Illinois Top 165

I put work in to try to make this as accurate as possible.  If you have any of the information, like where a player that I list as "unknown" goes to school, or what year they're in.. let me know.  If I'm missing someone, let me know.  If I have anything wrong.. you got the idea.  

1. George Li Jr. IMSA 2398

2. David Peng Fr. New Trier 2374
3. Jacob Furfine Fr. New Trier 2295

4. Alex Bian Jr. Stevenson 2286

5. Spencer Lehmann Sr. Barrington 2223
6. Vincent Do Fr. Unknown 2198
7. Anshul Adve. Sr. Urbana University 2194

8. Matthew Stevens So. Whitney Young 2181
9. Akhil Kalghatgi So. Whitney Young 2148

10. Daniel Bronfeyn Jr. Mundelein 2129

11. Nikhil Kalghatgi So. Whitney Young 2093

12. Jack Curcio Jr. Maine South 2079

13. Rishi Narayanan So. Barrington 2066

14. Hanson Hao So. Bloomington 2042

15. Andrew Fei Jr. Dunlap 2026
16. Zhen Mo Sr. Hinsdale Central 2021

17. Miranda Liu So. Stevenson 2010
18. Marissa Li Fr. Naperville North 1985
19. Pranav Sriram Sr. Lincoln Park 1968
20. Eddie Zhang Fr. Fremd 1915

21. James Wei Jr. IMSA 1902
22. Conrad Oberhaus Jr. Stevenson 1868
23. Eric Starkman Jr. Highland Park 1866
24. Ishaar Ganesan Fr. Unknown 1857
25. Tyler Tompkins Sr. Hinsdale Central 1836

26. Bryce McClanahan Sr. Glenbrook South 1833

27. Abe Sun Jr. New Trier 1832
28. Shayna Provine Jr. IMSA 1818
29. George McCoy Jr. Northside 1803

30. Alec Feygin Sr. Glenbrook South 1789

31. Adam Wallach Fr. Stevenson 1782
32. Henry Curcio Fr. Maine South 1774

33. Blair Hu Jr. IMSA 1756
34. Richard Zhang So. Naperville North 1755
35. Shon Shtern Sr. Glenbrook South 1755

36. Jack Xiao So. Stevenson 1741

37. Patrick Li So. Dunlap 1731
38. Harrison Loh Sr. Naperville North 1720

39. Philip Song Jr. Naperville North 1718
40. Quinn Baker Sr. Oak Park-River Forest 1713
41. Darek Nowak Sr. Maine South 1707
42. Omkar Prabhavalkar So. Barrington 1703
43. Cassie Parent Jr. IMSA 1702
44. Billy Hoseman So. Glenbrook South 1686
45. Mihir Bafna Jr. Bloomington HS 1682
46. Jonathan Lee So. Northside 1678
47. Josh Prupes Sr. Glenbrook North 1678
48. Rahul Dhiman Sr. Stevenson 1665
49. Nathan Yamaguchi Jr. New Trier 1662
50. Gustav Jennetten Sr. Peoria Richwoods 1655
51. Jason Drews Jr. Cary Grove 1652
52. Ajay Balaraman So. Naperville North 1645
53. Arda Sonmez Jr. Highland Park 1643
54. Emma Wang So. Hinsdale Central 1636
55. Jack Thain Jr. Charleston 1635
56. Joseph Isaac Jr. Naperville North 1634
57. Eli Elder Fr. Highland Park 1630
58. Will Richards So. Wheaton North 1624
59. Akash Mattu Sr. Naperville Central 1615
59. Nathan Fong Sr. Glenbrook North 1615
61. Bethany Simos Sr. Naperville Central 1611
62. Alex Lim Jr. Neuqua Valley 1610

63. Vikram Dara So. Neuqua Valley 1603
64. Kenny Kotowsky Jr. Maine South 1595
65. Jonathan Liu Sr. IMSA 1593

66. Shashank Bala So. Stevenson 1589
67. Nate Tracy-Amoroso Sr. Evanston 1584
68. Patrick Kut Jr. Andrew 1568
69. Maxwell Jong Jr. Naperville North 1565

70. Monish Bhasin Sr. Naperville North 1563
71. Wesley Gizel Sr. Barrington 1558
71. Shanku Nair Jr. Normal Community 1558

73. Shvetali Thatte Unknown Unknown 1555

74. Ritesh Sivakumar Jr. Naperville Central 1552

75. Mindren Lu Jr. Northside 1552

76. Nathan Saltzman So. Hinsdale Central 1543
77. Isha Gani Sr. Northside 1541

78. Emily McClanahan Jr. Glenbrook South 1538

79. Kavin Lavari So. Stevenson 1537

80. Liam O'Carroll So. Evanston 1535
81. Elijah Patterson Unknown Unknown 1517
82. Max Matura Unknown Unknown 1507

83. Jesse Wang Sr. Naperville North 1502

84. Matthew Wong So. Lane 1491
85. Ricky Roman So. Whitney Young 1484
86. Sean Insley So. Indian Creek 1479

87. Matthew Kosova Sr. Northside 1477
88. Anatole Sullivan Sr. Glenbrook North 1474
89, Joseph Buklis Fr. Unknown 1473

90. Jiedong Duan Sr. Niles North 1469

91. Oliver Brady Jr. Evanston 1466
92. Will Olafsson Sr. Maine South 1457
93. Austin Insley Jr. Indian Creek 1454

94. Michael Dula Sr. Northridge Prep 1438
95. Adit Ghosh Sr. Stevenson 1429
96. Eric Helgemo Jr. Niles North 1427
97. Prithiv Kumar Jr. Bloomington HS 1421

98. Raymond Liu Jr. Rolling Meadows 1414
98. Nithin Sebastian Jr. Normal Community 1414
98. Grant Kim Sr. Glenbrook North 1414
98. Matthew Kelly Jr. Northridge Prep 1414
102. Perry Zhao Unknown Unknown 1410

103. Clayton Davis So. Normal Community West 1406
104. Matthew Tang Jr. Hinsdale Central 1405
105. Nick Allison Jr. Andrew 1402

106. Jarun Jannak Jr. Andrew 1385
107. Kevin Di Sr. Whitney Young 1384
108. Nicholas Edels So. Barrington 1381
109. Anton Sebastian Jr. Sandburg 1369
110. Andrew Orlos So. Argo 1337

111. Arnav Batta So. Fremd 1330

112. Joseph Harrigan Jr. Highland Park 1329
113. Zach Warsh Sr. Highland Park 1327
114. Georgia Wolf So. Lane 1322

115. Perry Hoag So. Homewood-Flossmoor 1318

116. Capison Pang So. Hinsdale Central 1317

117. Alex Parkel Jr. Whitney Young 1312
118. Ryan Guan Unknown Unknown 1281
119. Daniel Hammond So. Andrew 1274
120. Rohan Narasimha Jr. 1268
121. Muhammed Lotfi So. Northside 1266
122. Kyle Kras Fr. Andrew 1264
123. Ricky Nguyen Jr. Metamora 1264
124. Saman Tabatabaee Sr. New Trier 1261

