Youth Chess News
2014 K-8: Mangalam, J. Zhang, Ramnath Claim Clear Titles; Curcio and Stevens Share Grades 6-8 Championship
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- Written by Bill Feldman Bill Feldman
With the largest field in six years, the Illinois K-8 Championships crowned outright winners in three sections.
With perfect 7.0/7 scores, Shreya Mangalam took Grades 4-5 and Vrishank Ramnath won the Grades K-1 group. James Zhang topped the Grades 2-3 section with a 6.5/7 tally.
Also with 6.5 scores, Jack Curcio and Matthew Stevens earned the Grades 6-8 co-championship with Jack taking the first-place trophy on tiebreak points.
Event crosstables can be reviewed here.
684 players competed in the March 15-16 event held at the Hyatt Regency Schaumburg. Glenn Panner of Chess Weekend served as the chief organizer, with Sevan Muradian as Chief TD and Wayne Clark in the role of Chief Floor Director. Muradian's ChessIQ donated the iPad mini's which were awarded to the four section winners.
Schmakel, Peng, Liu to Represent Illinois in Orlando
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- Written by Bill Feldman Bill Feldman
A field of 25 of Illinois' best and brightest young chess players competed February 28 to March 2 in a trio of invitational tournaments to decide the state's representatives to prestigious national competitions.
The Barber, Denker and Girls Championships will be held preceding the US Open in Orlando in late July. The qualifying event was hosted by Chess IQ in Skokie and was officiated by Sevan Muridian. Event crosstables can be reviewed here.
10-year old David Peng will represent the Land of Lincoln in the pre-high school Barber competition after running the field, 5.0/5 in the Qualifier. George Li was the runner up.
Senior Sam Schmakel needed a tiebreak to earn his invitation to the national Denker for high schoolers, after both he and Max Zinski compiled 3.5/5 tallies.
Bloomington Evans, Dunlap Earn '14 IESA Team Titles; 6th Graders Do, Musuku, Sobery Win Individual Top Honors
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- Written by Bill Feldman Bill Feldman
Not all chess needs to be rated by the US Chess Federation to have dramatic significance.
The Illinois Elementary School Association (IESA) hosted its fourth championships February 28 and March 1, crowning individual and team champions in two sections.
Vincent Do of Rockford's Thurgood Marshall Academy and Bloomington Evans Junior High's Rithvik Musuku split the championship of the 7th Grade section, while Nathan Sobery of Normal's Kingsley Junior High won the 8th Grade section. All three players finished with perfect 7.0/7 scores. Impressively, all three are only in the 6th Grade.
Illinois Youth in USCF Top 100 -- February 2014
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- Written by Bill Feldman Bill Feldman
If great junior chess players were grown in fields, Illinois' line up of young players could be termed a bumper crop.
Not only does Illinois now host a junior-aged Senior Master, not only is the Prairie State home to the nation's top-rated 9-year old, but the Land of Lincoln has now harvested a remarkable baker's dozen of experts age 18 or younger.
All in, that's 16 juniors rated 2000 or higher. On their heels, an additional dozen juniors are rated 1900 and up.
2014 IHSA Finals Individual Board Champions
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- Written by Bill Feldman Bill Feldman
IHSA Competition is unrated by the US Chess Federation. The finals were held in Peoria February 14 and 15, 2014.
For narrative, see related story elsewhere on this site.
Source: IHSA Crosstables.
