SuperNationals VI - Sunday Update

IM Vignesh Panchanatham celebrates with
GM Sam Shankland. (credit: US Chess)

SM Rayan Taghizadeh (credit: US Chess)

(This paragraph was posted at 1:00pm PDT.) The final round pairings of SuperNationals VI in Nashville saw a pair of Bay Area stars sitting at board 1 of their respective sections. Both IM Kesav Viswanadha and SM Rayan Taghizadeh could clinch first place simply by winning with the white pieces. Possibly a draw would be enough. Another 8 local juniors had 5.0 points heading into the last round and hoped for a Top 10 trophy: IM Vignesh Panchanatham and NM Michael Wang in K-12; Abhinav Koka in K-8; William Sartorio in K-6; Sriram Krishnakumar, Nitish Nath and Adrian Kondakov in K-3; and Lucas Jiang in K-1. Will they make it?

IM Kesav Viswanadha (credit: US Chess)

Congratulations to three National Champions! IM Kesav Viswanadha and IM Vignesh Panchanatham tied for first place in K-12 with four others. Both repeat as National High School champions, a title they earned in Atlanta last year. Also kudos to SM Rayan Taghizadeh for winning the Junior High K-9 section. This is Rayan's second straight victory at SuperNationals, as he won Elementary K-5 four years ago at SuperNationals V.

A grand total of 22 NorCal kids won a place trophy or honorable mention (tied for last trophy) in the championship sections. Special kudos to those who also finished in the Top 10: William Sartorio (9th in K-6), NM Christopher Yoo (5th in K-5), Sriram Krishnakumar (5th in K-3) and Adrian Kondakov (7th in K-3). Three more came very close: Maurya Palusa (11th in K-5), Nitish Nath (12th in K-3) and Kavya Meiyappan (11th in K-1). Way to go!!

Four Bay Area school teams placed in the Top 3 of their section. The K-12 proved most competitive, with Monta Vista High School of Cupertino capturing 1st place, narrowly ahead of teams from Washington and Virginia.  This was the fourth National team title in seven years for IM Viswanadha, IM Cameron Wheeler, nm Udit Iyengar and nm Pranav Srihari after 2011 (Regnart ES), 2012 (Kennedy MS) and 2015 (Monta Vista HS). Wow!!  Two other Silicon Valley schools, Mission San Jose HS and The Harker School, finished in 6th and 9th place, respectively.  Respect!

Monta Vista High School (credit: Vasu Sarangapani)

While the Monta Vista dynasty is quite impressive, equally so is the year-to-year success at Mission San Jose Elementary. Regardless of which students attend his program, Coach Joe Lonsdale manages to craft a strong team that is always competitive in multiple age groups at National Elementary! This year, MSJE finished 3rd in K-6, 2nd in K-1 and co-champions in K-5! By my count, this is the seventh national title that MSJE won or shared since 2009, and comes on the heels of victory in K-6 last year (with mostly different kids). I honestly don't know how Coach Joe pulls this off every year.

• Standings and Winners
• Replay Games from Top Boards
• Photos at US Chess Twitter

Final Standings (minimum 4.0) 


K-12 Championship

• IM Kesav Viswanadha (MVHS) 6.0 (NATIONAL CHAMPION)
• IM Vignesh Panchanatham (Harker) 6.0 (NATIONAL CHAMPION)
• NM Michael Wang (Harker) 5.5 (14th place)
• IM Cameron Wheeler (MVHS) 5.0 (18th place)
• Christopher Pan (Mission) 5.0 (honorable mention)
• nm Udit Iyengar (MVHS) 4.0
• Ganesh Murugappan (Mission) 4.0
• Anirudh Seela (Mission) 4.0
• Amit Sant (Mission) 4.0
• Monta Vista High School 18.5 (NATIONAL CHAMPION)
• Mission San Jose High School 17.0 (6th place)
• The Harker School 16.5 (9th place)

K-9 Championship

• SM Rayan Taghizadeh 6.0 (NATIONAL CHAMPION)

K-8 Championship

• Abhinav Koka 5.5 (14th place)
• Jaisuraj Kaleeswaran 4.0
• Shaashwath Sivakumar 4.0
• Hopkins Junior High School 12.0 (15th place)

K-6 Championship

• William Sartorio 5.5 (9th place)
• Milind Maiti 5.0 (18th place)
• Annapoorni Meiyappan (MSJE) 4.5
• Atul Thirumalai (MSJE) 4.5
• Leo Jiang (MSJE) 4.0
• Shreyas Nayak (MSJE) 4.0
• Edwin Thomas (MSJE) 4.0
• Mission San Jose Elementary 17.0 (3rd place)