125. Prathik Kandimalla So. Barrington 1247

126. Geoff Murphy Jr. Metamora 1246

127. Micah Hill Jr. Naperville Central 1242
128. Anthony Mu So. Fremd 1241
129. Steffano Herrera Sr. Argo 1239

130. George Polski So. Naperville North 1222

131. Shawn Smith Sr. Wheaton-Warrenville South 1221

132. Riley Wilson Sr. Evanston 1217

133. Anshu Indusekar Jr. Neuqua Valley 1216

134. Patrick Tippens Jr. Highland Park 1214
135. Maxiwell Luo Unknown Unknown 1207

136. Branden Wagner Jr. Glenbrook South 1201
137. Nathan Frommelt Jr. Neuqua Valley 1188

138. Rebekah Nielsen So. Normal Community West 1180

139. Jack Wakeman So. Wheaton North 1171
140. Connor Cai So. Dunlap 1170
141. Conrad Zborwski Sr. Wheaton North 1164
142. Gabe Chambers So. Normal Community West 1161
143. John-Michael Micklich Jr. Bloomington Central Catholic 1161
144. Amadeo Findlay Jr. Andrew 1149
145. Nick Salahi Jr. Wheaton North 1133
146. Omar Majzoub Unknown Unknown 1136
147. Adarsh Mattu So. Naperville Central 1132
148. Steven Ma Sr. Naperville North 1126
149. David Butler Sr. Maine South 1116
150. Adrian Zanoria Jr. Dunlap 1115
151. Arthur Rodriguez Jr. Belleville East 1114
152. Jacob Minin So. Urbana University
153. Christian Diaz Jr. Argo 1073
154. Ryan Wandke Sr. Naperville Central 1066
155. Suhrud Raut Jr. Normal Community 1065
155. Simon Groenendijk So. New Trier 1065
157. Haisong Yang Jr. Wheaton Warrenville South 1062
158. Ankush Moolky Unknown Unknown 1062
159. Matt Blanton So. Naperville Central 1053
160. Jeffrey Cheng Unknown Unknown 1053
161. Arthur Lyssenko Jr. Dunlap 1050
162. Asher Borstein Sr. Payton 1044
163. Aaron Kaufman-Levin So. Oak Park-River Forest 1043
164. Evan Duncan So. Andrew 1041
165. Ryan Majzoub Unknown Unknown 1032

IHSA Top 150

Ranking updated as of 10/06

In this one, provisionals with 15 rated games and players with ratings included without activity in the past year.

1. George Li Jr. IMSA 2382

2. David Peng Fr. New Trier 2374

3. Alex Bian Jr. Stevenson 2286

4. Jacob Furfine Fr. New Trier 2282

5. Spencer Lehmann Sr. Barrington 2223
6. Anshul Adve. Sr. Urbana University 2207

7. Matthew Stevens So. Whitney Young 2189
8. Vincent Do Fr. Unknown 2181
9. Akhil Kalghatgi So. Whitney Young 2143

10. Daniel Bronfeyn Jr. Mundelein 2129

11. Nikhil Kalghatgi So. Whitney Young 2082

12. Jack Curcio Jr. Maine South 2079

13. Rishi Narayanan So. Barrington 2059

14. Hanson Hao So. Bloomington 2042

15. Andrew Fei Jr. Dunlap 2026

16. Miranda Liu So. Stevenson 2010
17. Marissa Li Fr. Naperville North 2008
18. Pranav Sriram Sr. Lincoln Park 1968
19. Eddie Zhang Fr. Fremd 1919

20. James Wei Jr. IMSA 1902
21. Eric Starkman Jr. Highland Park 1874

22. Conrad Oberhaus Jr. Stevenson 1868

23. Bryce McClanahan Sr. Glenbrook South 1833

24. Abe Sun Jr. New Trier 1832

25. Tyler Tompkins Sr. Hinsdale Central 1820

26. Alec Feygin Sr. Glenbrook South 1789

27. Shayna Provine Jr. IMSA 1785
28. Henry Curcio Fr. Maine South 1774

29. George McCoy Jr. Northside 1759
30. Blair Hu Jr. IMSA 1756

31. Jack Xiao So. Stevenson 1741

32. Patrick Li So. Dunlap 1739
33. Richard Zhang So. Naperville North 1738

34. Billy Hoseman So. Glenbrook South 1737
35. Shon Shtern Sr. Glenbrook South 1726
36. Philip Song Jr. Naperville North 1714
37. Quinn Baker Sr. Oak Park-River Forest 1713
38. Darek Nowak Sr. Maine South 1707
39. Omkar Prabhavalkar So. Barrington 1703
40. Cassie Parent Jr. IMSA 1702
41. Mihir Bafna Jr. Bloomington HS 1684
42. Jonathan Lee So. Northside 1678
43. Josh Prupes Sr. Glenbrook North 1678
44. Rahul Dhiman Sr. Stevenson 1665
44. Nathan Yamaguchi Jr. New Trier 1665
46. Gustav Jennetten Sr. Peoria Richwoods 1655
47. Jason Drews Jr. Cary Grove 1652
48. Arda Sonmez Jr. Highland Park 1646
49. Vikram Dara So. Neuqua Valley 1634
50. Joseph Isaac Jr. Naperville North 1632
51. Will Richards So. Wheaton North 1624
51. Jack Thain Jr. Charleston 1624
53. Akash Mattu Sr. Naperville Central 1615
54. Nathan Fong Sr. Gleonbrook North 1615
55. Bethany Simos Sr. Naperville Central 1611
56. Alex Lim Jr. Neuqua Valley 1610
57. Kenny Kotowsky Jr. Maine South 1606

58. Eli Elder Fr. Highland Park 1605

59. Harrison Loh Sr. Naperville North 1603
60. Jonathan Liu Sr. IMSA 1593

61. Monish Bhasin Sr. Naperville North 1593
62. Shashank Bala So. Stevenson 1589
63. Patrick Kut Jr. Andrew 1574

64. Ajay Balaraman So. Naperville North 1567
65. Maxwell Jong Jr. Dunlap 1565
66. Wesley Gizel Sr. Barrington 1558
67. Shanku Nair Jr. Normal Community 1558

68. Shvetali Thatte Unknown Unknown 1555

69. Ritesh Sivakumar Jr. Naperville Central 1552

70. Mindren Lu Jr. Northside 1552

71. Nathan Saltzman So. Hinsdale Central 1541
72. Isha Gani Sr. Northside 1541
73. Emma Wang So. Hinsdale Central 1538

73. Emily McClanahan Jr. Glenbrook South 1538

75. Kavin Lavari So. Stevenson 1537

76. Julian O'Carroll So. Evanston 1535
77. Elijah Patterson Unknown Unknown 1520

77. Jesse Wang Sr. Naperville North 1502

79. Matthew Wong So. Lane 1491
80. Sean Insley So. Indian Creek 1488
81. Ricky Roman So. Whitney Young 1484

82. Matthew Kosova Sr. Northside 1477
83. Anatole Sullivan Sr. Glenbrook North 1474
84, Joseph Buklis Fr. Unknown 1473

85. Jiedong Duan Sr. Niles North 1469

86. Oliver Brady Jr. Evanston 1466
87. Austin Insley Jr. Indian Creek 1461
88. Will Olafsson Sr. Maine South 1457

89. Nate Tracy-Amoroso Sr. Evanston 1452

90. Michael Dula Sr. Northridge Prep 1438
91. Raymond Liu Jr. Rolling Meadows 1434 
92. Adit Ghosh Sr. Stevenson 1429
93. Nick Allison Jr. Andrew 1428

94. Prithiv Kumar Jr. Bloomington HS 1421
95. Nithin Sebastian Jr. Normal Community 1414
95. Grant Kim Sr. Glenbrook North 1414
97. Georgia Wolf So. Lane 1408

98. Clayton Davis So. Normal Community West 1406

99. Matthew Kelly Jr. Northridge Prep 1396
100. Jarun Jannak Jr. Andrew 1393
101. Kevin Di Sr. Whitney Young 1384
102. Nicholas Edels So. Barrington 1381

103. Eric Helgemo Jr. Niles north 1372

104. Matthew Tang Jr. Hinsdale Central 1351

105. Arnav Batta So. Fremd 1348

106. Joseph Harrigan Jr. Highland Park 1329

107. Perry Hoag So. Homewood-Flossmoor 1318

108. Capison Pang So. Hinsdale Central 1317

109. Alex Parkel Jr. Whitney Young 1312
110. Kyle Kras Fr. Andrew 1283
111. Daniel Hammond So. Andrew 1265
112. Ricky Nguyen Jr. Metamora 1264
113. Saman Tabatabaee Sr. New Trier 1261

114. Zach Warsh Sr. Highland Park 1257
114. Andrew Orlos So. Argo 1257

116. Muhammed Lotfi So. Northside 1247

116. Prathik Kandimalla So. Barrington 1247

118. Geoff Murphy Jr. Metamora 1246

119. Micah Hill Jr. Naperville Central 1242
120. Steffano Herrera Sr. Argo 1239

121. George Polski So. Naperville North 1222

122. Shawn Smith Sr. Wheaton-Warrenville South 1221

123. Riley Wilson Sr. Evanston 1217

123. Anthony Mu So. Fremd 1217

125. Anshu Indusekar Jr. Neuqua Valley 1216

126. Patrick Tippens Jr. Highland Park 1214

127. Branden Wagner Jr. Glenbrook South 1201

128. Rebekah Nielsen So. Normal Community West 1180

129. Nathan Frommelt Jr. Neuqua Valley 1173

130. Jack Wakeman So. Wheaton North 1171
131. Connor Cai So. Dunlap 1170
132. Conrad Zborwski Sr. Wheaton North 1164
133. Gabe Chambers So. Normal Community West 1161
133. John-Michael Micklich Jr. Bloomington Central Catholic 1161
135. Nick Salahi Jr. Wheaton North 1141
136. Adarsh Mattu So. Naperville Central 1132
137. Steven Ma Sr. Naperville North 1126
138. David Butler Sr. Maine South 1116
139. Adrian Zanoria Jr. Dunlap 1115
140. Arthur Rodriguez Jr. Belleville East 1114
141. Jacob Minin So. Urbana University
142. Christian Diaz Jr. Argo 1073
143. Ryan Wandke Sr. Naperville Central 1066
144. Suhrud Raut Jr. Normal Community 1065
145. Simon Groenendijk So. New Trier 1062
145. Haisong Yang Jr. Wheaton Warrenville South 1062
147. Arthur Lyssenko Jr. Dunlap 1050
148. Asher Borstein Sr. Payton 1044
149. Aaron Kaufman-Levin So. Oak Park-River Forest 1043
149. Matt Blanton So. Naperville Central 1043

Knowing your openings, why it helps

There are plenty of better sources of opening knowledge; however, pick up a book like MCO, and unless you have tons of money to pay the author, you get no interaction.  This is a segment on how I win, particularly in games where I tie an advantage back to the opening, or even just knowing the opening.

General opening recommendations for openings are:

a)  Stick to openings; at least for a long while - Don't flip flop and play the French one week, the Sicilian the next and the Caro-Kann the next.  Why?  Because you want the chance to be in the same positions over and over again so you can improve over time.  Why switch and put yourself in such drastically different positions.

b)  Have something for everything - You've been studying Capablanca playing 1. d4 in games in which his opponent played d5.  You are feeling great about your understanding of what he did against different things (just an example).  You get to a tournament, your opponent plays.. the Dutch!  And you have nothing.  You look at his Stonewall setup and you have no idea what's going on.

Why not take chessbase on your smart phone, put in 30 minutes, and infinitely have a better idea from the percentages what masters playing white are trying to do and avoid.  If you're a good player, it's not going to be hard that you're fighting for control of e4, so are they, and if they force retention of control of this square, you have to make them pay for it with some discomfort.

c)  Always check your losses - If you lose, most of the time it will be because of something lacking in your middlegame or middlegame-endgame transition.  Check to make sure that when your opponent played some slightly different move, proceeding as you normally do wasn't a bad idea.  You can, once again, use chessbase percentages for this.

d) Start your chess career playing 1. e4 and 1. ... e5 v. e4.  Learn how to play open positions.. how to stay solid.  And then, when you're ready to get serious, learn d4 and d5.

I had an 1800 who is from Europe and hadn't lost in many games at Glenwood Chess Tournaments lose to me while he was playing the Grunfeld.  He came up to me after and said "I feel Americans are just brutally attacking only, and conversely you really understand static positions."  I'm not sure about that; but I do feel that there is a benefit to starting with e4, and then switching to d4, even if the switch is not permanent.

Qualifying ratings on chess.com

I wish that what I had was a bunch of notations from slow games, but sadly I lose most of those.  What I do have is many blitz games on chess.com.  Mistakes often happen in blitz, but I tend to believe that the beginning of games represents your inherent ideas about opening play, because you are not yet under time pressure.

Every time I argue to my students "you should know this line" or "that trap" I get back, "yeah but a strong player isn't going to fall into that."

Most of the players I know are between 100-150 points lower on chess.com than their USCF strength, so with that qualification, here are blitz games I have compiled with the corresponding ratings.

White - Joeanthony1900 1820
Black - Ashamril 1792

1. d4 d5 2. c4 c6 3. Nf3 Nf6 4. Nc3 Bg4

This is when I just feel fangs come out on my side of the board.  I know what to do when black fails to maintain control of the b7 square, and while a very good player may be fine, they better really know what they are doing.

Why do I like d4?  I feel it allows me to grind the game to a halt, limit opponents opportunities and then take shots when I feel it's safe to do so.  He just made me feel safe; observe the change in tempo from play that has been quiet to this point (and would remain so had he played say.. e6).

5. Ne5 Bf5 6. cxd5 Nxd5 7. Qb3 Bc8 8. e4 f6 9. exd5 fxe5 10. dxe5 cxd5 11. Nxd5 e6 12. Bb5+

I'm already looking at 12. ... Bd7 13. Nc7+ Qxc7 14. Qxe6+! Kd8 15. Bg5+ as a possibility (not checked with a computer for accuracy).  Will it materialize?  I don't know at this point.  But a NM who was once rated in the high 2300s told me that the difference between him and most non-masters he's met is that most of them wrote certain moves off as unplayable, where as he tried to make them playable.

12. ... Nc6 13. Nf4 Qe7 14. 0-0 g6 15. Nh3 h6 16. Qc2!

This is the move that could be dropped right into the middle of Reuben Fine The Middlegame In Chess... I believe that one would have to be rated much higher than the average very strong club player to see that using h6 to stop the massive threat of Bg5 and Rd1 is superseded in terms of immediate peril by the weakness created on g6... at least with the clarity that many lower rated players would like to claim AFTER seeing Qc2.  Perhaps better was a simple Qb4 instead of h6.

What I will contend here though is that this entire pressured situation goes back to seeing Bg4 and pouncing all over it, knowing what to do and the resulting pressure created.

Black went on to choose erroneously to protect g6 and lost the rook and the game.

This next game was a 2/1 game, where I don't play as much and where my rating is much lower, but I wanted to include it because of how exactly the house falls.

White: Torblednam 1366
Black: Joeanthony1900 1451
1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 e6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 a6 5. Nc3 Qc7 6. Be2 Nf6 7. 0-0 b5 8. Bd3 Bb7 9. Bg5 b4

The problem that I don't think white expected in this move, but that I've also experienced against plenty of strong players in slow games, is that my threat of an in-between move comes with me capturing with a pawn and threatening queening; where as his doesn't.

10. Nce2 Nxe4 11. Bf4 Qc8 12. Bg3 Nxg3 13. Nxg3

Here I'm already elated.  I won a pawn by understanding e6 Sicilian openings and pressure on e4, and I just got a bishop for a knight in a very open game.

13. ... Be7 14. Nh5 0-0 15. Nf4 Qc5 16. Nb3 Qg5 17. g3 Bd6 18. Nh3 Qd4 19. f3 Qh5 20. Kg2 Nc6 21. Be4 f5??

Here I do make a mistake, but my opponent didn't take advantage.  I didn't set myself up due to time, but I'm a believer his mistakes in the opening took place when he had plenty of time...  Here he does not take advantage.  I probably should have played Bc7.

22. Bd3 Ne5 23. Be2 Bc7 24. Qd2 a5 25. Nc1 Bb6 26. Nd3 Ng4

Now, one can say "it's blitz."  I'm not convinced that the average 1700 USCF player, even with time, sees the threat of Ng4 followed by the now protected Ne3+.  Your average club player likes intuitive moves.. the underestimate the threat of moves that do things like "put a piece on a square that is naturally attacked by a pawn" even if said pawn cannot take.

27. Ne5 Ne3+ 28. Kh1 Qxh3 29. Qxd7 Qg2#

This next game is against a chess.com 1912, which probably means that this guy is very possibly a USCF expert... You can tell by the moves that he clearly just didn't see a threat here.. which is why it pays to know your openings.  My students would claim that a player this strong "wouldn't make a mistake like that."  This guy did...

White: Joeanthony1900 1842
Black: WuhoUnited 1912

1. d4 d5 2. c4 c6 3. Nf3 Bg4 4. Ne5 Bh5 5. Nc3 Nd7 6. cxd5 cxd5 7. Bf4 Ngf6 8. Qb3 Nxe5 9. Bxe5 e6 10. Qxb7 Be7 11. Qc6+ Qd7 12. Qxa8 Black resigns

Here's the thing, you can argue "oh yeah, blitz, Qd7 is a terrible mistake."  It is.  However, black was already in a lot of trouble here.  On Nd7, without even looking for better, immediately one can see that Bxg7 wins a pawn.  e4 also has some potential.  Kf8 comes with it's own positional problems.  Black clearly misunderstood the opening.  It would have been my bad if I had failed to punish bad ideas behind Bg4.

In this next one, I play a player who underestimates one of my favorite threats, Qc2 in indian openings with dual mate/h1-a8 threats coming.  Start with this rule I have in d4 openings.. when they fianchetto queenside, you do the same kingside.

White: Joeanthony1900 1838
Black: ID67 1833

1. d4 d5 2. c4 e6 3. Nf3 Nf6 4. Nc3 b6 5. cxd5 Nxd5 6. Nxd5 Qxd5 7. g3 Bb5 8. Bg2 Nc6 9. 0-0 Rd8 10. Bf4 Bd6 11. Bxd6 Qxd6 12. e3 Ba6 13. Re1 0-0 14. Rc1 Bb7 15. Qc2 Rd7

Here it comes..

16. Ng5!!

Threatening mate or winning a piece on c6.  By the way, I've got this exact threat going in rated games..

16. ... g6 17. Bxc6

Black resigns..

I'm a huge believer that knowing your openings creates middle game threats at a higher rate than not knowing.  In this game, knowing that his Tartakower setup meant taking on d5 was key...

How to get better at chess

Hey everyone, my name is Joe Anthony.  I'm rated 1855.  You'll see me at tournaments teaching kids from my son's high school tournament and enjoying watching people try to get better at chess.  Chess is a rich game that is much more substantial to me than most "games."  Therefore, anytime someone is trying to get better, I'm a big fan of that.

"But Joe, are you the best person to be speaking on what makes someone better?"  .

My qualifications are these.  15-1-1 in the last year against 1600-1899; 50-1-2 all time v. <1400,  My best tournament included back-to-back-to-back wins against 1950, 2002 and 2130.  My best students have gone from provisional to 1596, 1446 and 1279 in nine months.  And they're far from done.  The 1596 played a GM at the Illinois Open, and though he never had probably even surefire drawing chances, he didn't look out of place.  In their first open tournament, all three players beat players 1700 or higher.

And that's what I can help you with.  I'm 15-1-1 in the last year against players rated 1600-1899.  If you want to post that % against those players over a year and then say, "I had to go to Mesgen, cause Joe is just a 1855," great.

So if I've convinced you to dive in, let's go!

Talent.. it's like a cannon

Getting better at chess is hard work.  Before you start the process, be aware of your talent level to weigh whether or not you're ready for the commitment.  I've seen players agonize for a lifetime to be 1000.  If you want to do that, great.  But especially if you're going to pay for lessons, understand what you're getting into.

Natural talent level is going to determine what you need to put in to get X out.  Higher talent can put you on a much higher trajectory.

Coach?  

I agree with GM Boris Avrukh.  The best thing you can do to get better at chess is to hire a professional coach.  This coach should have a very high playing level and a great ability to express ideas.  That's going to cost you $80/hour.  If you have it, you should.  Most don't.

Then you can step all the way down to me charging $25/hour if you come to me (cheaper online), or $5 to analyze a game of yours and send you back my thoughts.  I also take a personal interest in my students' games without having to be paid to do so... if for example I see them at a tournament.

The final way you can go if you get down to $25/hour and you say, I don't want to spend that but I do want to get better.. is get ready to study.

What now?

What I'm about to provide is what you can do if you have the kind of talent that walks into the room at around 1200, and you want to get to 1600 and beyond.  If you have 800 talent and you still want this, just be prepared to work twice as hard.

Books 

Everyone has their favorites, and we can debate all day.  Here are my recommendations

Complete Book of Chess Strategy - Jeremy Silman

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1890085014/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=ilche-20&camp=1789&creative=9325&linkCode=as2&creativeASIN=1890085014&linkId=60104986432dabe6ff4d639d7217aaa7

I find this book to be a great litmus test in terms of being ready for the rest of the books.  It has page after page of concise and simplified examples of chess concepts.  But more important, if you can't follow this book, you might not be ready for my recommendations and should spend more time on puzzles and basic books.

If you're more like 800 strength and you need to get to 1200, I recommend chess magnet school.  It's where I have my son's high school coach send all of the kids who show up, aren't really serious chess players, but tell them that they're serious about trying to be one.  I think it's $26 for a year.  It has it's ceiling, but it really teaches you the basics very well.

I teach my stepsons (who I consider my sons), so I didn't come into their life until they were 8 and 9.  If I had them at 4 or 5, we would have been doing this.

If you can follow this book, you're ready for the following..

Zurich International Chess Tournament 1953 - David Bronstein
300 Chess Positions - Lev Alburt
Middlegame in Chess - Reuben Fine
Basic Chess Endings - Reuben Fine

Time for books tends to vary based on how much time you have and how much mental energy you have.  If you have the willingness to sit down and get serious like you are in college, these books should boost your ability.

Openings

Openings are not the only thing, but they are a thing.  Don't listen to someone who tells you not to study them at all.  However, be wary of someone who doesn't have strong middle game skills and yet is trying to convince you that "do this, then this, then game over."  You shouldn't spend more than about 15-20% of your study time on openings.

The tool?  Chessbase.  I think their app is like $7.99 on a smart phone and it breaks down opening moves by percentage of games in their database that WHITE won.

Eventually, if traffic and interest warrants it, I'll do a subscription with my best openings... probably for a very reasonable amount.

Tactics 

Chess.com's tactics trainer is great.  I forgot where I read that chess is tactical, even at the top levels, but it is.  Everything is about playing to make a big tactical shot a possibility.  And then, if your opponent simply defends well and makes your potential tactics too risky, you shift to playing for better endgames as your primary mindset... you always should be playing for a good endgame, but you will become more committed.

