Short Report on CalChess Scholastics

(High School co-champs FM Danya Naroditsky and Steven Zierk. This was Danya's second straight 1st place finish, which is amazing considering that he is in 6th grade!)

I would like to congratulate the winners of the 33rd annual CalChess Scholastic State Championships in San Jose. The following participants distinguished themselves by winning one of the five Open divisions in a huge tournament of about 1050 players.

• High School K-12: Boglarka Erdos (from Hungary), Steven Zierk, FM Danya Naroditsky and Jeff Young (Zierk and Young qualify for Denker playoff)
  
• Junior High K-8: Mukund Chillakanti and Isaac Zhang
  
• Elementary 4-6: Yian Liou
  
• Elementary 4-5: Qijie "Jack" Zhu, Kyle Shin, Vikram Ganesh, Hemang Jangle and Jessica Zhu (no relation between the Zhu's)
  
• Primary K-3: Tanuj Vasudeva

The full results of the tournament are not available on the internet as of 12:30am on Monday. I hope everyone can understand that the staff is even more exhausted than the participants and their parents. Please check the official website again on Monday night.

In the meantime, you may wish to enjoy hundreds photos from our friends at ChessDryad (Mark Shelton and Richard Shorman). I am sure that other photographers will post their pictures online as well. In fact, I expect to post dozens of my photos on this blog over the next three days, in addition to the more detailed final report.

Finally, I want to take this opportunity to thank the staff and many volunteers for ensuring a reasonably smooth and enjoyable tournament. I will single out three special individuals for personal recognition: first and foremost Organizer Salman Azhar, National Tournament Director John McCumiskey and CalChess President Tom Langland. Thank you!