K-5 Championship

• NM Christopher Yoo 6.0 (5th place)
• Maurya Palusa 5.5 (11th place)
• Vyom Vidyarthi 5.0 (17th place)
• Kevin Pan (MSJE) 5.0 (24th place)
• Allyson Wong (MSJE) 5.0 (honorable mention)
• Stephen He (MSJE) 5.0
• Abhinav Penagalapati 4.5  
• Nicholas Jiang (MSJE) 4.5
• Aghilan Nachiappan (MSJE) 4.0
• Mission San Jose Elementary 19.5 (co-NATIONAL CHAMPION)

K-3 Championship

• Sriram Krishnakumar 6.0 (5th place)
• Adrian Kondakov 6.0 (7th place)
• Nitish Nath 5.5 (12th place)
• Shaaketh Sivakumar 5.5 (14th place)
• Shawnak Shivakumar 5.5 (16th place)
• Nikhil Parvathaneni 4.0

K-1 Championship

• Kavya Meiyappan (MSJE) 5.5 (11th place)
• Lucas Jiang (MSJE) 5.0 (17th place)
• Omya Vidyarthi 5.0 (honorable mention)
• Jason Li-Shen Liu (MSJE) 4.5
• Elizur Fisher-Kirshner 4.0
• Mission San Jose Elementary 18.5 (2nd place)

SuperNationals VI - Saturday Update

What a spectacular venue for a record setting chess tournament! (credit: GM Maurice Ashley)

Saturday is usually the wildest day at any national scholastic championship with three challenging rounds. Some strong players will spend up to 12 hours at the chess board, where just one mistake can doom the dream of finishing in first. Upsets are the norm and a brutal round 3 this morning has already taken its toll on the competitors. Who will be left standing tonight?

As SuperNationals VI continues, this weekend offers a good opportunity to review past champions. Only a few juniors from Northern California have ever won a national title. However, the Bay Area has become much more competitive over the past five to ten years. Teams from Mission San Jose Elementary in Fremont won a half dozen team championships since 2009. A mini dynasty sprung up in Cupertino as a tight core group tasted victory at Regnart Elementary, Kennedy Middle and Monta Vista High.


NorCal Champions at Nationals (since 2000)

• K-12 Champs: Vignesh Panchanatham (2016), Kesav Viswanadha (2016), Michael Zhong (2007)
• K-9 Champs: Vignesh Panchanatham (2014), Gregory Young (2007)
• K-8 Champs: Siddharth Banik (2013)
• K-6 Champs: Andrew Hong (2015), Vignesh Panchanatham (2012), Kevin Moy (2012), Daniel Liu (2010)
• K-5 Champs: Rayan Taghizadeh (2013), Cameron Wheeler (2011), Allan Beilin (2010)
• K-3 Champs: Balaji Daggupati (2014), Cameron Wheeler (2009), Rahul Desirazu (2006), Daniel Naroditsky (2005)
• K-1 Champs: Chinguun Bayaraa (2013), Ben Rood (2011), Tanuj Vasudeva (2008), Nicholas Nip (2006)

Champion School Teams (since 2000)

• K-12 Teams: The Harker School (2016), Monta Vista HS (2015)
• K-9 Teams: none
• K-8 Teams: Kennedy MS (2012)
• K-6 Teams: MSJE (2016, 2015, 2013, 2009), Gomes ES (2014), Weibel ES (2012)
• K-5 Teams: Gomes ES (2013), Regnart ES (2011)
• K-3 Teams: MSJE (2014), Weibel ES (2010)
• K-1 Teams: MSJE (2012)

GM Maurice Ashley signs autographs.

Please contact me if you see a missing name or school. It seems plausible that the US Chess Yearbook may have omitted some winners, especially in case of a tie for first place.

Now back to 2017. The tournament finishes with two rounds on Sunday. Expect high drama, tension and lots of excitement. Will any of the Bay Area kids finish at the top? Stay tuned!

