Youth News

IHSA State Tournament in Peoria

Details: Written by Héctor R. Hernández, Chess Coach - St. Ignatius College Prep Héctor R. Hernández, Chess Coach - St. Ignatius College Prep; Published: 22 February 2020 22 February 2020

The St. Ignatius College Prep chess team, coached by Héctor R. Hernández, had a stellar performance at the IHSA (Illinois High School Association) State Tournament on February 14 and 15 and achieved Top Twenty status by finishing in 18^th place among 126 schools. The team came in behind Payton H.S., but ahead of Whitney Young, Northside College Prep, Lane Tech and Lincoln Park.

Our squad also captured the Division 3A Title, which is awarded by ICCA, the Illinois Chess Coaches Association: ILChessCoach.org. We placed ahead of Lisle (Benet Academy), which has Grand Master Nikola Mitkov as one of its coaches. There were twenty-one Division 3A schools competing at State, another four did not qualify and three withdrew prior to the start of the tournament. Division 3A schools have a student enrollment of 1200 to 1700.

Three of our players earned silver medals for outstanding performances with 6-1 scores: Dylan Rosario (Sr.), Nikola Le Tien (So.) and Philip Kujawa (Fr.). Also representing our school at State were team captain Nevin O’Donnell, Victor Ruan, Kirk Tejas, Zaid Akkawi, Emanuel Demisse and Sean Neiza. Without a doubt, this is the best St. Ignatius chess team during my ten-year tenure.

Shakira and Louisa climb almost 20 ranks; Nandini back in 1700s

Details: Written by Eva Harrison Eva Harrison; Published: 25 January 2020 25 January 2020

Shakira Luster, who took 7^th place with her teammates from St. Ethelreda at the 2019 K-12 Championship in Orlando, Florida, sees her hard work pay off; coached by her dad, Sedrick Prude and Tom Murphy, the 13-year-old has gained about 500 USCF rating points over the last year.

Kudos also to Louisa Zhang, age 14, who entered 1400 territory with her excellent performance at the 4^th Annual Sevan Memorial Tournament. The same tourney helped Nandini Prakash get back into the 1700s. Nandini, who is only 9 years old, is the sixth best female chess player in her age group in the country.

Many Illinois girls improved their ranking over last month, including 7-year old Mythreyi Govindarajan, from 602 to 655 (new rank 58), 10-year old Linda Pham, from 1259 to 1310 (new rank 36), and 13-year old Sruthi Bharath Kumar, from 1609 to 1666 (new rank 17), to name just a few.

Shivani and Mythreyi Break into US Top 100

Details: Written by Eva Harrison Eva Harrison; Published: 22 December 2019 22 December 2019

Illinois currently has no female player in the ‘Age 18’ category of the US Top 100 now that Class A player Emma Wang aged out. However, our group of 12-year olds ranking high enough to make the cut has grown to eight girls.

Players of note this month include Michelle Pankov, Angela Hu and Niyathi Girish, all of whom went from a 3-digit rating to a 4-digit rating---Niyathi even to 1107, gaining close to 150 rating points and moving from 98^th to 62^nd position nationwide. Olivia Lee climbed ten ranks and now sits at #28 among seven-year old girls.

Congratulations to the two young ladies from our state who broke into the US Top 100 for the first time: Mythreyi Govindarajan, in the “Age 7 and Under” group, and Shivani Manimaran, who is nine and (to my knowledge) a member of the Fox Valley Chess Club.

November 2019 US Top 100 Lists for Girls

Details: Written by Eva Harrison Eva Harrison; Published: 24 November 2019 24 November 2019

The most recent lists are based on ratings achieved and processed by the third Wednesday of the previous month, so the Midwest Class tournament is included in this compilation.

Natalie Wisniowski is now less than 60 points shy of reaching the elite mark of 2000. Furthermore, four female juniors changed the hundreds digit of their rating last month, namely:

Angela Hu – from 874 to 911;
Himani Musku – from 1382 to 1437;
Sruthi Bharath Kumar – from 1583 to 1621; and
Sarah Lin – from 1587 to 1630;

Chaitra Madugula breaks into the Top 10 in US Ranking for Girls

Details: Written by Eva Harrison Eva Harrison; Published: 25 October 2019 25 October 2019

Seven-year old Chaitra gained almost 300 rating points at the Labor Day Scholastic Tournament and another 100 points at last month’s Renaissance Knights Quest: With her standout wins, she moved into the Top 10 nationwide for her age. Other female girls from Illinois ranking among the best ten in the country in their respective age group are Nandini Prakash (age 9, rank 7), Natalie Wisniowski (age 13, rank 7), Aria Hoesley (age 14, rank 5), Shreya Mangalam (age 16, rank 6) and Marissa Li (age 17, rank 7).

Many other female players moved up the rankings over last month, including Olivia Lee, Enkhjin Namuunbayar, Saanvi Adusumalli, Himani Musku, Wenjing Han and Rebecca Phillips.