Schmakel Takes 2nd at '14 High School Nationals in San Diego; Richards' Cabel Wins U1600; Marshall's Blankenship Tops U800

942 players competed at the 2014 National High School Championship with several Illinois high schoolers coming home with hardware -- including two outright champions. Two Illinois players tied for second in their respective sections, two others tied for third.

The seven-round competition was conducted in San Diego, CA April 4-6. There were five K-12 sections divided by USCF rating, including 338 in the Open Section.

In the Open, Whitney Young's Sam Schmakel suffered a third-round loss to state-mate Nathan Kranjc, but won the rest of his matches to finish second with the top tiebreak at 6.0/7.

Grandmaster-Elect Darwin Yang of Texas was the champion, finishing 6.5/7 with a seventh round draw. Going into the tournament, Yang was the seventh-ranked junior in America out of more than 43,500.

Nathan finished 5.5/7 in a multi-way tie for sixth place, dropping his fourth-round match to Californian Jonathan Homidan who also scored 5.5.

Jonathan Kogen finished strong with three wins in his final three rounds, compiling a 5.0 tally, tying for 21st place. Max Zinski was a half-point back at 4.5, tying for 49th.

Marist's Joe Fennessey recorded a solid 4.0 result which included a second-round victory over 5.5-finisher Allan Beilin of California. Also posting 4.0 results were Naperville North's Bradley Guan and Danny Emge, Ethan Brown of Niles North and Grant Kozeny. Grant is Benet Academy's third-board, playing alongside Nathan and Max.

Whitney Young teammates Jimi Akintonde and Phillip Parker-Turner managed 3.5/7 scores as did Naperville North squad-mates Mark Reed and Matthew Wu.

In the 168-entrant Under 1600 section, Gervacio Cabel posted a remarkable 6.5/7 score to claim the section championship. Gervacio entered the event with a modest 1287 rating, with his most-recent rated event coming in September of 2013 when he went winless in an Evanston "3 by 3" tournament, drawing twice and losing once in the Silver section.

Gervacio, a Richards senior, had competed as the Oak Lawn high school's first board, where he managed only 2.5/7 at the 2014 IHSA Finals competition. What a difference a few months makes!

Also in the U1600, Eric Musielski, of Niles North, finished 5.5 in a multi-way tie for fifth. Matthew Kosova (Northside of Chicago) and Jesse Wang (Naperville North) compiled 5.0 scores, tying for 15th place. Jiedong Duan and Lyle Rubin, both of Niles North, posted 4.5 tallies. Teammate Adam Rubinberg scored 4.0 with three wins and two draws.

A pair of Niles North teammates finished in a seven-way tie for third in the 221-player Under 1200 section. Junior Sohail Amin and Senior Bolortuya Tumurbaatar compiled 6.0/7 results. Sohail drew both co-champions in the final two rounds.

Benet Academy's Russell McKenzie, Alec Mather and Patrick Noble posted 5.0's tying for 17th place as did Niles North's Nahiyan Chowdhury. Five Illinois players scored 4.5 in the U1200, including Benet's Matthew De Mario, Niles North's Ross Schneider, Naperville North's Nicholas Rafacz along with the Richards' duo of Adrian Villacorta and Thomas Doon.

In the Under 800 section, Bobby Blankenship posted the lone 6.5 score to claim that championship. Blankenship, a Marshall High School (Chicago) junior had gone undefeated at the 2014 IHSA Finals, placing first on tiebreaks for seventh boards in Peoria.

In the U800 at San Diego, Richards Junior Adrian Chavarria finished in a five-way tie for second with a 6.0 result. Hannah Bader scored 5.5, tying for seventh-place in the section. Marshall junior Michael Hobbs had a 5.0, tying for 11th place. 143 players entered the U800 competition.

Among players entering USCF-rated competition for the first time, Naperville North's Philip Song scored 5.0/7 to tie for 7th.  Manduul Tsetsegmaa, a Niles North freshman, and Antoine Christopher posted 4.5's, tying for 14th place in the 73-player section. Richard's Erik Quinlan and Niles North's Bill Kim managed 4.0 plus-scores in their first rated event.

Congratulations to Gervacio and Bobby on earning 2014 National Championships!

Results can be viewed at http://www.alchess.com/chess/14/hs/.