A few new names have entered the top 100 lists this month while we bid farewell to Adarsh Jayakumar whose 19th birthday meant the end of his reign as the top-ranked youth among Illinois registrants.

Since New Year's 2013, Adarsh played in events in India, Iceland, Hungary and Canada, in addition to the US. He competed in the 2013 Chicago Open, along with tournaments in Nevada, New York, Virginia and Pennsylvania, briefly surpassing the 2400-mark after playing the Philadelphia Open in March.

Jayakumar's last USCF-rated event was early July's World Open. He remains Illinois' top-rated Under 21 player, tied for 29th in the US, slightly ahead of recently-crowned 2013 K-12 National Champion Sam Schmakel (32nd) and University of Illinois sophomore Eric Rosen (33rd). (Jonathan Kogen is ranked 83rd on this list). 

Aged 18 years or younger, Illinois now hosts two masters, Schmakel and Kogan, along with 12 experts.

After drawing an expert and defeating two Class A players at the November Chess IQ Game/60, Jacob Furfine is now among the top 12-year olds in the country. Jacob becomes eligible for the Warren Junior Scholars after surpassing the 1700-mark while still in junior high. Jacob has played in a dozen all-age tournaments in 2013 in addition to several scholastic events.

You may recognize the Bareket name thanks to Adam, but his older brother, Tom, has now entered the list of top 10-year olds, eclipsing USCF 1600. One year before, Tom was provisionally-rated 533 with two tournaments under his belt. Twenty-five events later, Tom has achieved Class B status just before turning 11!

7-year old Aaron Gan had the largest increase of Illinois youth on these lists with a 222-point bump thanks to his championship at November's Polgar World Open. Although eligible for the K-3 section, Aaron played up in the Grades 4-5 section and won all six rounds.

Also at the Polgar, Stefan Musicik, age 8, Aydin Turgut, age 9, and Jason Daniels, age 10, all played up in the Grades 9-12 section, participating in a seven-way tie for fifth place along with entrants from Missouri, Kansas and two Illinois high schoolers, Minkee Lee and Isaac Adams. Stefan boosted his rating 117 points from October's list.

10-year old Edward Zhang jumped another 98 points thanks to his Fifth Grade championship at the 2013 All Grade and a strong performance in the Grades 6-8 section of the Polgar. With 4.5/6, Edward shared second place with 12-year olds Jonathan Tan and Akhil Kalghatgi, along with entrants from Missouri and Michigan.

David Zimmermann's rating rose 93 points owing mostly to his results at a local event. David also participated in a three-way tie for third in the K-3 section of the Polgar. (That section was won by Patrick Rao with 5.5/6, with Jayant Maheshwari placing second at 5.0/6)

According to USCF specifications, ratings as of November 20 were used for this report and the top 100 lists were published on December 18.

 

December Top 100 Youth

US Rank	Name	Rating
Age 7 and under
30T	Aaron Gan	1558
Age 8
15	Stefan Musikic	1726
62	David Zimmermann	1369
72T	Adam Bareket	1330
Age 9
2	Aydin Turgut	1983
75	Advaith Prabu	1500
89T	Brian Gong	1466
Age 10
2	David Peng	2149
38	Jason Daniels	1763
40	Edward Zhang	1759
49	Shreya Mangalam	1706
76T	Tom Bareket	1604
81	Ricky Wang	1593
Age 11
15	Vincent Do	2020
80	Tej Rai	1689
Age 12
21	Matthew Stevens	2015
38	Hanson Hao	1938
40	Akhil Kalghatgi	1931
70	Jonathan Tan	1816
71	Miranda Liu	1813
81	Rishi Narayanan	1779
82	Jacob Furfine	1778
86	Nikhil Kalghatgi	1765
Age 13
24	Zhaozhi Li	2098
29	Alex Bian	2086
54	Anshul Adve	1992
61	Daniel Bronfeyn	1961
65	Jack Curcio	1935
78	Andrew Fei	1879
82	James Wei	1874
Age 14
33	Zachary Holecek	2048
52	Spencer Lehmann	1978
Age 15
87	Jonathan Hrach	1900
Age 16
39	Nathan Kranjc	2091
48T	Gavin McClanahan	2073
55	Max Zinski	2057
80	Penny Xu	1966
92	Eli Goering	1934
Age 17
5	Sam Schmakel	2381
44	Joe Fennessey	2004
71	Timothy Zhou	1946
74	Duncan Shepherd	1937
Age 18
8	Jonathan Kogan	2271
34	Robert Moskwa	2096
46	Chengliang Luo	2032
76	Charles Swan	1933
77	David Korobov	1928
87	David Paykin	1883
Girls Under 16
43	Miranda Liu (12)	1813
60	Shayna Provine (13)	1717
62	Shreya Mangalam (10)	1706
80	Marissa Li (11)	1646
Girls Under 13
14	Miranda Liu (12)	1813
21	Shreya Mangalam (10)	1706
32	Marissa Li (11)	1646

Miranda's ascent above 1800 was achieved by virtue of her first place finish in the Girls 6-8 section at the Polgar. Miranda posted a 5.5/6 score, going undefeated with five victories and a sixth-round bye. In that same section, Marissa finished in a three-way tie for third with a 4.0/6 result. Shreya shared second place in the Girls 4-5 section with a 4.5/6 posting.