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.

Sam Schmakel's 5.0/5 championship performance at January's Tim Just Winter Open placed him just ahead of a cluster of six 4.0/5's, putting him over the 2400-mark as of the official February ratings. Preceded by his national championship at the K-12 in Florida -- where his team also claimed top honors -- Sam recently lead his Whitney Young team to their third state championship in four years. Not a bad couple months, I'd say.

With Sam's elevation to Senior Master, Nate Kranjc joined Jonathan Kogan in the rank of Master thanks to his Under 2100 championship at the 2013 North American Open. Nate's undefeated 6.5/7.0 score at the December event in Las Vegas pushed his rating above the magic-2200 mark for the first time.

In the same section at the NAO, Nate's Benet Academy teammate Max Zinski tied for second with four others as Max bumped his rating 76 points, eclipsing 2100. Among Illinois' 13 junior Experts, only David Peng has a higher rating than Max.

Spencer Lehmann entered Expert territory for the first time while Vincent Do returned above the 2000-mark after a two week absence.

Aydin Turgut continued his reign as the top 9-year old in the US. Among Illinois players younger than age 13, only David Peng has a higher official rating than Aydin.

6-year old Arthur Xu achieved the top one-month rating boost among Illinois Top 100's, jumping approximately 120 points, surpassing 1200 for the first time. Since the February cut-off, his rating has risen to the cusp of 1400 (which would place him among the top two dozen 7-and-unders, and MAY qualify him as the top 6-year old in the nation -- stay tuned!).

Emmett Madigan's rating climbed 65 points, after he participated in a five-way tie for third at the TJW Reserve with a 4.0/5 posting.

The sole new name in Illinois' Top 100 is Tuoyu Yang. The 7-year old was no doubt helped by a first round victory at the TJW Reserve over a fifth-grader rated 500 points higher. Keep it up, Tuoyu.

From a state perspective, players atop their age group for the first time this month include David Zimmermann (age 8), Spencer Lehmann (age 14), and Gavin McClanahan (age 16).

February Top 100 Youth

US Rank	Name	Rating
Age 7 and under
14	Aaron Gan	1523
57T	Arthur Xu	1203
96T	Tuoyu Toby Yang	1019
Age 8
49	David Zimmermann	1416
79	Jeffrey Lin	1281
90T	Jai Mahajan	1244
Age 9
1	Aydin Turgut	2063
26	Stefan Musikic	1725
73	Brian Gong	1512
89	Adam Bareket	1466
Age 10
2	David Peng	2174
28	Edward Zhang	1780
30	Jason Daniels	1776
40	Shreya Mangalam	1728
59	Emmett Madigan	1663
66	Ricky Wang	1630
78	Tom Bareket	1603
Age 11
16	Vincent Do	2027
75	Marissa Li	1703
Age 12
31	Matthew Stevens	1967
34T	Hanson Hao	1944
42	Akhil Kalghatgi	1900
59	Jonathan Tan	1829
74	Miranda Liu	1803
78T	Nikhil Kalghatgi	1799
89T	Jacob Furfine	1776
Age 13
25T	Zhaozhi Li	2100
33	Alex Bian	2086
45	Daniel Bronfeyn	2033
52T	Anshul Adve	1992
65T	Jack Curcio	1935
80	Andrew Fei	1879
84	James Wei	1874
87T	Nicholas Bartochowski	1856
Age 14
42	Spencer Lehmann	2036
Age 15
46	Zachary Holecek	2048
86	Jonathan Hrach	1924
Age 16
49	Gavin McClanahan	2073
86T	Penny Xu	1966
97	Eli Goering	1934
Age 17
5	Sam Schmakel	2406
14	Nathan Kranjc	2203
29	Max Zinski	2100
47	Joe Fennessey	2017
55T	Jimi Akintonde	1974
66	Timothy Zhou	1946
76	Duncan Shepherd	1915
Age 18
9	Jonathan Kogan	2273
39	Robert Moskwa	2087
47	Chengliang Luo	2032
69	David Korobov	1980
95	David Paykin	1883
Girls Under 16
37	Shayna Provine (13)	1813
42	Miranda Liu (12)	1803
58	Shreya Mangalam (10)	1728
64T	Marissa Li (11)	1703
Girls Under 13
14	Miranda Liu (12)	1803
21	Shreya Mangalam (10)	1728
25	Marissa Li (11)	1703