National K-12: finals

Final results are in from Orlando. Trash talk: were I allowed to play hors concours at age 54, I am confident I could win the 1st-, 2nd-, 3rd-, and 4th-grade sections, and I think I could be competitive all the way through eighth grade. (But against the high schoolers, I'd be hopelessly outclassed.)

Congratulations to Sam Schmakel, who tied for the 11th-grade title: unofficially, Sam is second on tiebreaks.

 Nathaniel Kranjc and Gavin McClanahan tied for fifth in the 10th-grade section.

Matthew Stevens tied for second in the 6th-grade section.

Shreya Mangalam was playing for the 4th-grade title in the final round.

Stolen from NM William Aramil's Facebook page:

Nationals in Orlando has officially ended. Overall, it went pretty well. I didn't find anytime to go to Disney World though.

Whitney Young won a National Blitz Championship!! Two players placed 4th and 5th. Two pairs of teammates came in 3rd and 4th in bughouse. The Seniors came in 4th place as a team in the main tournament.

Sam Schmakel did it AGAIN and is a National Co-Champion for all 11th graders!! He was a champion his freshman and sophomore year of high school. Can he win next year and make it a clean sweep for all four years of high school? I don't think it has ever been done!?

Overall, most players played well and gained rating points. Good job to the Whitney Young team!

All Grade - high school results

The high schoolers play in one combined section at the All Grade.  There was a tie for first between Nathaniel Kranjc (1946) and Penny Xu (1906), who won their first three games and drew the final round to score 3½-½ each.

Maximilian Zinski, Jimi Akintonde, Joey Bikus, Roshan Shankar, and Philip Parker-Turner tied for third in the 26-player field, all with 3-1 scores.

Crosstable here!

Illinois Class Championships: Classes A and B

Classes A and B were combined.  15-year-old Nathaniel Kranjc of Wheaton (a 2011 ICA Warren Scholar) won the tournament (and Class A) with a 4-0 score.  Eight-year old David Peng of Northbrook (another 2011 ICA Warren Scholar, and one of several veterans of the just-completed World Youth Championships in Brazil) took clear second with a 3-1 score.

The winners of Class B were one of Chicago's finest, Dmitri Kosteris (adults can play chess, too!), Brian Harrigan of Indiana, and Rachel Ulrich of Wisconsin, a home-schooled sixth-grader.  (Rachel and I compared our age-ten-ratings last year: divide her rating by two, and you'll get my original rating.)

Look for games on the ICA website in the next few days!

All Grade results (6th, 7th, and 8th grades)

There was a three-way tie for first in the 42-player 6th-grade section: Alec Feygin, Akash Mattu, and Colton Longstreth, all with 4-0 scores.  Steven Do, Brayden Estes, Riley Brands, Nate Tracy-Amoroso, Matt Szarkowicz, Abraham Cornejo, Barry Brookins, and Harrison Burns tied for fourth with 3-1.

Joey Bikus and Allen Guo tied for first in the 47-player 7th-grade section.  Phillip Parker-Turner, Jason Kitson, Samuel Heil, Ryan Toepfer, Justin Wang, Jonathan Hrach, Niresh Kuganeswaran, Narayan Karthik Karra, Elliana Faletsky, Alexander Pilia, Mark Jungo, and Michael May all scored 3-1 to tie for third.

Maximilian Zinski and Chase Walbert went 4-0 to tie for first in the 8th-grade section, which drew 48 players.  Nathaniel Kranjc and David Dlott drew each other in the final round to finish with an undefeated 3½-½.

More photos: