Phillip Featured with “Prairie State 64”

Brad Rosen, also known by his online nom de plume Chessdad64, has put together a list of the Illinois junior chess players ranked among the top 100 nationally in their age groups, and in one of those rare harmonic convergences that occurs every so often in this vast and expanding universe of ours, the list comes to 64 kids, exactly the number of squares on a chess board.

It’s not a large number, considering that we’re talking about the whole Land of Lincoln, which makes the kids in the group a special and talented bunch indeed. One of them, I’m proud to say, is Ray School’s Phillip Parker-Turner, who, with the release of the February standings from the U.S. Chess Federation, now ranks 40th among all eight-year-olds in the country.

Brad, whose site, The 64 Square Jungle, is the top chess blog in the Midwest and one of the most influential nationally, also takes the occasion of Chicago’s impending Super Bowl appearance to highlight the super adult chess talent in the area. They’re an impressive group, too, and include several grandmasters and international masters.

Yet along with the local boosterism Chessdad64 delivers an honest assessment of the problems and travails with which the local chess scene is plagued, and they are not inconsiderable. It’s an excellent post; everyone should read it. Go, Bears!