GM Sam Shankland (credit: US Chess)

• Standings and Pairings
• Live Games from Top Boards
• Photos at US Chess Twitter

Standings after Round 5 (minimum 3.0) 



K-12 Championship

IM Cameron Wheeler (credit: US Chess)

• IM Kesav Viswanadha (MVHS) 4.5 (1st place)
• IM Vignesh Panchanatham (Harker) 4.0
• NM Michael Wang (Harker) 4.0
• IM Cameron Wheeler (MVHS) 3.5
• Christopher Pan (Mission) 3.5
• nm Pranav Srihari (Mission) 3.0
• nm Udit Iyengar (MVHS) 3.0
• Pranav Senthilkumar (Mission) 3.0
• Michael Tang (Harker) 3.0
• Monta Vista High School 14.0 (1st place)
• The Harker School 12.0 (7th place)
• Mission San Jose High School 11.5 (9th place)

K-9 Championship

SM Rayan Taghizadeh (credit: US Chess)

• SM Rayan Taghizadeh 4.5 (2nd place)

K-8 Championship

• Shaashwath Sivakumar 4.0
• Abhinav Koka 4.0
• Jaisuraj Kaleeswaran (Hopkins) 3.0
• Stanley Ko 3.0
• Hopkins Junior High School 9.0 (14th place)

K-6 Championship

• Milind Maiti 4.0
• William Sartorio 4.0
• Annapoorni Meiyappan (MSJE) 3.5
• Shreyas Nayak (MSJE) 3.0
• Leo Jiang (MSJE) 3.0
• Mission San Jose Elementary 12.0 (3rd place)

K-5 Championship

• Vyom Vidyarthi 4.5 (tied for 3rd place)
• NM Christopher Yoo 4.0
• Kevin Pan (MSJE) 4.0
• Maurya Palusa 3.5
• Abhinav Penagalapati 3.5  
• Aghilan Nachiappan (MSJE) 3.0
• Stephen He (MSJE) 3.0
• Allyson Wong (MSJE) 3.0
• Leo Jiang 3.0
• Mission San Jose Elementary 13.0 (3rd place)

K-3 Championship

• Sriram Krishnakumar 4.0
• Adrian Kondakov 4.0
• Nitish Nath 4.0
• Shaaketh Sivakumar 4.0
• Nikhil Parvathaneni 4.0
• Shawnak Shivakumar 3.5

K-1 Championship

• Kavya Meiyappan (MSJE) 4.5 (6th place)
• Jason Li-Shen Liu (MSJE) 4.0
• Lucas Jiang (MSJE) 4.0
• Omya Vidyarthi 3.0
• Elizur Fisher-Kirshner 3.0
• Mission San Jose Elementary 15.0 (1st place)

SuperNationals VI - Friday Update

This is one of five large playing halls at the Grand Ole Opry. (credit: ChessKid.com)

The sixth SuperNationals brings more than 5500 eager young chess players, their parents and coaches to the Gaylord Opryland Resort and Convention Center in Nashville, TN, from Thursday, May 11 to Sunday, May 14. Every four years, the three spring scholastic championships (High School, Junior High and Elementary) come together under a single roof to form one humongous tournament. The resulting electric atmosphere has to be seen to be believed!

Among this world record turnout are 81 children from Northern California, including several school teams seeking to capture first place trophies. Three local International Masters lead the way in the powerful K-12 section: Cameron Wheeler, Vignesh Panchanatham and Kesav Viswanadha. Two younger stars are the rating favorites in their age groups: Rayan Taghizadeh in K-9 and Christopher Yoo in K-5. Strong teams represent Monta Vista High School, Mission San Jose High School and Mission San Jose Elementary. Best of luck to all!!!

• Standings and Pairings
• Live Games from Top Boards
• Photos at US Chess Twitter

Garry Kasparov smiles and signs books for kids. (credit: US Chess)

Standings after Round 2 (minimum 1.5) 

K-12 Championship

IM Vignesh Panchanatham (credit: US Chess)

• IM Cameron Wheeler (MVHS) 2.0
• IM Vignesh Panchanatham (Harker) 2.0
• IM Kesav Viswanadha (MVHS) 2.0
• nm Udit Iyengar (MVHS) 1.5
• Monta Vista High School 6.0 (1st place)
• Mission San Jose High School 4.0 (14th place)

K-9 Championship

• SM Rayan Taghizadeh 2.0

K-8 Championship

• Jaisuraj Kaleeswaran (Hopkins) 2.0
• Hopkins Junior High School 4.5 (9th place)

K-6 Championship

• Milind Maiti 2.0
• Annapoorni Meiyappan (MSJE) 1.5
• Mission San Jose Elementary 4.5 (4th place)

K-5 Championship

NM Christopher Yoo (credit: US Chess)

• NM Christopher Yoo 2.0
• Maurya Palusa 2.0
• Vyom Vidyarthi 2.0
• Aghilan Nachiappan (MSJE) 2.0
• Stephen He (MSJE) 2.0
• Abhinav Penagalapati (MSJE) 2.0
• Kevin Pan (MSJE) 1.5
• Nicholas Jiang (MSJE) 1.5
• Allyson Wong (MSJE) 1.5
• Mission San Jose Elementary 7.0 (1st place)