If you're serious about getting better at chess, do 50 tactics a day.  However, don't spend all your time on this.  A lot of tactics and setting up tactics is understanding chess concepts.  I've seen players spend all their time on tactics and they never get to the tactic because they don't understand things like "getting a knight to the 6th rank," "rook to the 7th," "controlling key squares" or "good bishop, bad bishop."  Your total chess knowledge is going to dictate how good your positional play is which in turn dictates what tactics you have.

The evolution of chess from the 1850s to today, if it has one central theme, can be summed up in the idea that there are resources (the games of the greats), that have been used to stagnate pure tactical play.

Endgames

Chess mentor is great for a lot of things, but especially for this.  You can start at the most basic levels of endgames and work your way up.  If you're a 1200 working hard to improve your middle game (where chess talent shows), and you're not finishing endgames, my bet is that a practical understanding of a) the opposition and b) centralization of the king can start to add those victories.

If you're like my best student, you can often play very "eh" middle games only to turn into a monster in the late middlegame/endgame.  Very few people are like this.

Play a lot!

Look,  I can tell you to read all these books and do all these puzzles and that's great.  But, go play 10,000 games and you'll be amazed what your brain just registers due to good consequence/bad consequence.

A multiplier effect of playing a lot is that if you just take your losses online and in tournaments, and then analyze with a computer, you'll skyrocket the value you get out of a specified number of games.
Understand what a computer is though.  When you're saying, "well, the computer liked it" and you can't verbalize a good reason why it's a good move, then you're not using a very valuable tool for what it is supposed to be used for.  Computers will give you ideas of big spikes due to things that good players often don't see because they're not intuitive.  But they shouldn't be used as a substitute for chess ideas.

Master games

Masters are masters because they're better than players who aren't.  What better games to look at, 10 or 20 at a time, than those played by the best players.

A master I know advised, as a top bang for your time buck, to look for games by top GMs against players rated 200+ points lower, and to just go through as many as you can rapidly to get to see the max amount of games and to see how top players put lower rated players away.

Chessgames.com is great for this.

Obviously, if you have a chance to look at annotated games and you have the time, it's even better.

Maxims of my chess

Now that we have your major resources of study down pat, what should you tell yourself?  What things will guide you to better chess.  I'll list some now.

Forget fear

I recently was looking at games of a 1200 player and it seemed that everything he did that was passive or that he wouldn't do that was active came with him telling me "well I was afraid of this."  The worst part was that there was nothing to fear.  Everything he was telling me was easily defended anyway.

You owe it to yourself not to be afraid.  If you play without fear and you lose because someone else is a better player, you'll get better in the future.  But you'll find out what you're capable of.  Don't confuse playing without fear with playing risky, bad chess.

I've seen 1200s stay at 1200 because they actually verbalize a good plan, and then say "yeah, but I didn't do that, I did this (very passive) move, because I was afraid of X."  And that leaves me putting my head into my hands.

A surly expert named Frisco Del Rosario once told me, "learn to know when your opponents perceived threats aren't really threats, so you can ignore them and get on with your own threats!"  If somebody lives this approach in all their games, yes, they will find out sometimes that the opponent did have real threats... but they will learn to realize their own.

Try also to remember this.  There are very few players who are so good that every game is about showing how good they ARE instead of getting better (primarily).  For most of us, the games we play this Saturday are primarily about making us better in following Saturdays.  So who cares if you play smart chess and get bold and aggressive and lose?  What, your world champion title is on the line?  No.  You owe it to the work you put in to take shots at your opponent.  And that's why what I hammer into my students is...

Look for superseding threats!  Always

There's a commonality with the players I've beaten in my life.  Of the 145 documented USCF wins I have, more than half of the players think I shouldn't have beaten them.  You could make a line out of most tournament halls and down the hallway of players who think I shouldn't have been able to do this or that.

I figured out why.  I've beaten a lot of players who were better in a broad array of chess skills.  Perhaps the player I beat had a better understanding of a wider range of chess techniques and topics.  In a game where we traded down, traded down and got to a 3-pawn v. 3-pawn endgame, he would have beaten me, because he's a better quiet endgame player.  But on move 17, I saw a chance to load up my pieces for a knight sac on e6 that would blow up the middle of his board, executing that move on move 18.. and before he got a chance to play a long game, the middle game got blown up.

Look at sacrifices.  Look at rook or queen sacrifices for pawns even.  Look at sacs of pieces on empty squares with no piece.  Look at in-between moves.

Steve Tennant, a master who has beaten very strong players once told me that a prime difference between masters and players who are not masters is this... "moves that you write off as crazy and impractical.. therefore not even looking at them, I see them as possible and make them happen when I have the opportunity."

Just realize that there are two kinds of players.  One player is saying, "I have a plan, you go ahead and have yours but this is mine, and mine will beat yours."  The other player is saying, "I have no plan.  My plan is just to try to trade down and play for a draw and pounce on you if you mess up."  You can get some wins with the second approach.  If you're amazingly accurate and you have a complete and comprehensive game, you can be a super GM with the latter approach.  I don't think that that approach is the best way to grow chess from 1200 to 1800 and beyond.

Don't make bad threats just to make threats... but look.  If you look,.. really look, there often is that Nxe6 sac for a pawn where the knight forks a queen and rook if black doesn't take it, and if black does capture with the f-pawn, you can recapture with the queen giving check and hitting the bishop on e4..

Play stronger players

I don't think that it's an accident that I've settled at 1875-ish.  When I had time to devote to playing a lot, I was playing George Mandrusov (2050) and the deceased Alexander Levitan (2074) constantly.  I did what I think most players can do.  Find the best competition you can actually function decently against, and with good talent, you will have a decent chance to at the very least settle about 200 points below them.. and that's if they are a stretch for your ability level.

You could do everything I advise and play 1300s.  I could take your twin and get them games against Al Chow, Ken Wallach and Kevin Bachler all day long, and if they can actually play into a middle game and not look lost, they will probably get better than you will.

The biggest reason is that I believe that the brain easily registers what stronger players do to you as things that you can think out against someone else in the future.

This is all great, but you gave me a lot of general stuff... I can't figure out what to do with it all.  I don't have a coach and this seems too hard.

I think for the results I can get out of players, I charge a very reasonable rate.  I'd also be the first to tell you if you're too good for more than a brush up.  If Eric Starkman or Richard Zhang came to me and wanted a coach, I'd tell them that they're actually some of the few who are ready for that GM, and that they should seek out the best play they could if they couldn't afford that level of coaching.

But I have players whose first provisional tournaments in December were 1087, 1235 and 1207.  Eight months later they are at 1279, 1446 and 1596 respectively.  If I had to bet on myself over the next 8 months, I'd bet 1550, 1700 and 1800 with ease.  And then, eight months after that, when the 1596 will likely be around 2000, THEN he'd get more value out of a GM, IM or Fide Master coach.

And if you hire me, I'll give you my best stuff.

If you just want to come here, I'll give you my pretty darn good stuff for free... analyzed tournament games, blitz games, ideas and general thoughts that will improve your chess.

And if you decide that my stuff is no good, I am very aware that there are better authorities on chess out there.  And everyone should do what is good for them.

But I'll always be honest.  And my honesty is that coaches can point you in the right direction, but the work you're willing to do will really make you better.  

My next submission will be geared toward specific games, and not general ideas.  So then we can really dive in.  In the meantime, come here for IHSA stuff also.

Updated IHSA rated list after the Illinois Open

Here are your top 125 rated players that I know of that are eligible for IHSA play, have played in the last calendar year, and are not provisional.

