An incredible total of 145 boys and girls from Northern California earned recognition on the NorCal Top 100 Lists, which are compiled using the monthly US Chess Top 100 Lists. The junior rankings include 34 titled players, including 22 masters, 3 IMs and one WIM. The most competitive ages range from 10 to 12 and 16 to 17, each year with at least a dozen representatives. Hearty congratulations to all of these kids, their parents and coaches!
More than 90 of these talented youngsters hold a published FIDE rating recognizable around the globe, including almost all those age 12 or older. Merely a dozen years ago, the number was in the single digits. Many young globe trotters already represented California and the United States abroad, either at Pan American Youth or at the World Youth and World Cadet festivals. Indeed, success in chess can serve as a passport to travel.
Without further ado, I present the cream of the crop, the Best of the West. Check out my website for the complete NorCal Top 100 Lists for July 2017.
GOLD MEDAL (Top 5)
- SM Jack Zhu #5 age 18
- IM Vignesh Panchanatham #3 age 17 and National Champion K-12
- IM Kesav Viwanadha #4 age 17 and National Champion K-12
- IM Cameron Wheeler #4 age 16
- WIM Ashritha Eswaran #4 girls 16-18
- SM Rayan Taghizadeh #4 age 14 and National Champion K-9
- SM Andrew Hong #1 age 12
- NM Balaji Daggupati #4 age 12
- ** WCM Rochelle Wu #2 girls 10-12
- NM Christopher Yoo #2 age 10
- Rui Yang Yan #5 girls 10-12
- ** Eric Li #2 age 9
- CM Sriram Krishnakumar #3 age 8
SILVER MEDAL (Top 15)
- NM Gabriel Bick (18)
- FM Ladia Jirasek (16)
- NM Siddharth Banik (16)
- NM Michael Wang (15)
- NM Ivan Ke (14)
- FM Josiah Stearman (13)
- Annapoorni Meiyappan (12)
- CM Chinguun Bayaraa (11)
- Kevin Pan (11)
- WCM Aksithi Eswaran (11)
- Adrian Kondakov (9)
- WCM Ashley Pang (9)
- WCM Anika Rajaram (8)
BRONZE MEDAL (Top 30)
- NM Teemu Virtanen (18)
- NM Allan Beilin (18)
- NM Pranav Nagarajan (17)
- NM Colin Chow (17)
- NM Art Zhao (17)
- NM Richard Yi (17)
- Sophia Li (17)
- Kimberly Liu (14)
- Justin Feng (13)
- David Pan (13)
- Alex Kolay (12)
- Maurya Palusa (11)
- Krishna Nathan (11)
- Vyom Vidyarthi (10)
- Shawnak Shivakumar (9)
- Kally Wen (9)
- Nitish Nath (8)
- Shaaketh Sivakumar (8)
- Omya Vidyarthi (7)
- Ryan Wang (7)