K-3 Championship

• Sriram Krishnakumar 2.0
• Adrian Kondakov 2.0
• Nitish Nath 2.0
• Shaaketh Sivakumar 1.5
• Nikko Le 1.5

K-1 Championship

• Kavya Meiyappan (MSJE) 2.0
• Omya Vidyarthi 2.0
• Jason Li-Shen Liu (MSJE) 2.0
• Lucas Jiang (MSJE) 2.0
• Mission San Jose Elementary 7.0 (1st place)

Panchanatham Leads Harker to Victory

National High School Champions from The Harker School.
Top board FM Panchanatham at left. (credit: Greg Shahade)

This post comes about five weeks too late.  As they say, better late than never.

Congratulations to The Harker School for winning the National High School Championship in Atlanta, and to their top board FM Vignesh Panchanatham for earning first place on tiebreaks in the individual standings!  Local rival IM Kesav Viswanadha defeated Vignesh in round 6, but took the second place trophy after tragically losing in round 7.  Bay Area representatives came home with four of the Top 10 trophies in the final standings.  Veni!  Vidi!  Vici!

The following list shows Northern California trophy winners at High School Nationals.

IM Viswanadha
(credit: Greg Shahade)

• The Harker School (San Jose) team = CHAMPIONS
• Monta Vista High School (Cupertino) team = 4th

• FM Vignesh Panchanatham (Harker) 1st and co-champ
• IM Kesav Viswanadha (MVHS) 2nd and co-champ
• NM Siddharth Banik 8th
• NM Michael Wang (Harker) 10th
• Richard Yi (Harker) 20th
• NM Andrew Hong 36th
• Evan Lohn (Harker) 1st Unrated
• Richard Wang (Harker) 2nd Unrated

CalChess Crowns New Scholastic Champs

Playing room for divisions playing on 2-day schedule. Credit: ChessDryad

The 40th CalChess Scholastic Championship drew over 900 participants, their families and coaches to the Santa Clara Convention Center.  Despite the mass of humanity at the start of each round and a country music concert across the street, most of the kids enjoyed playing chess.  Many thanks to Bay Area Chess for organizing this complex event, especially Judit Sztaray plus her most experienced directors Tom Langland and John McCumiskey.

• Click for full results.
• Click for USCF rating report.
• Click for photos by Richard Shorman.
• Click for photos by Dr. Alan Kirshner.

TD Tom and Coach Joe with MSJE K-5 team.

Kudos to top seeded FM Cameron Wheeler for winning the challenging High School division for an unprecedented third straight year!  Incredibly, Cam is just a freshman and could conceivably win another three times.  His school, Monta Vista High School of Cupertino, easily claimed first place, nearly doubling the next best score.

The Elementary School divisions were dominated by well-established chess programs based in Fremont.  Mission San Jose Elementary, guided by veteran coach Joe Lonsdale, swept the K-6, K-5 and K-3 championships for the fourth straight year!  However, crosstown rival Weibel Elementary proved competitive in all three divisions, especially in K-6 where a half point separated first and second.  NorCal House of Chess won the club competition in both K-6 and K-5, but Liu Chess Club pulled ahead in K-3.  I tip my hat to Coach Ted Castro and Coach Wei Liu.

Congratulations to all of the State Champions!


Individual Champions

• K-12: FM Cameron Wheeler
• Denker Invitee: FM Vignesh Panchanatham
• K-8: CM Pranav Senthilkumar
• Barber Invitee: FM Rayan Taghizadeh
• Girl's Invitee: Simona Nayberg
• K-6: Eeswar Sree Kurli and Daniel Cheng
• K-5: Rishith Susarla
• K-3: Adrian Kondakov, Aghilan Nachiappan, Joon Kim and Prarthan Ghosh
• K: Nitish Nath and Vaibhav Krishnan

Team and Club Champions

• K-12 Team: Monta Vista HS (Cupertino)
• K-8 Team: Miller MS (Cupertino)
• K-8 Club: NorCal House of Chess (Fremont)
• K-6 Team: Mission San Jose Elementary (Fremont)
• K-6 Club: NorCal House of Chess (Fremont)
• K-5 Team: Mission San Jose Elementary (Fremont)
• K-5 Club: NorCal House of Chess (Fremont)
• K-3 Team: Mission San Jose Elementary (Fremont)
• K-3 Club: Liu Chess Club (Palo Alto)

Close But No Cigar - High School Nationals

Cameron Wheeler - 7th place

Kesav Viswanadha - 4th place

A modest-sized delegation of 39 from Northern California made waves at the National High School Championship in San Diego, but finished short of bringing home the first place trophies.  At the end of a long weekend of competitive chess, the Bay Area teams earned eight individual and two team trophies.  Congratulations to the successful squads from Kennedy Middle School (2nd place) and Monta Vista High School (4th place), both from Cupertino.  Each school depended on the strong individual performances by their top board: FM Cameron Wheeler (7th place) and NM Kesav Viswanadha (4th place), respectively!

