National High School (K-12) Results are in! Whitney Young HS K-12 Co-National Champions! David Peng Wins the K-12 Championship!

The National High School tournament, held April 26-29, has wrapped up in Columbus, Ohio. Based on the advanced entry report on the USCF website, 172 Illinois players competed, including players from Grade 1 through 12.

Blitz and Bughouse side-events were held on Thursday, April 26 and the main event was held April 27-29.
Warren Junior Scholar and New Trier Sophomore David Peng has taken the K-12 Championship with an uncontested 6.5 score! Warren Junior Scholar Zhaozhi (George) Li from IMSA has taken 2nd place, the top 6.0 score once tie-breaks were considered! 

Also bringing home trophies in the championship section: Akhil Kalghatgi 11th place, Aydin Turgut 22nd place, Nikhil Kalghatgi 25th place and Matthew Stevens tied for 25th place. Class trophies were awarded to Isabella Buitrago (2nd place, unrated), Abe Sun (3rd place, ratings 1800-1899), Eli Elder (3rd place, ratings 1700-1799), Sawyer Harris (3rd place, ratings 1600-1699), Alexander Federici (1st place, U1200) and Spencer Chubb (2nd place, U1200).

In addition to the impressive number of individual trophies, 4 schools brought home one of the 20 team trophies awarded: Whitney Young High School co-champions, IMSA 10th place, Highland Park High School 14th place, and New Trier High School 16th place.

Results for all other sections and the side-events are listed below.

U1600 K-12 SECTION:
Highland Park High School’s Joseph Harrigan took 2nd place, leading the 5 players who had 6 points after tie-breaks. Alexander Parkel from Whitney Young also had 6 points and took 5th after tie-breaks. Also receiving individual trophies: Junliang Liu 10th place, Jacob Davis 11th place, Clayton Davis 12th place and Alexander Fogel 13th place.
Team trophies were won by Whitney Young High School (9th place) and Highland Park High School (14th place).

U1200 K-12 SECTION:
Five individual trophies were earned by Illinois players in the U1200 section. Carl Widmann from Benet Academy took 5th place. Three Argo High School players received trophies: Christian Diaz took 6th, Justin Turziak took 12th and Moises Cornejo took 13th. Henry Lovellette from Normal Community West tied for 17th place with 5.5 points and received a 35th place trophy after tie-breaks.

Argo High School took the 1st place U1200 team trophy. Also receiving team tophies were Benet Academy (7th place), Normal Community West HS (16th place) and Evanston Township High School (25th place).

U800 K-12 SECTION:
Five trophies were awarded to Illinois players in the U800 section. Zabdiel Green had a perfect 7.0 and took first place uncontested. Ignatius Rainey took 5th place with 6.0 points. Adrian Gonzalez took 16th place with 5.5 points. Chris Williams took 21st place with 5.0 points. Shane Stevens tied for the 25th place trophy with 5.0 points. Three Illinois schools also brought home team trophies: Thornton High School 4th place, De La Salle Institute 14th place, and Gallistel Language Academy 15th place.

UNRATED K-12 SECTION:
Of the 13 trophies awarded to individuals, 8 of them went to Illinois players. Dominic Salvino 1st place, Roan Pluta 2nd place, Conor Richards 4th place, Antonio Butler 5th place, Airion Edmondson 7th place, Gustavo Lopas 8th place, James Marshall IV 10th place, and Nicholas Mirabile tied for 10th place. The top two teams in the section were also from Illinois: Benet Academy 1st place and Thornton High Shool 2nd place.

BUGHOUSE RESULTS:
Illinois dominated the bughouse awards with 3 of the 5 trophies awarded to Illinois teams. Abid Anwar and Ajay Balaraman took 2nd place with 8 points. Akhil and Nikhil Kalghatgi, tied with 2nd but took 4th place on tiebreaks. Ricky Roman and Matthew Stevens took 5th place with 7 points.

BLITZ RESULTS:
Aydin Turgut took 3rd place with 10.5 points. Whitney Young players Akhil Kalghatgi, Matthew Stevens and Nikhil Kalghatgi took 7th, 8th and 9th places respectively, with 10 points each. Aiden Carey from Naperville North took 17th place. Receiving class trophies for Blitz: Benjamin Tarnow (1st place, unrated), James Marshall IV (2nd place, unrated), Mackenzie Casas (3rd place, unrated), Ricky Roman (1st place, ratings 1700-1799), Michael Chiflikyan (1st place, ratings 1600-1699), Joseph Harrigan (3rd place, ratings 1500-1599), Andrew Orlos (3rd place, ratings 1400-1499), Secundino Vazquez (1st place, ratings 1200-1299), Jeffrey Cheng (2nd place, ratings 1200-1299), Justin Turziak (1st place, ratings U1200), Geoffrey Wu (2nd place, ratings U1200), and Christian Diaz (3rd place, ratings U1200).

5 of the 20 team trophies for Blitz went to Illinois schools: 2nd place Whitney Young High School, 6th place Highland Park High School, 9th place New Trier High School, 10th place Naperville North High School, and 15th place Argo High School.

Congratulations to all of the participants and teams who represented Illinois at the USCF National High School 2018 tournament! The next National High School tournament will be held in Schaumburg in March 2019! Stay tuned for the National Elementary tournament coming up in 2 weeks in Nashville.