2026 Illinois Youth Invitationals

This past weekend (April 24-26) the ICA held the Youth Invitationals. This is when 20 of the top-rated players for each section get invited to compete for a chance to represent our state at the national level. Players were invited based on ratings to play in one of the following sections:

• Denker – High School 9^th to 12^th grade
• Haring – Girls K to 12^th grade
• Barber – 6^th to 8^th grade
• Rockefeller – Kindergarten to 5^th grade
• Ashley – Kindergarten to 3^rd grade

Denker

               Thanks to an exciting blitz playoff triumph, Anshul Shetty was named the 2026 Illinois Denker qualifier.  The Waubonsie Valley sophomore forced a playoff against Lane Tech senior Dario Pjevic after both finished with 4.0’s in the five-round event.

               Shetty won the first game of the playoff and successfully played for a draw in the rematch.  Anshul does not consider himself to be a strong blitz player – but suggested this was a strength of his opponent, and he felt fortunate to come away victorious.

               A three-way tie for third place included Stevenson sophomore Debarghya Das, Stephenson junior Hemanth Samayamantri and Rohan Menon, all with 3.5. Pjevic collected second place honors while Debarghya, who handed Shetty his lone loss in the third round, earned the third place trophy.

Anshul Shetty - 1st place                                                                                                  Dario Pjevic - 2nd place

Haring

               In the Haring Invitational for girls, top-rated Women’s Candidate Master Elizabeth Xia, compiled four wins before drawing in the final round against Gaofei Wang. Xia finished with 4.5, a full-point ahead of a four-pack of 3.5’s including Shivani Manimaran, Valerie Yan, Victoria Chen and Wang. On tiebreaks, Manimaran, an Oswego East sophomore, and Yan collected second and third place hardware.

Elizabeth Xia - 1st place

Barber

               In the middle school Barber competition, Artemii Khanbutaev compiled a pattern similar to Xia’s, winning his first four games before drawing in the last round.  Khanbutaev’s 4.5 score was a full-point better than a four-pack including strong players such as Aidan Baker, Justin Lee, Jacob Tran and Sachit Rajkumar. Baker brought home second place hardware; Lee took third on tiebreaks.

Artemii Khanbutaev - 1st place

Rockefeller

               The K-5 Rockefeller competition saw a pair of Candidate Masters require a blitz playoff after compiling 4.5’s and drawing head-to-head in the third round.  Aiden Li will represent Illinois in Grand Rapids, Michigan this summer after prevailing, while Matthew Yu nabbed the second place trophy.  Krish Vignesh was the lone 3.5 tally to earn the third place trophy.

               Vignesh finished ahead of a five-pack of 3.0’s including Vaibhav Juturu, Reyansh Singh, Tanish Sen, Bishrelt Munkhsuld and Dylan Vogel.

 

Ashley

               For the first-time ever, the Maurice Ashley section fielded competitors up to third grade. Top-rated Emily Tang opted to play against a field of 19 boys – and compiled a perfect 5.0 score.

               A full-point back, Adhvik Mohan came back from a first-round loss to win clear second place with his 4.0 result.  Ethan Li and Srihan Komarina tied for third with 3.5, with Li earning the third place trophy on tiebreaks.

               MoSaloh Ahmadaliev, Samarth Gupta, Tarak Jeyanthkumar, Nimalan Manmathasivaram and Ness Mehta comprised the youthful five-pack who tied for fifth place with 3.0’s.

Emily Tang - 1st place

               The national Denker, Barber Rockefeller, Ashley and Haring competitions will be held in early August.  Combined with the results from Senior winner GM Dmitry Gurevich, the youth representatives will vie for the top score with the other represented states.