Four new Illinois names joined the US Top 100 lists this month: nine-year old Peter Zheng, eight year-old Eduard Danilyan, seven year-old John Bielobradek and six year-old David Yong.

Returning to the lists was Penny Xu after she competed in the rated Illini Blitz event in February. Penny played first board on her Urbana High School team this year, but hasn't played any regular-rated matches since the 2013 US Open. Penny compiled an impressive 6.0/7 at the IHSA finals in February, as did fellow top 100 listers George Li (New Trier), Max Zinski (Benet), Jonathan Hrach (Highland Park) and Spencer Lehmann (Barrington).

Finishing tied for second place with 6.5 scores were listers Alex Bian of Stevenson and Daniel Bronfeyn of Mundelein.

Compiling 5.5's (tied for 17th) were listers Bradley Guan (State Champion Naperville North), Gavin McClanahan (Glenbrook South) and Andrew Fei (Dunlap).

In the 5.0 score group which tied for 22nd place, were listers Jimi Akintonde (Whitney Young), Jack Curcio (Maine South), Eli Goering (Evanston) and Timothy Zhou (IMSA).

In total, 14 of the top 30 first board finishers at the IHSA Championships appear presently on the top 100 lists.

Additionally, Minkee Lee (Neuqua Valley) also played first board, finishing lower in the individual standings. Senior Nathan Kranjc played second board for Benet Academy, placing as a medalist. Shayna Provine played third board on that same squad as a freshman.

Several former members of these lists also played at the February 13-14 state competition in Peoria which featured 146 teams. Each team included eight boards with additional alternates, making it the largest team event in the country. See recent article elsewhere on the ICA site.

Also of note, Penny's return gives Illinois three junior females rated above 1900 for the first time ever.

Observing birthdays as of the March lists were Vrishank Ramnath, Matthew Stevens, Andrew Fei and Shayna Provine.

Posting the highest ratings increments among continuing list members were Siddharth Acharya (79), Patrick Rao (69) and Ed Zhang (46).

61 Illinois juniors appear on one or more lists this month: the most ever. Keep it up, kids!

February 18th was the game cut-off date for this ratings compilation.

** Represents ranking in the listing without regard to Federation. 

March 2015 Top 100 Youth

US Rank	Name	Rating
Age 7 and under
3	Arthur Xu	1696
16	Dimitar Mardov (age 6)	1436
39	Alex Zhao	1237
44	John Bielobradek	1219
58T	Dhruv Malladi	1148
85	David Yong (age 6)	1050
Age 8
17	Aaron Gan	1730
69	Vrishank Ramnath	1334
73	Eduard Danilyan	1315
99	Toby Yang	1239
Age 9
9**	Martin Stukan	1886
24	Patrick Rao	1704
53T	David Zimmermann	1560
81T	Peter Zheng	1473
Age 10
10	Aydin Turgut	2018
40T	Stefan Musikic	1794
51	Brian Gong	1745
73	Adam Bareket	1678
Age 11
2	David Peng	2275
26	Ricky Wang	1906
31	Jason Daniels	1883
48	Siddharth Acharya	1818
56	Edward Zhang	1792
57T	Advaith Prabu	1791
62	Shreya Mangalam	1773
100	Aidan Carey	1685
Age 12
29	Marissa Li	1963
56T	Tom Bareket	1825
Age 13
9T	Jacob Furfine	2190
27	Vincent Do	2063
32	Hanson Hao	2024
37	Akhil Kalghatgi	2020
57	Nikhil Kalghatgi	1950
70	Miranda Liu	1908
Age 14
21	Alex Bian	2206
27	Matthew Stevens	2083
56T	Daniel Bronfeyn	2022
67	Jack Curcio	2000
73	Nicolas Bartochowski	1964
93	Jonathan Tan	1923
95	Rishi Narayanan	1916
Age 15
17T	Zhaozhi (George) Li	2214
40	Anshul Adve	2110
83	Andrew Fei	1926
99	Ian Gilchrist	1867
Age 16
54T	Spencer Lehmann	2068
56	Zachary Holecek	2059
65	Jonathan Hrach	2026
Age 17
82T	Bradley Guan	2012
Age 18
3	Sam Schmakel	2419
18T	Nate Kranjc	2159
20	Max Zinski	2156
33	Gavin McClanahan	2072
53	Timothy Zhou	2007
64	Eli Goering	1945
68T	Jimi Akintonde	1935
78	Minkee Lee	1916
91	Aswath Bommannan	1873
Girls Under 21
43	Penny Xu (18)	1966
44	Marissa Li (12)	1963
55	Miranda Liu (13)	1916
Girls Under 16
18	Marissa Li (12)	1963
22	Miranda Liu (13)	1916
53T	Shreya Mangalam (11)	1773
56	Shayna Provine (15)	1763
Girls Under 13
7	Marissa Li (12)	1963
20	Shreya Mangalam (11)	1773
70	Aria Hoesley (11)	1449