Youth News
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.
Illinois Youth in USCF Top 100 -- May 2014
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- Written by Bill Feldman Bill Feldman
- Published: 22 May 2014 22 May 2014
Four Masters and 14 Experts top this month’s lists representing the most ever Illinois juniors USCF-rated at 2000 or above!
18-year olds David Korobov and Joe Fennessey are among them, David cracking 2000 for the first time, while Joe returned above 2K after a brief absence. Six others boast ratings above 1950 – on the cusp of experthood. Who will be next?
Joining the nation’s top 100 lists for the first time was 8-year old Patrick Rao; returning to the lists were Tuoyu Yang, Jayant Maheshwari, Rishi Naraynan and Andrew Fei.
Also for the first time since I started compiling these lists a year and a half ago, Illinois has six top 10 youth including Aaron Gan (age 7), Martin Stukan (age 8), Aydin Turgut (age 9), David Peng (age 10), Sam Schmakel (age 17) and Jonathan Kogan (age 18).
Rockford Environmental Science hosts Challenge
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- Written by Bill Feldman Bill Feldman
- Published: 16 May 2014 16 May 2014
For over a decade, Chuck Beach has brought quarterly Rockford Chess Challenges to juniors in eight counties in northern Illinois. The tournaments are unrated from a USCF perspective, but Mr. Beach has developed his own system and students covet seeing their ratings grow. The Spring 2014 event attracted 160 players to Rockford Enviornmental Science Academy May 3 competing in a five-round, three-section Swiss.
There were six perfect scores on the day, with Washington Academy nabbing two of the three sections and host RESA earning the upper section's top score.
YCFC Wraps 2013-2014 Season At Whitney Young
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- Written by Bill Feldman Bill Feldman
- Published: 16 May 2014 16 May 2014
154 juniors representing 34 schools competed in the Youth Chess Federation of Chicago tournament May 10 at Whitney Young High School. The five-round, three section tournament was the fifth and final event of YCFC's 2013-2014 season.
In the Advanced section, Daniel Zhang defeated John Bielobradek to finish undefeated, the lone perfect score. John enjoyed the top tiebreak among 4.0 scorers to earn the second place trophy.
Also with 4.0 scores in the Advanced was Matthew Li who took third, Ernest Rionaula grabbed fourth, and John Murlasits nabbed fifth. There were two 3.5 scorers with Georgia Wolf edging Ignace Bielobradek for sixth place. 34 competed in the section.
From a team perspective Bateman had the highest score in the Advanced section, followed by Komarek from North Riverside and Skinner North in third place. In addition to Ernest's 4.0, Jimmy Nguyen's 3.0 and Carrey Nguyen's 2.5 contributed to the top team score.
Aydin Turgut Wins National K-5 Championship in Dallas
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- Written by Bill Feldman Bill Feldman
- Published: 12 May 2014 12 May 2014
A half-point. Doesn't sound like much, does it? Fighting through fatigue to close out a win when others might have accepted a draw. Sacrificing into a complex mating net versus accepting a safe route to an even game. That's half a point.
For Mount Zion fourth-grader Aydin Turgut, a half-point was the distance between his score and a pack of nine others at the USCF's National Elementary Championship's K-5 section held May 9-11 in Dallas, TX. And that half-point means that once again, Aydin is a USCF National Champion!
This was not Aydin's first USCF Championship rodeo: he won the K-1 National Championship in 2011 and was K-3 National Champion in 2013. As documented in my prior Dallas write up, Aydin won the K-6 Blitz earlier in the weekend, tying one other at 10.5/12 with the higher tiebreak.