Youth Chess News

2024 Illinois All Grade Championship

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Written by Jacob Plotnick - Editor / Staff Reporter Jacob Plotnick - Editor / Staff Reporter

2024 Illinois All Grade Championship

The Illinois Chess Association is happy to congratulate Jeff Diorio from Elite Chess for brilliantly organizing our 2024 Illinois All Grade Championship in Naperville, Illinois on November 9, 2024.

The tournament had nine sections: 2nd through 8th grade, while kindergarten was combined with 1st grade, likewise for high school(9th through 12th grade). In total, over 350 kids participated, of whom, we are pleased to see 50 new faces from last year. We had 10 ICA members play in the event. Further, we had better than expected representation from downstate, including the following four schools that won trophies:

Chiddix - Normal 7th Grade, 3rd Place

Grove - Normal 5th Grade, 2nd Place

Benjamin - Bloomington 4th Grade, 3rd Place

Thomas Metcalf - Normal 3rd Grade, 1st Place

Trophies on display - courtesy of Elite Chess

Listed below are the results for the different sections:

High School

Nathaniel was the outright winner with a perfect four points. After Nathaniel, four players tied with 3 points, four players tied with 2 points and a further four tied with 1.5 points. Final order after tie-breaks for trophies are listed below.

Nathaniel receiving his trophy; courtesy of his parents

Eighth Grade

Gene Tcheng was the outright winner with a perfect 4 points. Avanish Ram Amarnath came in second alone with 3.5 points. Then, seven players finished with 3 points and two with 2.5 points. Final order after tie-breaks for trophies are listed below.

Seventh Grade

There was a two way tie for first place with a perfect 4 points, opposed to the previous outright winners. Artemii Khanbutaev won on tiebreaks, leaving Kavin Sivagnanam in second. There were ten players with 3 points. Final order after tie-breaks for trophies are listed below.

Artemil receiving his trophy; courtesy of his parents

Sixth Grade

Alexander Pan was the outright winner with a perfect 4 points. Two players tied with 3.5 points, but Anisha came in second based on tiebreakers. There were a further 13 players tied with 3 points. The final standings after tie-breaks for trophies are listed below.

Alexander with trophy; courtesy of his parents

Fifth Grade

There was a two-way tie for first place with 4.5 points. However, Lucas Silvestre won on tiebreaks and Sarang Athreya Sankrithi came in second. There were six players with 4 points and an additional four players with 3.5 points. Below you can find the final order after tie-breaks for trophies.

Lucas receiving his award; courtesy of his parents

Fourth Grade

Krish Vignesh was the outright winner with 4.5 points. Four players had 4 points, of which Pradhyum came in second on tiebreaks. There were a further 6 players with 3.5 points. The final standings after tie-breaks for trophies are listed below.

Kris with trophy courtesy of his parents

Third Grade

Bishrelt  Munkhsuld was the outright winner with a perfect 5 points. After him, six players had 4 points, two players had 3.5 points and twelve players had 3 points. The final standings after tie-breaks for trophies are listed below.

Bishrelt with trophy courtesy of his parents

Second Grade

Emily Jiaying Tang was the outright winner with a perfect 5 points. Following her, four players had 4 points, two players with 3.5 points and seven players had 3 points. Final order after tie-breaks for trophies (top ten only) are listed below.

Emily – Courtesy of her parents

Combined Kindergarten and First Grade

Shivakumaran Minor Vellapandi was the outright winner with a perfect 5 points. Afterwards, six players had 4 points, one player had 3.5 points and eight players had 3 points. Of which the final standings after tie-breaks for trophies are listed below.

 Shivakumaran Minor Vellapandi – Courtesy of his parents

We are also proud to congratulate the following players across all sections for increasing their ratings by over 50 points and wish them the best of luck to perform as well in their next tournaments as they did in this one.

The following players are members of the Illinois Chess Association who participated. Thank you for your support.

Linked here is a complete cross-table for the event, courtesy of King Registration, and the US rating report. Following these links, you can view the full results across any sections instead of the abbreviated standings above.

Once again, we want to congratulate everybody who participated and gave it their best in the tournament and to congratulate Jeff Diorio and Elite Chess for running the tournament so smoothly on behalf of the Illinois Chess Association.

2024 US Open Denker High School Invitational Winner – Avi Kaplan

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Written by Jacob Plotnick - Editor / Staff Reporter Jacob Plotnick - Editor / Staff Reporter

Avi Kaplan travelled to Norfolk, VA to represent Illinois in the 2024 US Chess Championship national invitational. Each state sends one person. Illinois determines who to send from an Illinois Chess Association state invitational, which AVI won with a score of 4.5/5 points. 50 states + DC send their qualifying chess delegate to compete, with California sending two for northern and southern regions.