Please let me know if:
a) A kid has moved or switched schools or quit chess or whatever thing like that that would result in someone coming off of the list
b) There's someone I don't know about whether they be a freshman, a kid transferring from out of state, someone who didn't play last year but will play this year, or for any other reason.  

1. George Li Jr. IMSA 2382

2. David Peng Fr. New Trier 2381

3. Alex Bian Jr. Stevenson 2302

4. Jacob Furfine Fr. New Trier 2282

5. Spencer Lehmann Sr. Barrington 2223
6. Anshul Adve. Sr. Urbana University 2207

7. Matthew Stevens So. Whitney Young 2189
8. Vincent Do Fr. Unknown 2181
9. Akhil Kalghatgi So. Whitney Young 2143

10. Daniel Bronfeyn Jr. Mundelein 2129

11. Nikhil Kalghatgi So. Whitney Young 2082

12. Jack Curcio Jr. Maine South 2079

13. Rishi Narayanan So. Barrington 2059

14. Hanson Hao So. Bloomington 2042

15. Andrew Fei Jr. Dunlap 2026

16. Miranda Liu So. Stevenson 2010
17. Marissa Li Fr. Naperville North 2008
18. Pranav Sriram Sr. Lincoln Park 1968
19. Eddie Zhang Fr. Fremd 1919

20. James Wei Jr. IMSA 1902
21. Eric Starkman Jr. Highland Park 1874

22. Conrad Oberhaus Jr. Stevenson 1868

23. Bryce McClanahan Sr. Glenbrook South 1833

24. Abe Sun Jr. New Trier 1832

25. Tyler Tompkins Sr. Hinsdale Central 1820

26. Alec Feygin Sr. Glenbrook South 1789

27. Shayna Provine Jr. IMSA 1785
28. Henry Curcio Fr. Maine South 1774

29. Richard Zhang So. Naperville North 1789
30. George McCoy Jr. Northside 1759

31. Jack Xiao So. Stevenson 1741

32. Patrick Li So. Dunlap 1739

33. Billy Hoseman So. Glenbrook South 1737
34. Shon Shtern Sr. Glenbrook South 1726
35. Philip Song Jr. Naperville North 1714
36. Quinn Baker Sr. Oak Park-River Forest 1713
37. Darek Nowak Sr. Maine South 1707
38. Omkar Prabhavalkar So. Barrington 1703
39. Cassie Parent Jr. IMSA 1702
40. Mihir Bafna Jr. Bloomington HS 1684
41. Jonathan Lee So. Northside 1678
42. Rahul Dhiman Sr. Stevenson 1665
42. Nathan Yamaguchi Jr. New Trier 1665
44. Gustav Jennetten Sr. Peoria Richwoods 1655
45. Jason Drews Jr. Cary Grove 1652
46. Arda Sonmez Jr. Highland Park 1646
47. Vikram Dara So. Neuqua Valley 1634
48. Joseph Isaac Jr. Naperville North 1632
49. Will Richards So. Wheaton North 1624
49. Jack Thain Jr. Charleston 1624
51. Akash Mattu Sr. Naperville Central 1615
52. Bethany Simos Sr. Naperville Central 1611
53. Alex Lim Jr. Neuqua Valley 1610
54. Kenny Kotowsky Jr. Maine South 1606

55. Eli Elder Fr. Highland Park 1605

56. Harrison Loh Sr. Naperville North 1603

57. Patrick Kut Jr. Andrew 1592

58. Monish Bhasin Sr. Naperville North 1578

59. Shashank Bala So. Stevenson 1568

60. Ajay Balaraman So. Naperville North 1567

61. Shvetali Thatte Unknown Unknown 1555

62. Ritesh Sivakumar Jr. Naperville Central 1552

62. Mindren Lu Jr. Northside 1552

64. Austin Insley Jr. Indian Creek 1547

65. Nathan Saltzman So. Hinsdale Central 1541
65. Isha Gani Sr. Northside 1541
67. Emma Wang So. Hinsdale Central 1538

67. Emily McClanahan Jr. Glenbrook South 1538

69. Kavin Lavari So. Stevenson 1537

70. Julian Liam-O'Carroll Evanston 1535

71. Wesley Gizel Sr. Barrington 1504

72. Jesse Wang Sr. Naperville North 1502

73. Matthew Wong So. Lane 1491

74. Elijah Patterson Unknown Unknown 1485

75. Ricky Roman So. Whitney Young 1484

76. Matthew Kosova Sr. Northside 1477
77, Joseph Buklis Fr. Unknown 1473

78. Sean Insley So. Indian Creek 1472

79. Jiedong Duan Sr. Niles North 1469

80. Oliver Brady Jr. Evanston 1466
81. Will Olafsson Sr. Maine South 1457

82. Nate Tracy-Amoroso Sr. Evanston 1452

83. Nick Allison Jr. Andrew 1446

84. Michael Dula Sr. Northridge Prep 1438
85. Raymond Liu Jr. Rolling Meadows 1434 
86. Georgia Wolf So. Lane 1429

87. Prithiv Kumar Jr. Bloomington HS 1421

88. Clayton Davis So. Normal Community West 1406

89. Matthew Kelly Jr. Northridge Prep 1396
90. Nicholas Edels So. Barrington 1381

91. Eric Helgemo Jr. Niles north 1372

92. Matthew Tang Jr. Hinsdale Central 1351

93. Arnav Batta So. Fremd 1348

94. Joseph Harrigan Jr. Highland Park 1329

95. Perry Hoag So. Homewood-Flossmoor 1318

96. Capison Pang So. Hinsdale Central 1317

97. Alex Parkel Jr. Whitney Young 1312
98. Kyle Kras Fr. Andrew 1283
99. Jarun Jannak Jr. Andrew 1279
100. Ricky Nguyen Jr. Metamora 1264

101. Zach Warsh Sr. Highland Park 1257

101. Steffano Herrera Sr. Argo 1257

103. Daniel Hammond So. Andrew 1250
104. Muhammed Lotfi So. Northside 1247

105. Prathik Kandimalla So. Barrington 1247

106. Geoff Murphy Jr. Metamora 1246

107. Micah Hill Jr. Naperville Central 1242

108. George Polski So. Naperville North 1222

109. Shawn Smith Sr. Wheaton-Warrenville South 1221

110. Riley Wilson Sr. Evanston 1217

110. Anthony Mu So. Fremd 1217

112. Anshu Indusekar Jr. Neuqua Valley 1216

113. Patrick Tippens Jr. Highland Park 1214

114. Branden Wagner Jr. Glenbrook South 1201

115. Rebekah Nielsen So. Normal Community West 1180

116. Nathan Frommelt Jr. Neuqua Valley 1173

117. Jack Wakeman So. Wheaton North 1171
118. Connor Cai So. Dunlap 1170
119. Gabe Chambers So. Normal Community West 1161
119. John-Michael Micklich Jr. Bloomington Central Catholic 1161
121. Andrew Orlos So. Argo 1152
122. Adarsh Mattu So. Naperville Central 1132
123. Adrian Zanoria Jr. Dunlap 1115
124. Arthur Rodriguez Jr. Belleville East 1114
125. Simon Groenendijk So. New Trier 1062

Fast risers, IHSA rating, a chess philosophy, games and more

Around Illinois

Last weekend was a busy weekend in and around the state of Illinois with the following events:

Hammond Mayor's Open - Hammond, IN 08/13
2016 MWCC - Peoria 08/13
Southern Illinois Summer Open - Salem 08/14
128th Knight's Quest - Deerfield 08/14
Worth Class - Worth, IL 08/14

