"I.S. 318's Crowning Achievement"

This story is getting great national press: this time, it's the Wall Street Journal.

Wait until next year...?

I met NM Ben Gershenov of New York last year; he's a very pleasant young man and a phenomenal talent.  Ben and NM Dipro Chakraborty of Arizona (½ point behind Ben's 6-.0) are playing on Board 1 of Nationals: winner takes the title.

Board 2 is all-Illinois!  FM Eric Rosen (an undefeated 5-1) and NM Sam Schmakel are likely playing for second place.  So no repeat championship for Eric: Sam will have two more tries.

Aakaash Meduri made a phenomenal recovery from a first-round loss and also sits on 5-1.

Coverage from CBS's Minneapolis affiliate

I guess this would be Mary Richards' station....



Thanks to Chess Life Online for the link.

National High School Championships - top seeds and local players

 Many familiar names on this list: have fun playing!  (Look at all the elementary and junior high players!  Gavin McClanahan is not a senior.)

1    Rosen, Eric S    ILNILN    12    IL    2414
2    Getz, Alec    NYHUNT    12    NY    2409
3    Ostrovskiy, Aleksandr    NYHUNT    10    NY    2391
4    Shen, Arthur    NJJPST    9    NJ    2363
5    Shetty, Atulya A    MIHURO    10    MI    2357
6    Adelberg, David T    AZSDES    9    AZ    2353
7    Jayakumar, Adarsh        12    IL    2337
8    Shankar, Gauri    ILGGLS    12    IL    2327
9    Brown, Michael W    CAMTRA    9    CA    2319
10    Black, James A, Jr    NYI318    8    NY    2312
11    Williams, Justus D    NYI318    8    NY    2307
12    Vilenchuk, Michael B    OHD012    12    OH    2305
13    Colas, Joshua    NYW006    8    NY    2297
14    Ng, Andrew    NJL003    12    NJ    2293
15    Mo, Kevin    PAW007    11    PA    2283
16    Schmakel, Sam A    ILC004    10    IL    2250
17    Yang, Michael    MNE003    12    MN    2247
18    Dahl, Matthew D    MNM007    12    MN    2246
19    Gershenov, Ben    NYSOLH    12    NY    2244
20    Hu, Bryan    AZCFHS    9    AZ    2230
21    Altschuler, Jason    TXDSMK    12    TX    2214
22    Golub, David    WAB012    12    WA    2212
23    Perez, Reinaldo, Jr        9    FL    2211
24    Chakraborty, Dipro    AZS017    10    AZ    2204
25    Mu, Joshua    NCD001    11    NC    2201
35    Viswanadha, Kesav    CAC015    7    CA    2148
37    Barayev, Isaac    NYI318    8    NY    2141
47    Liang, Awonder    WIM024    3    WI    2100
50    Meduri, Aakaash    ILH006    12    IL    2088
51    Peters, Epiphany M    MIC005    9    MI    2088
52    Wu, Darren P    WAS002    12    WA    2082
53    McClanahan, Gavin J    ILGGLS    12    IL    2079
81    Zinski, Maximilian J    ILL011    9    IL    1973
100    Kranjc, Nathaniel A    ILL011    9    IL    1901
101    Qazi, Rafeh R    ILNILN    12    IL    1898
119    Swan, Charles    ILC004    11    IL    1862
123    Liang, Adream    WIM024    5    WI    1849
135    Lehmann, Spencer G    ILB006    7    IL    1814
143    Akintonde, Jimi    ILC004    9    IL    1802
150    Shankar, Roshan C        9    IL    1787
152    Paykin, David    ILNILN    11    IL    1786
169    Waechter, Mark    ILC004    11    IL    1732
175    Hrach, Jonathan    ILH003    8    IL    1719
187    Dzelilovic, Adil    ILNILN    12    IL    1688
193    Brown, Ethan    ILNILN    10    IL    1683
194    Guan, Bradley    ILNNAP    9    IL    1683
196    Fei, Andrew Y        6    IL    1676
213    Natarajan, Oliver    ILC004    9    IL    1635
218    Pena, Cristian    ILC004    12    IL    1630
228    Kadineh, Soroush    ILNILN    11    IL    1611
235    Dahiya, Anuj S    ILNNAP    12    IL    1601
250    Harihara, Caeley    ILC010    9    IL    1522
266    Holzmueller, Nathan    ILE009    8    IL    1429
278    Kozeny, Grant A    ILL011    9    IL    1361
282    Kumar, Chetan    ILNNAP    12    IL    1333
294    Zhou, Tony T    ILNNAP    9    IL    1236
296    Tu, Derek    ILH006    10    IL    1233
299    Widmann, Johan    ILL011    9    IL    1227
300    Kang, Kevin    ILNNAP    12    IL    1223
305    Nevling, Alex P    ILH006    12    IL    1185
309    Leon, Aaron    ILH006    10    IL    1166
311    Moran, David R    ILH006    12    IL    1118
323    Li, Huajian R    ILH006    10    IL    748
327    Bolaris, Hephestion M    ILGGLS    12    IL  
328    Domutz, Kyle L    ILGGLS    12    IL  
334    Tarczon, Albert W        12    IL  
335    Xiong, Jinghui    ILC004    11    IL  

