Youth News

63 Compete at Northbrook Labor Day Scholastic

Details: Written by Bill Feldman Bill Feldman; Published: 01 September 2014 01 September 2014

It took perfect scores to win both sections of the 2014 Labor Day Scholastic, held August 30 in Northbrook. 63 players competed in the five-round Quick-Rated event, organized by Chess For Life at the site of the 2014 Illnois Open.

The Illinois Chess Association received a generous portion of the event proceeds. Results can viewed in tiebreak order here and in pre-event rating order here.

In the Under 1200 section, Micah Hill prevailed head-to-head over previously undefeated Evan Liu to earn top honors. All of Evan's opponents on the day had plus-scores (3.0 or better) giving him the top tiebreak of four 4.0 scorers to place second.

Micah raised his USCF Quick Rating 162 points to 1165 while Evan went up 114 points to 1105.

Lou, Carey, Jungo Earn Honors at Oak Park Library

Details: Written by Bill Feldman Bill Feldman; Published: 25 August 2014 25 August 2014

More than 20 junior competitors battled it out in three sections at the Oak Park Library in a four-round event August 23.

The tournament was directed by Keith Ammann.

In the 18-and-under section, 16-year old Mark Jungo of Chicago posted the top score, 3.5/4. Mark had recently competed at the World Open in Virginia. Darak Nowak of Park Ridge took second with a 3.0 result and local Oak Parker Philip Linninger, 18, nabbed third place honors.

In the 13-and-under division, Aidan Carey went undefeated with three wins and a draw for a 3.5 result. Aidan is also from Oak Park. Desi Nainar of Lake Bluff had 3.0/4 while 7-year old William Cahill of Wheaton was 2.5/4.

Liu Ties for 6th At National Girls', Schmakel 6th in Denker

Details: Written by Bill Feldman Bill Feldman; Published: 31 July 2014 31 July 2014

With three wins, a loss and a pair of draws in the last two rounds, recent Whitney Young graduate Sam Schmakel's remarkable high school chess career came to a close at the 2014 Denker Championships in Orlando.

With 4.0/6, Sam finished in an eight-way tie for 6th, placing 7th on tiebreaks. His loss came at the hands of California's Nicky Korba who finished third. Sam entered the invitiational event as the top-rated player, 18 points higher than the outright champion, Christopher Gu of Rhode Island.

Miranda Liu also posted a fantastic 4.0/6 in the 44-player Girls' Invitational finishing in another eight-way tie for sixth, also placing 7th on tiebreaks.

Illinois Youth in USCF Top 100 -- July 2014

Details: Written by Bill Feldman Bill Feldman; Published: 26 July 2014 26 July 2014

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

Details: Written by Bill Feldman Bill Feldman; Published: 07 July 2014 07 July 2014

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.