Andrew Hong + MSJE Excel at K-6 Nationals

National Champions! MSJE K-6 team with Coach Joe. Photo by Donna DePietro Woods.

The 2015 National Elementary Championship concluded successfully for the 35 player contingent from Northern California.   No fewer than 11 local children earned trophies for finishing in the top 25 or 30; plus another 5 picked up honorable mention.  Nearly everyone who made the trip to Nashville (30 out of 35) finished with a respectable "plus score" of 4.0 or more.  Well done!

This shirt (from 2012) needs an update!

Congratulations to Saratoga 4th grader NM Andrew Hong for sweeping the tough K-6 section with a 7-0 score.  He came, he saw and he conquered!  It is difficult being the top seed, because each opponent has prepared specifically for you.  Andrew took it in stride, vanquishing second seeded Alexander Costello from San Diego in the penultimate round.  Congrats also to 3rd grader Maurya Palusa for finishing alone in second place in K-3, winning six games and drawing one.

Once again, legendary coach Joe Lonsdale guided his Mission San Jose Elementary squad to victory at Nationals.  The K-6 team seized the pole in round 3 and barely held on, nudging ahead of IS 318 from the Bronx on superior tiebreaks.  This is the third K-6 national championship for MSJE since 2009! Competing schools bring along Grandmasters and other professional chess trainers. MSJE has smart kids and the irreplaceable Coach Joe.  The Fremont program garnered trophies in K-3 and K-5 as well, 4th and 8th place, respectively.  Kudos all around! 

Click here for PAIRINGS and RESULTS.
Final scores after Round 7.

K-6

• NM Andrew Hong 2255 7.0 -- clear 1st place
• David Pan 2087 MSJE 5.5 -- 6th place (tied for 5th)
  
• Karthik Padmanabhan 2021 5.5 -- 11th place (tied for 5th)
  
• Annapoorni Meiyappan 1656 MSJE 5.0 -- honorable mention
• Rishith Susarla 1906 MSJE 4.5
• Daniel Mendelevitch 1643 4.0
• Kavya Sasikumar 1438 MSJE 4.0
• MSJE team 1772 19.0/28 -- 1st place on tiebreaks
  

K-5

• Milind Maiti 1899 5.5 -- 10th place
• William Sartorio 1814 5.0 -- 26th place (tied for 22nd)
  
• Anaiy Somalwar 1887 5.0 -- honorable mention
  
• Chenyi Zhao 1815 5.0 -- honorable mention
  
• Oliver Wu 1789 5.0 -- honorable mention
  
• Jeffrey Liu 1287 MSJE 4.0
• Atul Thirumalai 1333 MSJE 4.0
• Abhinav Raghavendra 1167 MSJE 4.0
• Leo Jiang 1404 MSJE 4.0
• MSJE team 1298 16.0/28 -- 8th place (tied for 7th)
  

K-3

• Maurya Palusa 1831 6.5 -- clear 2nd place
• Kevin Pan 1807 MSJE 5.5 -- 11th place (tied for 7th)
• Christopher Yoo 1761 5.5 -- 12th place (tied for 7th)
• Stephen He 1247 MSJE 5.5 -- 21st place (tied for 7th)
  
• Aidan Chen 1199 MSJE 4.5
• Arnav Lingannagari 1211 MSJE 4.0
• Allyson Wong 1132 MSJE 4.0
• Nicholas Jiang 1152 MSJE 4.0
• MSJE team 1366 19.5/28 -- 4th place

K-1

• Sriram Krishnakumar 1323 6.0 -- 3rd place
• Adrian Kondakov 1500 6.0 -- 6th place (tied for 3rd)
  
• Nikko Le 804 5.0 -- honorable mention
  
• Nikhil Parvathaneni 1034 4.5
• Nitish Nath 1067 4.5 
• Jason Liu 439 MSJE 4.0