RayanT Leads Bay Area Trophy Winners!

A weekend of great promise at the National K-12 Championships in Dallas ended with a group of 20 local juniors collecting ten big trophies and one national title! The youngsters from the Bay Area (see photo at right) played on the top boards in every section from 1st grade to 6th grade, competing against kids from New York, Texas and across the country. Congrats to 2nd Grade National Champion Rayan Taghizadeh (photo at left) for finishing at the top with a perfect 7-0 sweep!

The delegation could have earned another national title or two, as no fewer than six local kids had a mathematical chance of tying for first place heading into the final round. Alas, the competition is always incredibly fierce and we must be proud of the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 6th place and 7th place trophies. Here's a special pat on the back for 5th grader Allan Beilin and 6th grader Kyle Shin, both who were tied for the lead but came up one game short. On a more positive note, 4th graders Cameron Wheeler and Vignesh Panchanatham drew in consecutive rounds against 2097 rated Tommy He, the top seed from Texas. And last but not least, 5th grader Kesav Viswanadha did everything right except for losing to the 2119 rated winner, earning a well-deserved 2nd place trophy on tiebreaks. Kudos to Coach Ted Castro for the wonderful job he did in training and preparing many of these young stars.

Final Standings (click here for the official website or the rating report)

• 2nd grade: Rayan Taghizadeh 7.0 -- National Champion!!
  
• 5th grade: Kesav Viswanadha 6.0 -- 2nd place!
• 4th grade: Cameron Wheeler 6.0 -- 3rd place!
• 6th grade: Kyle Shin 5.5 -- 4th place!
• 4th grade: Vignesh Panchanatham 5.5 -- 6th place
• 5th grade: Allan Beilin 5.5 -- 7th place
• 1st grade: Solomon Ge 5.0 -- 9th place
• 4th grade: Jeffrey Tao 5.5 -- 11th place
• 6th grade: Daniel Liu 5.0 -- 13th place
  
• 3rd grade: Anirudh Seela 5.0 -- 15th place
  
• 4th grade: Alvin Kong 5.0
  
• 4th grade: Siddharth Banik 5.0
  
• 1st grade: Josiah Stearman 4.5
• 4th grade: Udit Iyengar 4.5
• 5th grade: Armaan Kalyanpur 4.5
• 2nd grade: Bryce Wong 4.0
  
• 3rd grade: Amit Sant 4.0
• 4th grade: Shalin Shah 4.0
  
• 4th grade: Eric Zhu 3.5
  
• Kindergarten: Muthiah Panchanatham 3.0
• 5th grade: Blake Wong 3.0

Even one former Bay Area kid (his family moved to Nebraska last summer) performed well in Dallas. Talented 2nd grader Joseph Wan took the 2nd place trophy with 6.0, losing only to Rayan on top board. Imagine how strong MSJE would be with his 1561 rating!?

Finally, thanks to Rob Wheeler for updating his new blog and Twitter page throughout the weekend. Check it out! The photos at the top of my article came from his site.