"Skokie honors Niles North’s champion chess team"

Article here!

Niles North Chess Team Day: May 7th in Skokie

Niles North High School won the  Illinois High School State Chess Championship this past February. This was their second state championship  in three years. Next week, the High School and the Village of Skokie will be honoring the coaches and team.


On Monday May 7, 2012, Niles North High School will celebrate the chess team's accomplishments and unveil a prominent banner facing the  Edens expressway. Later on May 7th ( 8:00 p.m), at the Skokie Village Board Meeting, the Mayor George Van Dusen will be reading a proclamation honoring the coaching staff and team.  


Chicago Chess Blog has scooped its competition by obtaining an exclusive advance copy of this proclamation:

WHEREAS, the Niles North High School Chess Team won all seven of its matches and captured the Illinois High School Association (IHSA) 2012 State Chess Championship crown at the state tournament held February 10th and 11th, 2012 in Peoria, Illinois; and

WHEREAS, Junior, David Paykin, demonstrated exemplary skill, tenacity, and fighting spirit by winning his crucial sixth round match in a momentous come from behind victory which kept the Team's title hopes alive, and ultimately lead to the Team securing the championship title; and

WHEREAS, the Niles North Chess Team finished in 5'h place at the United StatesFederation (USCF) National K-12 Championship Tournament held April 12 through 15, 2012, held in Minneapolis, Minnesota; and

WHEREAS, Senior, Eric Rosen, finished in second place, individually, at the National K-12 Championship and forther, along with his partner, Matthew Dahl of Edina, Minnesota, captured the National Bughouse Championship in a sanctioned side event competition; and

WHEREAS, Chess Team Coach, Harry Kyriazes, is recognized as one of the premier high school coaches in the United States and the State of Illinois having coached the Chess Team since 1999, and guided the Niles North Chess Team to state championship titles in 2006, 2010, and 2012, as well as four second place finishes, and two third place finishes at state championship tournaments during his tenure as coach; and

WHEREAS, Coach Kyriazes, and fellow coaches Heather Ingraham, and Mases Hagopian, are recognized for their unique and innovative approaches in providing a nurturing training environment where the qualities of teamwork, mutual respect, camaraderie, and leadership development are held in the highest regard; and

WHEREAS, Niles Township High School District 219 has supported the chess program over the years, and in so doing has furthered its mission to improve the academic achievement of every student by offering programs such that every student may achieve his or her optimal potential; and

WHEREAS, Niles North High School has unveiled a prominent banner on today's date recognizing the accomplishments and congratulating the 2012 Niles North State Champion Chess Team, and that said banner will be displayed on the west side of the Niles North building and visible to all motorists who travel the 1-94 Interstate.

NOW, THEREFORE, L GEORGE VAN DUSEN, Mayor of the Village of Skokie, do hereby proclaim May 7, 2012 as

"NILES NORTH CHESS TEAM DAY"

in the Village of Skokie and congratulate the members and coaching staff of the Niles North Chess Team on their many accomplishments, and wish each team member the very best in his future endeavors.

Congratulations to Niles North! 

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.

"Niles North team, Prospect’s Moskwa are state’s best in chess"

Read all about it.

Hinsdale Central vs. Niles North for the title!

UPDATE: Niles North wins a sqeaker with Hinsdale Central for the IHSA title, 35½-32½.


Other round seven results on the top boards of this 125-team event (these are finals):


Whitney Young 46 - Naperville North 22
Northside Prep 48½ - Nequa Valley 19½
Evanston Township 47 - Illinois Math and Science Academy 21
University 42 - Benet Academy 26
Stevenson 51 - Prospect 17
Glenbrook South 58 - Downers Grove North 10


Round six results:


Hinsdale Central 35 - Whitney Young 33
Niles North 37 - Lincolnshire 31
Northside Prep 68 - Riverside Brookfield 0
Evanston Township 58½ - Downers Grove 9½
University (Urbana) 36 - New Trier 32
Glenbrook South 65 - Glenbard North 3
Neuqua Valley 54½ - Marengo 13½


All results are here!


Brad Rosen sends a mobile message from the front lines:

Round 7 just kicked off with Niles North facing off against Hinsdale Central. To get there, Hinsdale Central beat Whitney Young in a wild scramble at the end.  Aakash [Meduri] held Sam [Schmakel] to a draw on board 1 and edged out the Dolphins 35-33. Meanwhile, Niles North eked one out against Stevenson: David Paykin won a dead lost position on board 3 against Matthew Wang with drama and panache . And I do mean drama. A short respite and then they were back at it again... a bit of a fight club, warriors, cage match feel down here at the big dance. 

