| Action and Upsets in Illinois |
| November 23, 2009 | |
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The National Youth Action (Nov.20-22, Oakbrook, IL) saw a great turnout this year of 497 players up from 455 players in 2008 and 476 players in 2007. Upsets marked many of the sections. Matthew Stevens won clear first in the K-3 Section with the fantastic score of 8.5/9, despite being ranked just 5th going into the event. In an even bigger surprise, 15th ranked Jonathan Zhou came in clear first in the K-6 Open. In the K-9, Kevin Cao, Joshua Colas and Jialin Ding tied for first with 7.5. In the K-12 Praveen Sanjay and Michael Auger tied for first with 8 points each. Jim Voelker, a board member of the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis was excited that, "CCSCSL teams are bringing home a number of trophies to the club." Unlike most Scholastics, clubs are permitted to compete as a team in the NYA. CCSCSL won the K-9, while Canterbury from Fort Wayne, Indiana won the K-12. District 103 from Lincolnshire, Illinois won the K-6 and Yury Shulman's Chess Without Borders came out on top in the K-3 section. See complete team results here. Alex Betaneli, who will be writing the article for Chess Life Magazine and CL4k, told CLO that there were many amusing incidents in this G/30, 9-rounder: "I asked the top two boards in one section to give me their game scores after the last round. They were NOT notating. And that's 1500s!!!" Browse USCF rated results here and look for more information in upcoming articles in Chess Life and CL4K by Betaneli. |