- New Trier High School (Winnetka) finished in fifth place, a point better than Naperville North which took sixth (14.5 to 13.5). 

New Trier was paced by Abe Sun's 4.5 which brought Abe the 22nd place trophy. Also contributing were Nathan Yamaguchi (4.0), Saman Tabatabaee (3.0) and Jian Li (3.0).

Naperville North's U1900 squad included Philip Song (4.5), Ajay Balaraman (3.5), Joseph Isaac (3.0) and Monish Bhasin (2.5).

In the Under 1600 section, Highland Park's Eamonn Moore placed third with the highest tiebreak among 6.0 scorers. Eamonn lead the HP team to a second place trophy, helped by Iskender Sommez (5.0), Julio Deyta (4.5) and Joseph Harrigan (4.0).

In the Under 800 section, Highland Park's Kevin Czajka tied for first with 6.5, taking home second place hardware on tiebreaks. Isaiah Perez of Richards High School (Oak Lawn) tied for third place a half-point back, receiving the tenth place trophy on tiebreaks.

The HP team was awarded the 13th place trophy assisted by 5.0's from Matthew Dennison and Daniel Burack.

At the US Chess Nationals, there is something for everyone. The tournament even offered a section for chess enthusiasts who had never before played in a US Chess-rated event and 105 individuals entered the unrated section.

Illinois managed to bring home three of the ten trophies awarded to unrateds: Secundino Vazquez from Whitney Young (3rd), New Trier's Minhao Wang (4th), and Gerald Cabel (10th) of Richards (Oak Lawn). All three finished with 5.5's, technically tying for third place.

Gerald's score lead Richards to the 5th place team trophy for unrateds despite not fielding a fourth player. Sami Alqadi (4.5) and John Travnik (4.0) contributed to the Richards' 14.0 team total.

Crosstables for all sections are available here.

Pictures are pending.