fpawn chess blog: Aksithi

Showing posts with label Aksithi. Show all posts

Sunday, September 28

Medal Hopes in Durban

Flags of the 87 countries hang from ceiling.

After ten days of intense competition, the World Youth Chess Championships in South Africa are drawing to a close. For the American delegation, the hunt for medals reaches a climax, with 7 players ranked in the top 4 for their section and an amazing 20 in the top 11 spots on tiebreaks. Many of these children could claim a medal simply by winning the last two rounds. Round 10 is underway as I write these sentences and Round 11 begins at 1:00 PDT on Monday morning.

The best medal chances for Team USA lie in the following sections:

Girls-U12: Jennifer and Akshita are clear 1st + 2nd and decide gold among themselves.
Boys-U12: David is tied for 1st, Praveen is 3rd, and Rayan + Aravind are tied for 4th.
Girls-U8: Rianne is tied for 3rd with Aksithi and Rochelle just 0.5 behind.
Boys-U10: Aydin is tied for 3rd while Andrew lurks 0.5 back.
Boys-U8: No Americans are in top 6, but somehow 6 squeezed into the top 14.

How many medals will Team USA collect? Coach Ben Finegold predicted five medals at the start of the tournament. Will he be right? Stay tuned!

The CalChess kids have performed well too, with five scoring 6.0 or 6.5. Three have realistic medal hopes if they can win the final two games: Rayan (B12), Aksithi (G8) and Andrew (B10). Ashritha (G12) and Vignesh (B12) should finish in the top 10 with 1.5 out of the last two games. Good luck!!

Sunday late night update: The Sunday round proved tragic for many of the American players. Sigh! The best chances remain in the Boys and Girls U12 sections. At least there will be one medal -- Jennifer Yu (G12) clinched gold! The CalChess medal hopes rest on the shoulders of Rayan (B12) and Aksithi (G8), while Vignesh can finish top 5 with a win. Round 11 begins at 10:00am in Durban -- 1:00am in California. Go U-S-A!!

Team USA -- Average Score: 5.4 out of 9 (60%).
Team USA -- Average Score: 5.8 out of 10 (59%).

Boys-U8

Nathaniel Shuman 6.0 (7th place) Drew Round 11 - Final 15th place
Rohun Trakru 6.0 (8th place) Won Round 11 - Final 10th place
Jason Yu 6.0 (9th place) Won Round 11 - Final 11th place
Rithik Polavaram 6.0 (11th place) Won Round 10 - Final 9th place
Arthur Guo 5.5 (12th place) Won Round 10 + Drew Round 11 - Final 8th place
Pranav Prem 5.5 (14th place) Won Round 10 - Final 14th place

Girls-U8

Rianne Ke 6.5 (4th place) - Final 14th place
Aksithi Eswaran 6.0 (CalChess) Won Rounds 10 and 11 - Final 5th place
Rochelle Wu 6.0 (11th place) Won Rounds 10 and 11 - Final 6th place

Boys-U10

Aydin Turgut 7.0 (4th place) - Final 14th place
Andrew Hong 6.5 (9th place) (CalChess) Won Round 11 - Final 10th place
Maximillian Lu 5.5 Won Round 11 - Final 25th place
Christopher Shen 5.5 Won Round 11 - Final 22nd place

Girls-U10

Martha Samadashvili 6.0 (11th place) Won Round 10 - Final 8th place
Natassja Matus 5.5 Won Round 10 + Drew Round 11 - Final 10th place
Evelyn Zhu 5.5 Won Rounds 10 and 11 - Final 6th place

Boys-U12

David Peng 7.5 (2nd place) Drew Round 10 - Final 5th place
Praveen Balakrishnan 7.0 (3rd place) Drew Round 11 - Final 12th place
Rayan Taghizadeh 6.5 (CalChess) Won Rounds 10 and 11 - BRONZE MEDAL
Aravind Kumar 6.5 (6th place) - Final 25th place
Awonder Liang 6.0 (14th place) Drew Round 10 - Final 24th place
David Brodsky 5.5
Marcus Miyasaka 5.5
Hans Niemann 5.0 (CalChess) Won Round 11 - Final 40th place

Girls-U12

Jennifer Yu 8.0 Won Rounds 10 and 11 - GOLD MEDAL
Akshita Gorti 7.0 (clear 2nd) - Final 12th place
Camille Kao 5.5
Ramitha Ravishankar 5.5
Chenyi Zhao 4.5 (CalChess) Won Round 10 - Final 34th place

Boys-U14

Vignesh Panchanatham 6.0 (CalChess) Won Rounds 10 and 11 - Final 5th place
Angel Hernandez-Camen 5.5 Won Rounds 10 and 11 - Final 10th place
Bryce Tiglon 5.5 Won Rounds 10 and 11 - Final 11th place

Girls-U14

Ashritha Eswaran 6.0 (CalChess) Drew Round 10 + Won Round 11 - Final 7th place
Priya Trakru 5.0 Drew Round 11
Tianhui Jie 5.0 Won Round 10

Boys-U16

Kapil Chandran 6.5 (6th place) - Final 14th place
Edward Song 5.5 Drew Round 10 - Final 19th place

Girls-U16

Apurva Virkud 6.0 (10th place) - Final 17th place
Agata Bykovtsev 6.0 (14th place) - Final 19th place

Boys-U18

Atulya Shetty 6.0 (10th place) - Final 27th place

Girls-U18

Jessica Regam 5.5 (15th place) - Final 28th place

Wednesday, September 24

Cal Kids Strong in South Africa

Inside the Playing Hall

After a very hectic 6 rounds over 4 days, today is the rest day at the World Youth Champs in Durban. Some participants even took advantage the opportunity for a real African safari! The chess tournament resumes tomorrow with the leisurely pace of one round per day through Monday. Follow the top 10 boards in each section LIVE at the official website starting at 7:00am PDT.

Aksithi Eswaran

Team USA continues to score well at 62% overall. Two girls have staked a 1/2 point lead in their respective sections, and a third player finds himself in a tie for first. Three more guys share second place at the midpoint of the event. Congratulations to Aksithi (G8), Jennifer (G12), Rayan (B12), Rohum (B8), Andrew (B10) and Christopher (B16)! By my count, 14 juniors occupy the Top 10 in their section, and nearly half (34 of 70) currently have a score of 4.0 or more. Of course, a lot can happen over the final 5 rounds.

The 7 CalChess representatives have contributed well to the statistics espoused in the previous paragraph. Aksithi Eswaran leads Girls-U8 outright while her older sister Ashritha led Girls-U14 before a setback in round 6. Andrew Hong and Rayan Taghizadeh carry the standard for the guys, both with 5.0 in Boys-U10 and Boy-U12, respectively. Vignesh Panchanatham stands at 4.0, ready to continue his winning ways after two defeats earlier. Check out his daily blog reports!

Team USA -- Average Score: 3.7 out of 6 (62%).

Boys-U8

Rohun Trakru 5.0 (tied for 2nd)
Jason Yu 4.5
Pranav Prem 4.5