GM Zierk Wins Mechanics' Memorial Blitz

Due to the COVID pandemic, the Mechanics' Institute organized its annual Memorial Blitz online at Chess.com. This special event honors the memory of three masters who have departed after leaving their mark on the Bay Area chess community: NM Ray Schutt, SM Steve Brandwein and IM Jay Whitehead. In previous years, the large crowd of participants would socialize and munch on snacks between rounds of serious chess.

GM Steven Zierk
(credit: Alberta Chess)

Fortunately, the mandatory move online did little to dampen attendance - 104 players joined, including two Grandmsters, two International Masters, three FIDE Masters and at least seven National Masters. The competition was fierce starting in the first round, when three titled players lost or drew and a fourth overslept. No doubt, Ray, Steve and Jay would have enjoyed watching all of the fighting chess, even while socially distanced.

Veteran IM Elliott Winslow stormed out of the gate for the early lead, winning six straight games. The top seed, super-GM Rauf Mamedov of Azerbaijan, finally reeled him in. After round 7, four players shared the lead with 6-1: GM Mamedov and IM Winslow were joined by GM Steven Zierk and talented 13-year old IM Christopher Yoo.

The two Grandmasters clashed in round 9. Zierk, playing the black pieces, emerged victorious in a theoretical line of the Tarrasch variation of the French, gaining the advantage of two minor pieces against a rook and extra pawn.

Both Zierk and Mamedov held serve in rounds 10 and 11, allowing the local GM to clinch the tournament despite blundering into last round draw by repetition against this reporter. Congratulations Steven!

Final Standings of the Memorial Blitz (full results here)

1. GM Zkid (Steven Zierk) 10.5 out of 12
2. GM Muisback26 (Rauf Mamedov) 10.0
3. FM KyronGriffith 9.0
4. qing29 (Abhinav Penagalapati) 9.0
5. IM ChristopherYoo 8.5
6. NM 2007checkmate (Vyom Vidyarthi) 8.0
7. FM Marty435 (Jason Liang) 8.0
8. IM ecwinslow (Elliott Winslow) 8.0
9. NM jij2018 (Ruiyang Yan) 8.0
10. NM fpawn (Michael Aigner) 8.0
11. Atrozen (Anthony Rozenvasser) 8.0 

The blitz tournament was broadcast on Twitch with live commentary from the multi-talented Mechanics' Institute staff, including GM Nick de Firmian and FM Paul Whitehead. Replay the entire show at your leisure on YouTube! The game Mamedov vs Winslow begins at 1:25:00 while Mamedov vs Zierk starts at 1:48:40. Readers of this blog might enjoy the tense final round match between Zierk and Aigner at 2:20:25.

San Jose Hackers - PRO Chess League

Photos: GM Mamedyarov (left) and IM-elect Yoo (right, credit Llada).  

The Professional Rapid Online (PRO) Chess League returns to action this week on the Chess.com live server. The Bay Area is fortunate to have two strong teams in this worldwide competition. They battle in the Pacific Division against squads from San Diego, Seattle, Minnesota, Dallas, Australia and Chengdu (China). Each week, usually on Tuesday evenings, four team members rated under 2500 average each play four online games with the opposition at G/15 time control. After ten weeks, the top four teams in each Division advance to the league playoffs!

The San Jose Hackers are organized by Bay Area Chess and most team members either coach or participate in local chess classes, camps and tournaments. The star of the Hackers is World #3 Shakhriyar Mamedyarov of Azerbaijan. Two countrymen join "Shak" as free agents for San Jose: World #39 Rauf Mamedov and World #63 Eltaj Safarli. The three Azeris will need to split duties on the top board, since league rules permit only one free agent to play each week.

The other Hackers all reside in the Bay Area. Grandmaster coaches Zviad Izoria and Enrico Sevillano expect to platoon on second board. Coach and journalist IM Kostya Kavutskiy, 12 year old newly minted IM-elect Christopher Yoo and rapid specialist NM Faik Aleskerov will play significant roles throughout the season. Four teen masters, all current or former students of Bay Area Chess, share duties on board 4.

San Jose narrowly missed out on the playoffs last season and will seek to improve this year. Perhaps to make a statement, the Hackers rolled out their strongest lineup for the Week 1 showdown against their rivals, the San Francisco Mechanics: GM Mamedyarov, GM Izoria, IM-elect Yoo and FM Ivan Ke. Check out the action on Tuesday evening starting at 5:25PM!

• Team roster and schedule
• PRO Chess League standings 
• Hackers page at Bay Area Chess
• Twitter
• Facebook
• Fan club at Chess.com
• Twitch - IM Kostya Kavutskiy
• Twitch - FM Teemu Virtanen

World Cadet Underway in Spain

The playing venue is at the Ciudad de la Cultura. (website)

The 2018 World Cadet Chess Championships kicked off on Sunday at the Christian pilgrimage city of Santiago de Compostela located in northwestern Spain. Nearly 850 young chess players from around the world compete in six sections: Open and Girls for age U8, U10 and U12. The Open U10 and Open U12 divisions both have over 200 participants. After eleven rounds, gold, silver and bronze medals will be awarded on November 15.