Here are the largest rises in ratings by Illinois/IHSA players

New to Class B
Jason Drews, Cary Grove: 107 points - 1545 > 1653 128th Knight's Quest

New to Class C
Georgia Wolf, Lane: 126 points - 1302 > 1428 128th Knight's Quest
Nick Allison, Andrew: 101 points - 1345 > 1446 Hammond Mayor's

New to Class D
Jack Heller: 248 points - 1117 > 1365 128th Knight's Quest
Advait Vijay: 191 points - 1042 > 1233 128th Knight's Quest
Derrick Red: 157 points - 1106 > 1263 128th Knight's Quest

Parker Sorensen: 317 points - 575P13-892P18 128th Knight's Quest
Elton Huang: 222 points - 101P4-323P7 128th Knight's Quest
Donald Egan: 190 points - 860 > 1050 2016 MWCC
Nolan Fletes: 190 points - 483P11 > 683P16 Hammond Mayor's
Srihas Rao: 186 points - 825 > 1014 Hammond Mayor's
Nisha Salian: 173 points - 768 > 941 128th Knight's Quest
Akiva Tokarskiy: 166 points - 705 > 871 128th Knight's Quest
Tim Liu: 158 points - 467P4 > 625P8 2016 MWCC
Kieran Cassidy: 134 points - 577P9-711P13 128th Knight's Quest
Aya Baraket: 134 points - 197-334 128th Knight's Quest
Yizhang Chen: 118 points - 805 > 923 2016 MWCC
Hudson Lutfiyya: 111 points - 608 > 719 Hammond Mayor's
David Zimmerman: 105 points - 1400 > 1505 128th Knight's Quest

Congrats to all of these players for putting in the necessary work to get better!  If there are any interesting games or upsets that anyone has from one of these players at one of these tournaments, please email me at joeanthonychess@gmail.com and perhaps I'll post them.


Blitz tip of the weekA lot of people say, "don't play blitz if you want to get better."  I don't think that that's good advice.  Why?  What makes people better to me, on average, perhaps more than anything, is just losing and winning a lot of different games a lot of different ways.  If  you never studied at all, you'd get better if you went and played 1000 games.  Your brain would simply register the positive and negative consequences of a lot of different outcomes.

Blitz games show what your instincts are.  There is no room for bettering your instincts through deep analysis.  Your flag will fall.  What you get to see is what is already in you.. the good and the bad.  I think taking an engine and finding massive weaknesses in your blitz can get rid of a lot of the big issues before tournaments, so you aren't spending 20 minutes in a position where you have no instinctual ability and must find something that is better than your bad instinct.

Here's the tip.  Be like a pitcher in all games.  When you don't have your best stuff (blunder/aren't playing well), be resourceful.  I have two students that are 1446 and 1596.  The 1446 beats the 1596 all the time at our club.  But the 1596 is rated higher simply because he's able to draw more lost positions and win more close positions.  He manages to get good outcomes when he's not playing his best.  That's what good pitchers do.  The best ones find a way to eek out wins when they don't have their best stuff.

Here is the game, where I am proud of one of the best moves I've made


1. Nf3 Nf6 2. g3 g6 3. d3 d5 4. Bg5 Bg7 5. Qd2 Bf5 6. Bg2 c6 7. O-O Nbd7 8. Bh6 O-O 9. Bxg7 Kxg7 10. Nh4 e5 11. Nxf5+ gxf5 12. f4 e4 13. dxe4 Nxe4 14. Bxe4 dxe4 15. e3 Nf6 16. Qc3 Kg6 17. Nd2 Ng4 18. Nc4 Qe7 19. h3 Nh6 20. Ne5+ Kh5 21. g4+ fxg4 22. hxg4+ Nxg4 23. Kg2 Rg8 24. Rh1+ Nh2+!

I was proud that I instinctively saw this move.  I don't think I'd play the king to the h-file in a slow game, and believe me, I know a master may look at this entire game like "wow, really."  I knew I was not playing well.  

The great thing about this move is that it simultaneously blocks check and puts white in check.  Therefore, you should first notice that the white rook cannot take the knight!  Secondly, Kxh2 leads to the devastating Qh4#!  But, what if that was all there was.  What if simply not playing Kxh2 made blacks position worse?  Always be wary of the idea of "if he doesn't fall for my idea, am I just in really bad shape?  Well, I immediately saw that if the white king just steps to the f-file, I own the entire 7th rank with tempo.

25. Kf2 Qh4+ 26. Ke2 Rg2+ 27. Kd1 Rd8+ 28. Kc1 Qf2 29. b3 Rd2 30. Kb2 Rxc2+ 31. Qxc2 Qxc2+32. Ka3 Qc5+ 33. Ka4 Qb5+ 34. Ka3 Qa5# 0-1

So, let's go back to the idea from last week.  Don't be dogmatic.  Strong players who, for whatever reason, don't want others to be as strong (and yes they do exist), will tell you things like "never play blitz games, just play slow games."  Well, why not both?  Yes, you should look at slow games as your chance to really see where you fail and where you succeed.  They should be your landmark learning/demonstration moments.  But, what if, instead of playing 25 slow games in a month, you played 16 games at 45 min/d5 and 81 blitz games? I like the chance to get in nearly FIVE times the games.  It broadens the ideas I have and the ideas I can cope with.  

Illinois IHSA Top 110

A few things to remember about this list:

> Right now, most freshmen are not included, because I simply don't know of them.  Please, let me know if a player has transferred, is a freshman not on this list, is not the same person on this list etc. 

> It's designed to recognize the best players who are actively playing; therefore it's active players within the last year only.  A big reason I don't want to list players who have not played in the last year is that I don't want somebody who was 883 in the 5th grade to come up to me and say "hey, I'm way stronger than that man."

> It's non-provisional only.  Too much fluctuation and too much chance that a player is not at their accurate strength

> The list is expanding, but due to not wanting to spend too much time on it, it's a work in progress.  The goal is to get to 150.