IHSA Team Championship update

After five rounds, four perfect scores remain: Niles North, Whitney Young, Stevenson, and Hinsdale Central.  Looks like one team may go 7-0, after all!

In the first clashes of pre-tournament favorites, Linconshire knocked off CPS powerhouse Northside Prep 44-24, and Whitney Young trounced Glenbrook South 52-16.  Niles North had a tough time with Naperville North, but won 44-24.  Hinsdale Central beat upstart Neuqua Valley 35½-34½.

http://www.ihsa.org/SportsActivities/Chess/StateSeriesInformationResults.aspx?url=/data/ct/1result1.htm

Round 6 (which should be wrapping up soon) features Hinsdale Central - Whitney Young and Stevenson - Niles North on the top two boards.

IHSA finals in Peoria tomorrow and Saturday!!

The Illinois High School Association's team championship will be held tomorrow and Saturday in the Peoria Civic Center.  More info here!

Here are the round 1 pairings (oops, I'd omitted the link this a.m.): two Chicago selective enrollment schools, Whitney Young and Northside Prep, are the top seeds.  FM Eric Rosen is playing in his last state event for third seed Niles North.  Realistically, I think any of the top eight teams have a chance to win (FM Gauri [Shankar] Manoj and Gavin McClanahan both play for #8 seed Glenbrook South!), and it's going to be very hard for any team to go through this event with a clean score. 

Rafeh Qazi featured in Skokie Patch

Brad Rosen reports.

Niles North recruiting video

One hopes IHSA doesn't go overboard on sanctions ;-)

Click this link to view: http://vimeo.com/24758462 I removed the embedding because it was loading automatically.

Seriously, fun stuff! Could we get a list of the actors in order of appearance?

"Niles North teen is U.S. chess king"

From this morning's Sun-Times.  Don't take the headline too literally, as Kamsky and Nakamura might object.

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.

"Chess crown eludes Niles North"

Michael Chinitz of Niles North

Brad Rosen reports at SkokiePatch.

Illinois players at Nation High School (after five rounds)

Quick notes on the action in Columbus, Ohio.

Michael Auger (2145) was tied for the lead after four rounds, but lost in round five to top seed Shinsaku Uesugi (2370) of Maryland.  With 4 points, Michael still has a (remote) chance to tie for first; Whitney Young HS is currently in 15th place in the team standings.

Eric Rosen (2220) was upset by an A player in the first round, but he has 3.5 points with good pairing chances to finish at or above 5 points.  Niles North is three points off the team lead.  Senior Fedor Titov (1750) is having a monster event with 3.5 points.

Former and future North Shore resident Adarsh Jayakumar (2226, moving here shortly from Texas) is very much in the running for first with 4.5.

Perhaps the most notable Illinois high school result (so far!) is that of our fourth-graders (!!!). Alex Bian (1806) has 2.5 points, with only one loss, to an expert.  And James Wei (1804) has 3 points!  The scary thing (considering the extremely high level of competition at nationals) is that neither fourth-grader is having a particularly good tournament.

On the national front, Elizabeth Vicary's I.S. 318 team from Brooklyn is tied for the lead--these are junior high students competing against high school students!

I'm sure I missed stuff: please let me know....

Hunkering down....

One question about the Auger-Rosen game....

You'll find the players' annotations at Chess Life Online. I do have one question:

White to play: can Black still draw?

Matthew Wilber - Eric Rosen, round 3 of IHSA Championships

I've had the pleasure of playing against both these talented young gentlemen.  They'll be facing off again at the Illinois Denker Qualifier, the ICA's invitational championship for high school players.

Pioneer Press coverage of IHSA championships

The Niles North Vikings chess team dominated the competition during the weekend's state chess tournament, coasting to a well-deserved championship. 

 Article continues here.

Auger - Rosen from the IHSA Championships

Scotch Gambit? Mr. Auger is advised not to try such weak (ahem) stuff against yours truly.

But seriously...this is a fun game to watch. The advantage changes hands a couple times until Black loses the thread in time pressure. (Is the piece-down ending salvageable?)

Niles North wins IHSA State Championship

Niles North High School

2010 State Chess Champions

(swiped from Eric Rosen's Facebook album)

Led by coach Harry Kyriazes, Skokie's Niles North High School won the 2010 state title in impressive style.  Their perfect match score of 7-0 included three 68-0 shutouts.  Stevenson HS of Lincolnshire and Hinsdale Central HS took second and third.

Michael Auger of Whitney Young and Zachary Kasiurak of Barrington were two of the four (!) perfect scores on Board 1.  Gauri Manoj of Glenbrook South and Curtis VanPetten of St. Charles North also scored 7-0.

Final results are here!