Youth Chess News
May 2020 US Top 100 Lists for Girls
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- Written by Eva Harrison Eva Harrison
While no tournaments were played and no ratings increased or decreased, minor changes in ranking still occurred. How come? US Chess drops players from the lists if their USCF membership expires or if they have not played in a tournament in the last 12 months. Some players have birthdays and move up one age group {a shoutout to Shreya, Michelle and Anusha}, making room for others who were previously not listed. All of this causes small fluctuations in rankings and, in the case of Illinois, led to the most recent addition of Shanthini Saravanan, Siri Chennareddy (welcome back), and Jade Eowyn Deess in the “Age 11” group and Isabela Maiewski in the “Age 15” group.
Natalie #1, Shreya #4 in US Ranking for Girls
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- Written by Eva Harrison Eva Harrison
Amid Covid-19, when all tournaments are cancelled and players look to online instead of over-the-board chess, US Chess just published their most recent Top 100 Lists for Girls. This compilation has a cut-off date of March 18, 2020, i.e. predates the restrictions in place due to the coronavirus. Sure enough, many of the female chess players from Illinois featured on these prestigious lists have moved up the rankings since last month.
Just a few highlights:
Illinois boasts another female expert: Congrats, Natalie!
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- Written by Eva Harrison Eva Harrison
The Illinois girls who made the most recent Top 100 Lists for Girls are listed below. These lists are based on ratings achieved and processed by the third Wednesday of the prior month, in this case February 19, 2020, and do not yet include rating changes following the US Amateur Team North.
A big shoutout to WCM Natalie Wisniowski, who made expert, gaining almost 60 points with her two wins over 2100-rated opponents at the CCC Jane Addams tournament. She now sits at third place for girls age 13, behind Rianne Ke and Rochelle Wu, both from California. The same tournament helped Sruthi Bharath Kumar cross back into 1700 territory, earning her rank 13 in the same age group.
Illinois with 3 Girls in 5th Position in US Ranking
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- Written by Eva Harrison Eva Harrison
Along with Shreya Mangalam, WCM Natalie Wisniowski and Nandini Prakash now also rank 5th in the nation among girls of their age as shown in the most recent Top 100 Girls lists. These lists compiled by US Chess are based on ratings achieved and processed by January 15, 2020. Both Natalie and Nandini had 50+ rating gains. In fact, a few days after the cut-off date, the Woman Candidate Master moved into Expert territory – but that will be covered next month.
Moving up a class or crossing the threshold to a higher bracket is always applaudable. There were at total eight girls who managed to improve their hundreds digit over the last month:
IHSA State Tournament in Peoria
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- Written by Héctor R. Hernández, Chess Coach - St. Ignatius College Prep Héctor R. Hernández, Chess Coach - St. Ignatius College Prep
The St. Ignatius College Prep chess team, coached by Héctor R. Hernández, had a stellar performance at the IHSA (Illinois High School Association) State Tournament on February 14 and 15 and achieved Top Twenty status by finishing in 18th place among 126 schools. The team came in behind Payton H.S., but ahead of Whitney Young, Northside College Prep, Lane Tech and Lincoln Park.
Our squad also captured the Division 3A Title, which is awarded by ICCA, the Illinois Chess Coaches Association: ILChessCoach.org. We placed ahead of Lisle (Benet Academy), which has Grand Master Nikola Mitkov as one of its coaches. There were twenty-one Division 3A schools competing at State, another four did not qualify and three withdrew prior to the start of the tournament. Division 3A schools have a student enrollment of 1200 to 1700.
Three of our players earned silver medals for outstanding performances with 6-1 scores: Dylan Rosario (Sr.), Nikola Le Tien (So.) and Philip Kujawa (Fr.). Also representing our school at State were team captain Nevin O’Donnell, Victor Ruan, Kirk Tejas, Zaid Akkawi, Emanuel Demisse and Sean Neiza. Without a doubt, this is the best St. Ignatius chess team during my ten-year tenure.