The US Open Denker Invitational is 6 rounds starting July 27th with one game, two games on 28^th and 29^th and last game on 30^th. Time control was G90+30.

Avi was undefeated. He had four wins and two draws giving him a total of 5 out of 6 points. Two other high school players had a total of 5/6 creating a three-way tie. Avi was given second place in the tiebreakers. For his efforts, other than being co-champion of the “Denker Tournament of HS Champions” Avi received a $3000 college scholarship. Illinois Chess Association also gave him a $250 travel stipend.

Here is Avi receiving his award.

The complete cross-tables can be found here.

https://www.uschess.org/results/2024/usopen/?page=STANDINGS&xsection=denker

Here is Avi’s game for round six. He had a wonderful accuracy rating of 92.4% from Chess.com

The Illinois Chess Association wants to congratulate Avi for bringing home the Denker Co-Champion and being part of the team that brought to Illinois the team co-champion.

Anjaneya Rao Named Champion of Champions at 2024 Barber Middle School Invitational

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Written by Jacob Plotnick - Editor / Staff Reporter Jacob Plotnick - Editor / Staff Reporter

Every year, the Illinois Chess Association runs a tournament among the best players from 6th - 8th grade to represent Illinois in the US Barber Middle School Invitational. This year, Anjaneya Rao won and represented Illinois in Norfolk, VA. Every state and D.C. sends one delegate, while this year Virginia and California sent two delegates.

The US Open Barber Invitational was a 6-round(G90+30) tournament from July 27th - July 30th during which Anjaneya was undefeated. He finished as the sole winner with a score of 5.5 out of 6 after 5 wins and 1 draw. As Well as being the “Champion of Champions” of the Barber Middle School Invitational, Anjaneya received a $5000 scholarship to the college of his choice from USCF.

Below is Anjaneya receiving his award, pictured with Dewain Barber, after whom the tournament is named.

Here is Anjaneya’s game for round six, where he defeated Jasmine Su from Connecticut with the French Defense:

The Illinois Chess Association is proud to congratulate Anjaneya for his impressive performance at the Barber Invitational this year and hope to see just how much he can achieve.

The complete cross-tables can be found here

U.S. Cadet Chess Championship 2024

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Written by Jacob Plotnick - Editor / Staff Reporter Jacob Plotnick - Editor / Staff Reporter

The U.S. Cadet Championship is an annual invitational event which pits the eight strongest American players aged 16 and under against each other in a round-robin tournament. The first tournament was run in 1986 at the Manhattan Chess Club, where Alex Sherzer became the first champion. Since then, the tournament has taken place at a multitude of venues across the country – including Washington D.C., Nashville, TN, Rockville, MD, and Schaumburg, IL. This year's tournament took place in Lisle, IL.

This years competitors pictured with the organizers(Danial Wilson and Bill Buklis), courtesy of Danial Wilson

The 2024 Cadet Championship took place late last month from June 20 - June 23. This event featured two IMs, Bach Ngo and Ryo Chen, as well as 6 FMs: Eric Liu, Tanitoluwa Adewumi, Erick Zhao, Isaac Wang, Ryan Sun, and Zoey Tang. For pairing purposes, shortly before the beginning of the first round, playing cards – ace through eight – were drawn to seed the players by lot number rather than by rating.

The event was won outright with an impressive 6/7 score by the 13-year old prodigy Tanitoluwa (Tani) Adewumi, who finished last place in the same tournament the previous year. Nevertheless, he started off strong into the competition by defeating one of the strongest players in the first round:

This impressive performance has caused Tani’s FIDE rating to come within 20 points of the IM rating threshold of 2400, for which he recently earned his final norm. Along with the recognition of winning the tournament, he can add the $1,000 prize and $10,000 scholarship( $5,000 from the Dewain Barber Foundation and $5,000 from US Chess) to the college/university of his choice to his ever-growing list of awards.

Below is another of his wins from the tournament, highlighting tactical masterclass with an accuracy of 97%:

Tani accepting his award, courtesy of Danial Wilson

Congratulations to Tani for winning this event and congratulations to Danial Wilson at Wilson Chess and Bill Buklis King Registration for their third successful year of running this event and best of luck to them in the future.

Final standings – ranked according to lot number, courtesy of US Chess

All games from the event can be reviewed on Lichess.