Youth Chess News
2017 Illinois Youth Invitational
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- Written by Bill Buklis Bill Buklis
The 2017 Illinois Youth Invitational was held April 21 - 23 at the Schaumburg Hyatt Regency. The Denker section featured 12 of the top high school players in Illinois. The Barber included a dozen of the best K-8 players. The third section pitted eight of the highest-rated girls in the state. The winners of each section will represent Illinois at their respective national competition at the U.S. Open in Norfolk, VA this summer.
A three-way tie in the Denker saw George Li prevail in a blitz playoff. Aydin Turgut won the Barber with a clear 4.0/5 tally, a half-point better than runner-up Arthur Xu. Xu managed to eclipse the 2000-mark for the first time to earn his USCF Candidate Master title. Marissa Li won the Girls section outright with 3.5, ahead of four girls with 3.0's. Final standings and complete crosstables are listed below.
Nguyen & McDonough Tie At April Highland Park Event
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- Written by Bill Feldman Bill Feldman
Jim Nguyen and Dylan McDonough tied for first place at the April 2017 Highland Park event, both with 4.5/5 in the Advanced Section. Thanks to the slightly higher tiebreak, Bateman's Nguyen earned the championship trophy.
Julian Wang posted 4.0/5 to earn third place honors out of 17 participants in the Advanced, one of four sections of competition.
In the Fourth through Eighth Grade section, Adrian Onofre scored the lone 5-for-5 result to win clear first place.
Liu is All-Girls National Co-Champion; Li Clear 2nd in U16
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- Written by Bill Feldman Bill Feldman
Mirandu Liu has tied for first place in the U18 section of the All-Girls Nationals completed April 9 in Chicago. On tiebreaks, Miranda brought home the second place trophy. Miranda scored 5.0/6 as did her co-champion from New York.
Marissa Li won clear second place in the U16 section with her own 5.0/6 tally behind the champion from California.
81 Illinois females competed representing about 19% of the entrants, Although host Illinois entered the second-most players of any state, New York had almost twice as many entrants, over 1/3 the field.
Emrikian, Xu, Mardov Invited to '17 World Cadets in Brazil
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- Written by Bill Feldman Bill Feldman
The US Chess Federation has invited 89 players to the 2017 World Cadets Chess Championships based on rating, three from Illinois!
The competition will be held August 21 - 31 in Pocos de Caldas, Brazil.
Dimitar Mardov and Arthur Xu were invited for the Under 10 competition and Aren Emrikian for the Under 8 section.
They will be part of the US delegation -- but it remains to be seen if they might be named the "official representative" for their respective age category.
146 Compete at 2017 CPS K-8 Finals; Parents Speak Out
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- Written by Bill Feldman Bill Feldman
Organized by the Chicago Public Schools, the 2017 CPS K-8 Championships were conducted March 25 at Crane RTC Medical Prep. The event was executed by Rennaissance Knights but CPS itself handled most of the traditional organizer duties including site arrangement.
This year's competition was conducted in four sections with both team and individual awards.
Andy Cao of Skinner North and William Wang of Edgebrook were the K-2 (Lower Primary) co-champions with 4.5/5 scores while Decatur and Edgebrook were team co-champions with 13.5 tallies.
David Chen of Edison Gifted was the clear winner in the K-4 (Upper Primary) section, also leading his school to the top team award with 14.5 points.