| Board 1 | Board 5 | |||||||||
| Rank | Player, School | Yr. | Pts. | TB-1 | Rank | Player, School | Yr. | Pts. | TB-1 | |
| 1 | Allen Guo, Lincolnshire (Stevenson) | So. | 7.0 | 22.0 | 1 | Zhen Mo, Hinsdale (Central) | Fr. | 7.0 | 20.5 | |
| 2 | Gavin McClanahan, Glenview (Glenbrook South) |
Jr. | 7.0 | 17.5 | 2 | Troy Xu, Urbana (University) | Sr. | 7.0 | 18.5 | |
| 3 | Benjamin Nielsen, Normal (Community West) | Jr. | 7.0 | 17.0 | 3 | Elai Kobayashi-Solomon, Mt. Prospect (Prospect) |
So. | 7.0 | 16.0 | |
| 4 | Jonathan Hrach, Highland Park |
So. | 6.5 | 16.0 | 4 | Hari Cheruvu, Hoffman Estates (Conant) |
So. | 7.0 | 15.0 | |
| 5 | Joe Fennessey, Chicago (Marist) |
Sr. | 6.5 | 15.0 | 5 | Nathan Holzmueller, Evanston (Township) |
So. | 6.5 | ||
| 6 | Jon Phillips, Rolling Meadows | Sr. | 6.5 | 10.5 | ||||||
| Board 2 | Board 6 | |||||||||
| Rank | Player, School | Yr. | Pts. | TB-1 | Rank | Player, School | Yr. | Pts. | TB-1 | |
| 1 | Glen Lehrer, Elmhurst (York) | So. | 7.0 | 1 | Matthew DeMario, Lisle (Benet Academy) |
Jr. | 6.5 | 22.5 | ||
| 2 | Jimi Akintonde, Chicago (Whitney Young) |
Jr. | 6.5 | 2 | Marco Morales, Peoria (Richwoods) |
So. | 6.5 | 15.5 | ||
| 3 | Max Zinski, Lisle (Benet Academy) |
Jr. | 6.0 | 22.0 | 3 | Noah Pearson, Normal (Community West) |
Fr. | 6.5 | 13.5 | |
| 4 | Bryce McClanahan, Glenview (Glenbrook South) |
Fr. | 6.0 | 21.0 | 4 | Clint Balabuszko, Marengo | Fr. | 6.5 | 13.0 | |
| 5 | Bennedict Brady, Evanston (Township) |
Jr. | 6.0 | 19.5 | ||||||
| 6 | Kevin Yiu, Naperville (Central) | So. | 6.0 | 19.0 | ||||||
| 7 | Phillip Engstrom, Lincolnshire (Stevenson) |
Jr. | 6.0 | 18.5 | Board 7 | |||||
| 8 | Juan Gutierrez, Aurora (East) | Jr. | 6.0 | 13.5 | Rank | Player, School | Yr. | Pts. | TB-1 | |
| 9 | Jimmy Heinze, West Chicago | Sr. | 6.0 | 10.5 | 1 | Bobby Blankenship, Chicago (Marshall) |
Jr. | 7.0 | 16.5 | |
| 2 | Hugo Nunez, Plano | So. | 7.0 | 8.5 | ||||||
| Board 3 | 3 | Conway Dang, Carol Stream (Glenbard North) | So. | 6.5 | 15.5 | |||||
| Rank | Player, School | Yr. | Pts. | TB-1 | 4 | Xander Nicloson, Evanston (Township) |
Sr. | 6.5 | 14.0 | |
| 1 | Ryan Toepfer, Chicago (Northside Prep) |
So. | 7.0 | 23.5 | ||||||
| 2 | Alec Feygin, Glenview (Glenbrook South) |
Fr. | 7.0 | 19.5 | ||||||
| 3 | Matthew Wu, Naperville (North) |
Jr. | 7.0 | 18.5 | Board 8 | |||||
| Rank | Player, School | Yr. | Pts. | TB-1 | ||||||
| Board 4 | 1 | Elliot Krause, Aurora (IMSA) | Sr. | 7.0 | 18 | |||||
| Rank | Player, School | Yr. | Pts. | TB-1 | 2 | Adrian Chavarria, Oak Lawn (Richards) |
Jr. | 7.0 | 12.5 | |
| 1 | Aaron Willer, Naperville (North) | Jr. | 7.0 | 21 | 3 | Abel Arroyo, Chicago (Kelly) | Jr. | 7.0 | 7.5 | |
| 2 | Colby Timmons, Stanford (Olympia) | So. | 7.0 | 17 | 4 | Nathan Xu, Palatine (Fremd) | So. | 6.5 | ||