Robby on Chess Life cover.

By all accounts, San Diego saw the strongest K-12 Nationals ever, with 33 masters in attendance, including 15 from California alone!  Amazingly, accelerated pairings magically whittled down the number of perfect scores, and after just five rounds, only one player from 345 remained unblemished.  To nobody's surprise, GM-elect Darwin Yang of Dallas won his first six games to finish as undisputed champion with 6.5 out of 7.  On the other hand, the team competition came down to the wire, with underrated Catalina Foothills High School of Tucson pulling ahead at the end, in large part thanks to the tireless effort of legendary coach FM Robby Adamson. 

• Individual Standings
• Team Standings
• Trophy Winners

NorCal Final Results  

• NM Kesav Viswanadha 6.0 - 4th place 
  
• FM Cameron Wheeler 5.5 - 7th place
• NM Allan Beilin 5.5 - 18th place
• NM Vignesh Panchanatham 5.0 - 22nd place
• Neel Apte 5.0 - Honorable Mention
• NM Michael Wang 5.0 - Honorable Mention
• NM Udit Iyengar 5.0 - Honorable Mention
• Hans Niemann 4.5 - 15th place blitz
• Kennedy Middle School 19.5/28 - 2nd place
• Monta Vista High School 19.0/28 - 4th place (tied for 3rd)
  

Photo credit Bay Area International 

National High School in San Diego

The big playing hall at National High School.  Credit: Martha Underwood.

The 2014 spring national scholastic chess championships kick off with the strongest National High School Championship ever!  By my count, there are two International Masters, 15 players rated above 2300 and 33 masters in all.  As always, the talented Northern California delegation appears poised to bring home some hardware and maybe even a national title.

• Standings and Pairings

Out of 950 total participants, about 340 signed up for the competitive High School Championship.  Given the convenient location at the Town & Country Resort in San Diego, 39 local players made the trip down I-5 for an intense weekend of chess.  Of the 27 Bay Area representatives in the strong Championship section, 9 are rated above 2150, including 2300+ rated FM Cameron Wheeler, NM Kesav Viswanadha and NM Vignesh Panchanatham.

In addition to the battle for individual honors, 3  Silicon Valley schools have entered teams of 4+ students.  Last year's CalChess K-12 Champions Kennedy Middle School of Cupertino, now boasting three masters and two strong 1900s, figures to challenge perennial national power Murrow High School from Brooklyn, New York.  Monta Vista High School, comprised of graduates from Kennedy Middle, should be competitive as well.  Finally, Saratoga High School, no longer quite as strong as last decade, fields a team of four B and C players.

NorCal Watch List
National High School
Final Results
Congratulations to GM-elect Darwin Yang for clear 1st with 6.5/7! 

• FM Cameron Wheeler (KMS) 5.5 - 7th place - drew Darwin Yang in last round
• NM Kesav Viswanadha (MVHS) 6.0 - 4th place - beat Y.Xia (2286) in last round
  
• NM Vignesh Panchanatham 5.0 - 22nd place
• NM Siddharth Banik 3.5
• NM Allan Beilin 5.5 - 18th place
• NM Udit Iyengar (KMS) 5.0 - Honorable Mention
• NM Michael Wang (KMS) 5.0 - Honorable Mention
• Neel Apte (MVHS) 5.0 - Honorable Mention
• Joshua Cao 4.5 
• Hans Niemann 4.5 - 5th grader!
  
• Kevin Rosenberg (MVHS) 4.0
• Daniel Zheng (MVHS) 4.0 - drew Rosenthal (2274), S.Liao (2189) and T.Lu (2185)
• Arhant Katare (KMS) 4.0 - drew S.Liao (2189)
• Pranav Srihari (KMS) 4.0 - drew Miller (2258)
• Faisal Albannai (SARA) 3.5 
• Alex Li (SARA) 3.5 - rated just 1435, played up all 7 rounds, +167 rating points
• Kennedy M.S. 19.5/28 - 2nd place 0.5 behind Catalina Foothills H.S. (Tucson)
• Monta Vista H.S. 19.0/28 - tied for 3rd with Murrow H.S. (Brooklyn)
• Saratoga H. S. 12.0/28 - 27th place

Here's wishing plenty of good luck and skill to all!