1. George Li Jr. IMSA 2374

2. David Peng Fr. New Trier 2352

3. Alex Bian Jr. Stevenson 2302

4. Jacob Furfine Fr. New Trier 2277

5. Spencer Lehmann Sr. Barrington 2202

6. Matthew Stevens So. Whitney Young 2169

7. Anshul Adve Sr. Urbana University 2154

8. Akhil Kalghatgi So. Whitney Young 2133

9. Daniel Bronfeyn Jr. Mundelein 2130

10. Nikhil Kalghatgi So. Whitney Young 2083

11. Jack Curcio Jr. Maine South 2081

12. Rishi Narayanan So. Barrington 2074

13. Hanson Hao So. Bloomington 2042

14. Andrew Fei Jr. Dunlap 2026

15. Miranda Liu So. Stevenson 2010

16. James Wei Jr. IMSA 1902

17. Conrad Oberhaus Jr. Stevenson 1868

18. Bryce McClanahan Sr. Glenbrook South 1833

19. Abe Sun Jr. New Trier 1832

20. Tyler Tompkins Sr. Hinsdale Central 1820

21. Eric Starkman Jr. Highland Park 1803

22. Alec Feygin Sr. Glenbrook South 1789

23. Shayna Provine Jr. IMSA 1785
24. Henry Curcio Fr. Maine South 1768

25. George McCoy Jr. Northside 1765

25. Richard Zhang So. Naperville North 1765

27. Jack Xiao So. Stevenson 1741

28. Patrick Li So. Dunlap 1739

29. Billy Hoseman So. Glenbrook South 1732

30. Jonathan Lee So. Northside 1715

31. Philip Song Jr. Naperville North 1714

32. Darek Nowak Sr. Maine South 1708

33. Omkar Prabhavalkar So. Barrington 1703

34. Cassie Parent Jr. IMSA 1702

35. Shon Shtern Sr. Glenbrook South 1698

36. Will Richards So. Wheaton North 1676

37. Rahul Dhiman Sr. Stevenson 1665

37. Nathan Yamaguchi Jr. New Trier 1665

39. Kenny Kotowsky Jr. Maine South 1655

39. Gustav Jennetten Sr. Peoria Richwoods 1655

41. Jason Drews Jr. Cary Grove 1652

42. Bethany Simos Sr. Naperville Central 1646

43. Vikram Dara So. Neuqua Valley 1634

44. Joseph Isaac Jr. Naperville North 1632

45. Mihir Bafna Jr. Bloomington HS 1624

46. Jack Thain Jr. Charleston 1624

47. Quinn Baker Sr. Oak Park-River Forest 1618

48. Akash Mattu Sr. Naperville Central 1614

49. Alex Lim Jr. Neuqua Valley 1610

50. Harrison Loh Sr. Naperville North 1603

51. Patrick Kut Jr. Andrew 1596

52. Monish Bhasin Sr. Naperville North 1578

53. Arda Sonmez Jr. Highland Park 1574

54. Shashank Bala So. Stevenson 1568

55. Ajay Balaraman So. Naperville North 1567

56. Shvetali Thatte Unknown Unknown 1555

57. Emma Wang So. Hinsdale Central 1554

58. Ritesh Sivakumar Jr. Naperville Central 1552

58. Mindren Lu Jr. Northside 1552

60. Austin Insley Jr. Indian Creek 1547

61. Nathan Saltzman So. Hinsdale Central 1541

62. Emily McClanahan Jr. Glenbrook South 1538

63. Kavin Lavari So. Stevenson 1537

64. Julian Liam-O'Carroll Evanston 1535

65. Isha Gani Sr. Northside 1518

66. Wesley Gizel Sr. Barrington 1504

67. Jesse Wang Sr. Naperville North 1502

68. Matthew Wong So. Lane 1491

69. Elijah Patterson Unknown Unknown 1485

70. Ricky Roman So. Whitney Young 1484

71. Matthew Kosova Sr. Northside 1477

72. Sean Insley So. Indian Creek 1472

73. Jiedong Duan Sr. Niles North 1469

74. Oliver Brady Jr. Evanston 1466

75. Nate Tracy-Amoroso Sr. Evanston 1452

76. Nick Allison Jr. Andrew 1446

77. Michael Dula Sr. Northridge Prep 1438

78. Prithiv Kumar Jr. Bloomington HS 1421

79. Georgia Wolf So. Lane 1406

79. Clayton Davis So. Normal Community West 1406

81. Matthew Kelly Jr. Northridge Prep 1396

82. Raymond Liu Jr. Rolling Meadows 1383

83. Eric Helgemo Jr. Niles north 1372

84. Matthew Tang Jr. Hinsdale Central 1351

85. Arnav Batta So. Fremd 1348

86. Joseph Harrigan Jr. Highland Park 1329

87. Perry Hoag So. Homewood-Flossmoor 1318

88. Capison Pang So. Hinsdale Central 1317

89. Alex Parkel Jr. Whitney Young 1312

90. Zach Warsh Sr. Highland Park 1294

91. Kyle Kras Fr. Andrew 1283

92. Jarun Jannak Jr. Andrew 1274

93. Ricky Nguyen Jr. Metamora 1264

94. Steffano Herrera Sr. Argo 1257

95. Daniel Hammond So. Andrew 1250

96. Prathik Kandimalla So. Barrington 1247

97. Geoff Murphy Jr. Metamora 1246

98. Nicholas Edels So. Barrington 1243

99. Micah Hill Jr. Naperville Central 1242

100. Muhammed Lotfi So. Northside 1240

101. George Polski So. Naperville North 1222

102. Shawn Smith Sr. Wheaton-Warrenville South 1221

103. Riley Wilson Sr. Evanston 1217

103. Anthony Mu So. Fremd 1217

105. Anshu Indusekar Jr. Neuqua Valley 1216

106. Patrick Tippens Jr. Highland Park 1214

107. Branden Wagner Jr. Glenbrook South 1201

108. Rebekah Nielsen So. Normal Community West 1180

109. Nathan Frommelt Jr. Neuqua Valley 1173

110. Jack Wakeman So. Wheaton North 1171

Where did the inspiration for this list come from?  When my son's Andrew team got swept by Evanston.  They sat down with a record of 1.5-0.5 and they had no idea what they were getting themselves in to.  I knew; all too well.  I was a strong 1500 (back when that was a high rating) as a senior in 1996 who just didn't have a team around me.  I watched my Bloom Trail team go up in flames against the schools from areas where there is a far greater commitment to chess than there is in the south burbs.

The Evanston loss lit a fire in three of the players that has inspired me to give them everything I have as a coach.  I thought, "gee, wouldn't it be great if there was a list where a team could look at the ratings and say "wow, this team we are about to play is pretty good"..?  I understand that there are several very strong teams that just aren't in to rated chess, but for those that are, you have a guideline of where you need to be.  

For example, take that round 3 matchup of Evanston v. Andrew.  Evanston went 1800, 1500, 1400 for like four boards, and then had players at 7 and 8 who had not played rated in some time.  Andrew had one rated player, my son Daniel (996) at board 3.  Here would be the matchup today at the top:

Evanston v. Andrew

Board 1 Julian O'Carroll 1535 v. Patrick Kut 1596

Board 2 Oliver Brady 1466 v. Nick Allison 1446

Board 3 Nate Tracy-Amoroso 1452 v. Kyle Kras 1283

Board 4 Riley Wilson 1217 v. Jarun Jannak 1274

Board 5 Dhruva Molnakhar 923 v. Daniel Hammond 1250

Now, they could have a super freshman coming in, someone could be vastly underrated (like Nick and Kyle still are) and I could be missing someone, but when Tinley Park Chess players ask me, "would we still be swept by Evanston," and they do ask me that, I can say, "not only would you probably not be swept, and you should know, without Holzmueller, they may not finish 7th this year, BUT you might even win, and here's the evidence.  

That was what Arpad Elo gave us... an imperfect way to sort of roughly measure what is likely to happen.  Ratings don't win games any more than the much greater number of future NFL players on the 03 Miami Hurricanes failed to beat Ohio State, but they do give you a rough idea of where players are at in the tournament environment.  

It should be more fun to show them right before state when Patrick is in the 1700s, Nick the 1600s and Kyle and Jarun the 1400s.  

The scariest part of this list is that I'm 39 years old and within 50 points of my peak.  If I, at my current rating, were a high school senior, I'd only rank 18th in the state!  Wow.  Way to go scholastic players.  

General chess tip of the week

Learn to know when your opponent's "threat" is not really a threat, so you can ignore it!

This past weekend, I had a scenario against a 1700 who beat me with a very nice sacrifice at the Chicago Open in 2015.  I grabbed a pawn early with my queen on the a-file (I was white), and he began to line up for a kingside threat on my castled king on the h-file.  He brought his rook to h6 and his queen to h4 made intuitive sense at first from my perspective (the game notation has been misplaced).  However, with my queen on e5, I saw that if I simply moved my knight away from f4 and my queen would be defending h2.  So I played a simple rook move.  I turned out that an engine had black substantially worse the more he pursued this dead end "attack".. I blew the middle of the board up and eventually HIS king was on h5 trapped.  

AND, it turned out that had I responded to his non-threats, I would have made myself worse.  

Learn to see when your opponents perceived threat is not a real threat so that you can ignore it and get on with your own objectives!