Youth Chess News
Illinois Youth in USCF Top 100 -- July 2014
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- Written by Bill Feldman Bill Feldman
With ascendancy above USCF ratings of 2000 for 14-year old Anshul Adve and 15-year old Jonathan Hrach, for the first time ever, Illinois has 15 junior experts and four masters (or greater) as of the official July listings. This quota comes despite the loss of Chengliang Luo who aged out of the 18-and-under report.
With Hanson Hao at 1999 and Jacob Furfine at 1996, it's likely this strong crew will soon have some additional company.
Anshul's rating climbed 92 points while Jonathan's was up 52. Dramatic increases also came from Martin Stukan (130) and Nikhil Kalghati (138). Others with strong USCF rating enhancements this month were Marissa Li (99), Jason Daniels (71), Akhil Kalghatgi (also 71), Alex Bian (61), Max Zinski (51) and George Li (40).
Illinois Youth in USCF Top 100 -- June 2014
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- Written by Bill Feldman Bill Feldman
Several changes in how the USCF processes its top 100 lists, as well as a change in personnel, lead to the delay in publication of this month's tallies. The rules also changed regarding the timing of the birthday calculation.
On the local front, numerous birthdays transitioned many top Illinois players to its incremental counterpart: Aaron Gan, Martin Stukan, David Peng, Shreya Mangalam, Edward Zhang, James Wei and Sam Schmakel. Happy Birthday to you all!
For David Korobov, turning 19 means the end of his run on the youth top 100 lists but I'm sure we'll continue to see great things from David, an expert, who tied for seventh out of 86 at the recent Fineberg Memorial.
Arthur Xu Enhances OTB Rating at Online ChessKid Nationals
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- Written by Bill Feldman Bill Feldman
7-year old Arthur Xu was one of 30 American juniors to participate in the Third Annual ChessKid National Invitational completed June 8. Arthur received his invitation before his most recent birthday and therefore competed in the 6-and-under section where he finished 2.5/5, raising his USCF rating 36 points.
Even though the event was held entirely online, the USCF sanctioned the round robin as if it were an over the board tournament. Juniors competed in five sections over three days.
In the final round, Arthur drew the section's runner up, Lucas Foerster-Yialamas of New York, despite being outrated by 300 points.
6 Score from 4 States Compete For 2 Days at '14 Ice Harbor
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- Written by Bill Feldman Bill Feldman
Over 120 junior competitors from four states competed the weekend of May 17-18 at the Ice Harbor Scholastic in scenic Dubuque, IA. 11 entrants from Illinois walked away with nine individual trophies from the main event.
The field represented 50 more players than the previous Ice Harbor which debuted in 2013, conflicting with Mother’s Day weekend. Organizer James Hodina is already promising 2015 will be even bigger and better.
Wisconsin entrants won two of the three Open sections, and one of the two Under sections. A Minnesotan grabbed the K-6 Open while an Iowan nabbed the K-6 Under 800 via tiebreak. Illinois players managed ties for second in the K-12 Open and the K-6 Open.
Illinois Youth in USCF Top 100 -- May 2014
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- Written by Bill Feldman Bill Feldman
Four Masters and 14 Experts top this month’s lists representing the most ever Illinois juniors USCF-rated at 2000 or above!
18-year olds David Korobov and Joe Fennessey are among them, David cracking 2000 for the first time, while Joe returned above 2K after a brief absence. Six others boast ratings above 1950 – on the cusp of experthood. Who will be next?
Joining the nation’s top 100 lists for the first time was 8-year old Patrick Rao; returning to the lists were Tuoyu Yang, Jayant Maheshwari, Rishi Naraynan and Andrew Fei.
Also for the first time since I started compiling these lists a year and a half ago, Illinois has six top 10 youth including Aaron Gan (age 7), Martin Stukan (age 8), Aydin Turgut (age 9), David Peng (age 10), Sam Schmakel (age 17) and Jonathan Kogan (age 18).