Top 100 Women in Illinois

I confess that I haven't met Ramya Krishna Inapuri.  Note that some of the strong players at local universities aren't reflected on this list.

1 WIM VIKTORIJA NI 2290
2 WFM RAMYA KRISHNA INAPURI 2243
3 YUE PENNY XU 1966
4 TIAN LU PENG 1952
5 MADELEINE REICHES 1732
6 SHAYNA PROVINE 1717
7 MIRANDA LIU 1710
8 SHREYA B MANGALAM 1693
9 CAELEY HARIHARA 1669
10 PATRICE B CONNELLY 1617
11 SURYA RAGHU 1602
12 ADELE PADGETT 1551
13 AMINAH AZIZA GARCIA 1547
14 MARISSA LI 1531
15 CASSIE PARENT 1494
16 ELIZABETH VILLAFLOR 1441
17 MARIEL RENEE RANCEL 1366
18 ELLIANA FALETSKY 1363
19 DANNY EMGE 1360
20 ANJALI TOLY 1353
21 SHVETALI V THATTE 1314
22 MARTA T BOROWSKA 1269
23 BETHANY MICHELLE SIMOS 1260
24 MADELINE SERRANO DOON 1220
25 EVA C HARRISON 1217
26 SAMANTHA TOBIAS 1211
27 SAMANTHA K CARLSON 1170
28 BOLORTUYA TUMURBAATAR 1122
29 DIANA L SHKLOVER 1110
30 ANNIE J XU 1035
31 KAREN M WILBER 1022
32 ARIA HOESLEY 973
33 DEVANSHI KOTHARI 969
34 MINH-AN NGUYEN THOMAS 969
35 TASHA M SCHUCKMAN 968
36 DELANO HORN 968
37 GRACE CLOPTON 943
38 KIANA HOBBS 923
39 REBEKAH NIELSEN 903
40 HEATHER RENEE RILEY 896
41 NADIA FRIEDEN 894
42 JESSICA MARIE CRAMER 890
43 NAINA GUPTA 862
44 JENNIFER PATTERSON 862
45 CHRISTINE ZHANG 847
46 CHRISTINA NORDICK 847
47 WANDA LIA LENOX 843
48 MARIIA PEROVA 841
49 RITHIKA P KYAW 838
50 GEORGIA REECE WOLF 828
51 ANDREA M BERLAND 808
52 AMANDA ANN HICKMAN 805
53 ANITA KOTHARI 800
54 LIANNA KOWALKE REINWALD 799
55 MARA ISABEL FLAHERTY 797
56 MARET THORPE 792
57 ANNIKA GEIERSBACH 789
58 AMANDA R CARLSON 781
59 ALEXANDRIA BURR 780
60 LAVINA PRAVEEN THADANI 777
61 BAILEY TURNER 768
62 ELIZABETH PETERSON 749
63 ALICE LI 748
64 RIYA CHADHA 742
65 CAITLIN MARY O'SULLIVAN 738
66 AARUSHI BAFNA 734
67 JAZEL CARR 733
68 SHREYA KEERTANA BHAGI 727
69 KYRA ELIANA RIVERA 722
70 KATHERINE ZACK 709
71 ALLISON PEARSON 709
72 SOUJANYA BHAGI 702
73 AMANDA LYNN TEGART 698
74 BAILEY MALIS 696
75 CAITLIN HONG 669
76 JOY CHARLOTTE QU 669
77 TIA RENEE WHEELER 663
78 AUDREY PROVINE 662
79 AMRUTHA VENKAT 658
80 MICHELLE MCELROY 656
81 ANUSHA NADKARNI 642
82 JOLIE PRESSBURGER 625
83 TAKIA KELLY-GORDON 608
84 ALEKSANDRA MUSIKIC 602
85 NISHA JANAMANCHI 595
86 TORI ELIZABETH KAFER 593
87 SARAH RUTH GRANDY 583
88 ASHLEY GEOHAS 581
89 JOYCE LI 580
90 MEGAN E WONG 577
91 JASMINE NERI 571
92 MERRICK OHATA 568
93 ANNIE GEISTER 568
94 ARIEL KITE 562
95 JORDYN MALIS 560
96 JAMARI MCELROY 557
97 SALLY R KELLER 555
98 LILY JOSEPHINE HART 554
99 AUTUMN HENDERSON 545
100 RUJUTA S DURWAS 541

U.S. Championships, Round 1

The U.S. Championship and the Women's Championship began this afternoon: the only game in progress involves the #1 player in Illinois, GM Yury Shulman.  FM John Bryant is up the Exchange, but Yury seems to have a (tricky) tablebase draw in hand...

After 112...Kc5!, White has no time to take: 113.Rxg4 hxg4 114.Kxg4 (otherwise the pawn queens) 114...Kd6 is a dead draw.

The game continues, so I hope this post is not a jinx.  (Update: drawn in 130 moves.)

Our other local representative, WIM Viktorija Ni, drew comfortably against WGM Camilla Baginskaite

Brr

Viktorija Ni
(photo Chess Life Online)

One gets the impression that Astana, Kazakhstan, is colder than Chicago.

 Weather notwithstanding, Viktorija Ni had a very solid performance as the alternate for the U.S. in the Women's World Team Championship. Her win against Olga Giyra of Russia was decisive in the U.S.'s 2½-1½ win; it's featured on Chess Life Online. That match, and Irina Krush's performance on board 2, were the highlights for the U.S. team. Ukraine won the event, and the U.S. took sixth place.

Viktorija Ni at the World Team Championships

The U.S. Women's team isn't doing very well this week at the World Team Championships in Astana, Kazakhstan, but Viktorija led the U.S. to a 2½-1½ victory over Turkey on Monday.

Do you see why White resigned?

Endgames from the U.S. Championship and Women's Championship

Karsten Müller annotates two of Viktorija Ni's endgames (and two of Nakamura's) for ChessBase.

Chicago Open Round 1: All in the family

GM Yury Shulman wins comfortably against WIM Viktorija Ni:

I am prepared to give Gabriel knight odds until age six. At age ten, he will probably be giving me knight odds:

Both photos and the cool video swiped from the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of St. Louis.