NorCal Top Juniors - March 2014

FM Yian Liou

FM Cameron Wheeler

In anticipation of the upcoming National and State Championships, I completed the long-overdue update of my NorCal rankings for the best juniors and adults.  This post recognizes the Top 10 highest rated youngsters, both by USCF and FIDE (international) rankings.  Please follow this link for a more extensive listing, including the Top 20 players per category.

The explosion of talented juniors living in the Bay Area continues.  No fewer than ten chess kids 14 years old or younger can call themselves "master" today!  Three more teens currently find themselves within 20 points of the 2200 threshold, and another two reached the magic number but have since fallen below.  By my count, there are 39 experts and masters under age 18 who push pawns and sacrifice knights in Northern California.  Amazing!

NorCal Top 10 Age 12-17

1. FM Liou, Yian (age 16) 2475 USCF
2. FM Wheeler, Cameron (13) 2345
3. NM Viswanadha, Kesav (14) 2334
4. NM Panchanatham, Vignesh (14) 2325
5. NM Banik, Siddharth G (13) 2247
6. NM Eswaran, Ashritha (13) 2231
7. NM Chow, Colin (14) 2224
8. NM Beilin, Allan (14) 2219
9. NM Iyengar, Udit (13) 2218
10. NM Wang, Michael (12) 2215

NorCal Top 10 Age 11 & Under

Rayan Taghizadeh

1. nm Taghizadeh, Rayan (age 11) 2181 USCF
2. Stearman, Josiah Paul (10) 2102
3. Niemann, Hans Moke (10) 2054
4. Liu, Joanna (11) 2006
5. Hong, Andrew Zhang (9) 1977
6. Daggupati, Balaji (8) 1919
7. Pan, David (10) 1862
8. Murugappan, Ganesh M (11) 1855
9. Zhou, Anthony (11) 1853
10. Feng, Justin (10) 1830

NorCal Top 10 FIDE Rated Age 17 & Under

1. FM Liou, Yian (age 16) 2387 FIDE 
2. FM Wheeler, Cameron (13) 2229
3. NM Viswanadha, Kesav (14) 2194
4. NM Panchanatham, Vignesh (14) 2121
5. NM Beilin, Allan (14) 2096
6. Apte, Neel (15) 2095
7. nm Liu, Daniel (16) 2091
8. NM Chow, Colin (14) 2082
9. Li, Edward (16) 2077
10. NM Wang, Michael (12) 2062

List adapted from Fpawn Chess
Photo credit Bay Area International