Two major scholastic championships have just completed, and Illinois scholastic players took home national championship trophies, from first grade to high school, at both individual and team level. Well done!

The first event was the prestigious National High School Championship, held April 28-May 1, 2011, in Nashville, Tennessee. National Master Eric Rosen, a junior at Niles North High School, scored a perfect 7-0 to finish a full point ahead of the 295-player field and claim the National High School Individual title. (That's 295 players in the championship section alone: there were about 1300 students competing in all sections of this event.)

Eric had a memorable tournament: rated 2278 at the beginning of the event, he had a phenomenal performance rating of 2700! His last-round victory over the top seed, International Master Marc Arnold, clinched the title. You can play through this critical game via the interactive board in this article on the USCF website: look for Eric's annotations soon in Chess Life!

Watson Fu of Hinsdale Central High School took first place in the under 1600 section with an outstanding 6½-½ score, and the legendary Michael Auger of Whitney Young High School won clear first in the 2011 National High School Blitz Championship, scoring 11-1. Niles North and Whitney Young had excellent standings in the High School Team Championships, finishing fourth and tenth in the nation, respectively.

The very next weekend, May 6-8, the action shifted to Dallas, Texas, for the National Elementary (K-6) Championships. Daniel Wright Junior High School of Lincolnshire took the national title in the K-6 Team: congratulations to Alex Bian (5-2), James Wei (5-2), Haoyang Yu (5-2), Zachary Holecek (4½-2½), and Conrad Oberhaus (4½-2½). This team is so phenomenally talented and so balanced: they won the title by two full points, and (knowing as I do the talent of the players) I suspect the margin could have been even greater!

Look out, world: NM Tansel Turgut has a son, and he plays chess! Aydan Turgut went 7-0 to take the National K-1 Championship. Pre-tournament favorite Ben Rood of California took second on tiebreaks, also with a perfect 7-0 score. (Note to organizers: first, you don't tiebreak perfect scores, you buy another trophy and declare both players co-champions; second, you really don't tiebreak perfect scores when first graders are involved!)

We expect to have the pleasure of losing many games to these young national champions in the years to come, and we're proud to do so. Congratulations!

More coverage can be found on the ICA Chess Blog....