National High School Championships - prelims

The 2011 United States High School Champion, FM Eric Rosen of Niles North, is in Minneapolis to defend his title.  Eric already has one 2012 title in the bag: the illustrious High School Bughouse title: Eric and his teammate NM Matthew Dahl of Minnesota scored 11-1 to take first on tiebreaks.

Also today, NM Sam Schmakel of Whitney Young keeps the U.S. High School Blitz trophy in Whitney Young's trophy case (Michael Auger of Whitney Young won the title last year).

Hat tip to Brad Rosen on the scene: main event starts tomorrow.

Eric Rosen article in Chess Life

The author is Eric's mother Andi, so expect the piece to be hard-hitting.  Eric also annotates the win against IM Marc Arnold that gave him the National High School title.

PDF here!  The article originally appeared in the August 2011 Chess Life.  Our thanks to CL editor Dan Lucas for giving the Illinois Chess Association permission to republish.

Three Eric Rosen games from the HS Nationals

See ICA's chess blog for annotations!

"Rosen Tops High School Nationals"

 Story (but no games as of 1:30 p.m. - coming soon?) at Chess Life Online.

Eric Rosen wins National High School Championship!!

Stolen from proud father Brad Rosen's Facebook post:

It's official--- Eric won the 2011 National High School Chess Championship this weekend in Nashville scoring 7.0/7.0, including a final round victory over IM Marc Arnold. Pretty amazing....thanx to Deren Getz for the photo and keeping Andi and I posted during the final.

The crosstable has already been posted: there were 1134 players in six sections, including 294 players in the Championship Section.  Eric's rating went from 2274 to 2333. Performance ratings involving perfect scores are very misleading, but I'm calculating a 2700 performance rating for Eric in this event!

Two Illinois teams finished in the top ten in the nation (click on "Team Standings:" to see details).  Led by Rosen, Niles North finished fourth.  But all four players had outstanding events: based on pre-event ratings, Rafeh Qazi's 4½ points was a phenomenal performance.

ROSEN, Eric S (7.0,2278)
QAZI, Rafeh (4.5,1621)
SPIEGEL, Evan (4.0,1767)
GUPTA, Saagar (3.5,1809)

Whitney Young finished tenth, led by Sam Schmakel and National High School Blitz champion Michael Auger, each with an excellent 5-2 score.

SCHMAKEL, Sam A (5.0,2099)
AUGER, Michael W (5.0,2111)
SWAN, Charles (3.5,1930)
WAECHTER, Mark Woodbury (3.0,1617)
MEI, Brian (3.0,1309)
CHAN, Kessidy (3.0,1617)
PENA, Cristian (3.0,1431)

Michael Auger wins National High School Blitz Championship

The senior at Whitney Young is in my opinion the most naturally gifted player we've had since Morris Giles.  Congratulations!

Crosstable here. Michael's teammate, Sam Schmakel of Whitney Young, took second on tiebreaks; Eric Rosen of Niles North tied for seventh.  Aakassh Meduri of Hinsdale Central tied for ninth.

Standings for the main event are here.  After three rounds, Eric Rosen and Evan Spiegel of Niles North and Mark Waechter of Hinsdale Central all have perfect scores.