Illinois Earns 8 Individual Trophies at 2016 K-8 Nationals; Whitney Young Team 4th in K-9; Davis 2nd in K-9 Under 1250

 

Three Illinois players have tied for 11th place in the K-8 section at the National Junior High Championships completed April 17 in Indianapolis.

Ricky Wang (13th), Vincent Do (15th) and Shreya Mangalam (16th) all posted 5.5/7 and received trophies based on their tiebreak, but essentially tied for 11th out of 271 full-fledged entrants.

A half-point back, tying for 21st place with a 5.0 score, receiving 25th place trophies on tiebreaks were Kevin Ho, Siddharth Acharya, Jason Daniels, Peter Zheng and Patrick Rao.

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Illinois Nabs 7 of Top 10 at Junior High National Blitz; Nikhil Kalghatgi Wins National Title; Whitney Young Is Top Team

 

191 players from across the country faced off in the six-round, two-matches-per-round Blitz competition at the 2016 Junior High Nationals in Indianapolis held April 14.

Heading into the final match, a pair of Illinoisians were one-two with Nikhil Kalghatgi a perfect 10.0/10 and Aydin Turgut at 9.0/10. Aydin denied Nikhil a perfect score but couldn't deny Nikhil the match, 1.5 to 0.5, so the Whitney Young freshman is now National Blitz Champ!

Nikhil's brother, Akhil, placed second with the top tiebreak among a quartet of 10.0's. Aydin placed sixth with the top tiebreak among a fab five of 9.5's.

Rounding out the top 10 were Jason Daniels (10.0 for 5th), Vincent Do (9.5 for 7th), Matthew Stevens (9.5 for 9th), Siddharth Acharya (9.5 for 10th).

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Kalghatgi Twins Reprise National Bughouse Championship

 

With a perfect 10-for-10 effort, Whitney Young freshmen Akhil and Nikhil Kalghatgi earned the Bughouse Championship at the US Chess 2016 Junior High Nationals in Indianapolis.

This is the second National Bughouse Championship within a month for the 9th Grade Experts -- they won the same event at the 2016 High School Championships in Atlanta.

Leading 8.0 - 7.0, Akhil and Nikhil faced off in the final round against fellow Illinoisians Jason Daniels and Aydin Turgut -- who themselves are defending National Bughouse Champions from the 2015 Elementary Nationals. By winning both games, the Kalghatgi's secured the championship while Jason and Aydin settled for third place.

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Five Perfect Scores at YCFC Oriole Park Tourney

 

Avi Kaplan has won the Advanced Section of the YCFC Tournament held April 9 at Oriole Park Elementary.

Almost 300 participated in the event, the fifth of six on the calendar for the 2015-2016 school year. There would have been more entrants had it not been for a school which arrived at the tournament -- but decided to leave without playing after their last-minute request for a private team room could not be accommodated.

Olman Chaheine of Altus Academy and Izellah Ortiz of Kinzie both posted perfect 5.0's in the Novice 5-8 section.

Isai Hernandez, also of Altus, took clear third with 4.5 points, overcoming a first-round draw. You'll never guess which team won first place in the section.

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HP's Guerrero Wins National U1200; HP Team Wins Too!

 

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.

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