Team USA includes 74 players, at least that many parents, 6 official team coaches and several private trainers. The American medal chances seem greatest in Open U12, where 21 kids rock the red, white and blue, including 4 of the top 10 seeds. Top contenders include Rachael Li (1st seed in Girls U8), FM Christopher Yoo (2nd seed in Open U12), IM Arthur Guo (4th seed in Open U12), NM Kirk Ghazarian (8th seed in Open U12), Dimitar Mardov (8th seed in Open U10), CM Jason Wang (10th seed in Open U12) and Crystal Gu (10th seed in Girls U8). Note that seeds are ranked by FIDE ratings, and the order may differ from USCF ratings.

Team USA hails from 17 states, including 16 youngsters from New York, 12 from California, 10 from New Jersey and 6 each from Illinois and Texas. The other states represented are: AZ, CT, FL, GA, MA, MI, OH, OR, PA, VA, WA and WI.

The official website is http://www.wccc2018.com/. The daily rounds begin at 7:30am PST except on November 10 (free day) and November 15 (final round starts 2.5 hours sooner). Watch the top boards at FollowChess or at Chess24 (with a 30 minute delay to deter cheating).

FINAL STANDINGS

Top American scores plus California kids

Rating from November USCF supplement

Age given as of December 31, 2018

OPEN U12 results link (21 players)

• FM Chasin, Nico (12 NY 2320) = 8.5 - BRONZE MEDAL (tied for 2nd)
• IM Guo, Arthur (12 GA 2387) = 8.5 - 4th place (tied for 2nd)
• FM Yoo, Christopher (12 CA-N 2455) = 8.0 - 7th place (tied for 6th)
• CM Wang, Jason (12 OH 2317) = 8.0 - 8th place (tied for 6th)
• Tian, Eddy (12 NJ 2270) = 7.5
• CM Zhou, Liran (10 NY 2291) = 7.5
• NM Ghazarian, Kirk (12 CA-S 2230) = 7.0 
• CM Xu, Arthur (11 IL 2158 = 7.0
• Nathan, Krishna (12 CA-N 2115) = 6.5
• Clasby, Derek (12 NJ 2231) = 6.5
• Park, Evan (11 PA 2177) = 6.5
• Yu, Jason (12 WA 2208) = 6.5
• Sethuraman, Sandeep (11 AZ 2149) = 6.5
• Oberoi, Shelev (12 TX 2045) = 6.5
• Gu, Andy (12 CA-S 1693) = 4.5

GIRLS U12 results link (11 players)

• WCM Pang, Ashley (11 CA-N 1737) = 8.0 - 6th place (tied for 3rd)
• WFM Wang, Ellen (11 NY 2015) = 7.5 - 12th place (tied for 8th)
• WCM Ke, Rianne (12 CA-S 2102) = 7.0
• WCM Velea, Stephanie (11 WA 1668) = 6.5

OPEN U10 results link (12 players)

• Zhao, Erick (10 FL 2067) = 9.0 - SILVER MEDAL (tied for 1st)
• Mardov, Dimitar (10 IL 2178) = 8.0 - 8th place (tied for 7th)
• Ngo, Bach (10 FL 2075) = 7.5
• Lee, Jayden (10 AZ 2022) = 7.5
• Shivakumar, Shawnak (10 CA-N 1991) = 7.0
• Sloan, Jed (10 NY 1912) = 6.5
• Tay, Brian (10 VA 1822) = 6.5
• Sivakumar, Shaaketh (10 CA-N 1861) = 5.5
• Huang, Brian (10 CA-S 1924) = 5.5

GIRLS U10 results link (15 players)

• WCM Velea, Sophie (10 WA 1782) = 8.0 - 7th place (tied for 5th)
• Liu, Kelsey (10 MA 1944) = 7.0
• Evans, Serena (10 CT 1475) 7.0
• WCM Wen, Kally (10 CA-N 1681) = 6.5
• Elangovan, Ramya (10 TX 1593) = 6.5
• Peng, Sophia (10 AZ 1697) = 6.5
• Zhu, Florina (10 NJ 1623) = 6.5
• Field, Lila (9 NJ 1310) 6.5

OPEN U8 results link (8 players)

• Chennareddy, Yuvraj (8 IL 1901) = 10.5 - GOLD MEDAL
• Wang, Alexander (8 NJ 1960) = 8.0 - 10th place (tied for 6th)
• Jiang, Andrew (8 GA 1864) = 7.0
• Woodward, Andy (8 TX 1812) = 7.0

GIRLS U8 results link (7 players)

• WCM Qiao, Evelyn (8 GA 1641) = 8.5 - BRONZE MEDAL
• Prakash, Nandini (8 IL 1554) = 7.5 - 9th place (tied for 8th)
• Gu, Crystal (8 CA-S 1578) = 7.0
• Li, Rachael (8 TX 1994) = 6.5

NorCal Top 20 Elementary (Age 11 & Under)

11 year old FM Christopher Yoo won a brilliancy against GM Conrad Holt to
complete his second IM norm this month in Berkeley. (Credit: Chessdryad)

NorCal Top 100 Lists and NorCal Top 20 Juniors
August 2018

Rank	Age	Name	USCF	Change	FIDE
1	11	FM Yoo, Christopher W	2414	140	2378
2	10	NM Li, Eric Y	2207	158	2008
3	11	Yan, Rui Y	2133	167	1852
4	11	Vidyarthi, Vyom	2105	132	1912
5	10	Kondakov, Adrian	2057	133	1948
6	11	Boldi, Ethan K	2011	139	1879
7	10	CM Krishnakumar, Sriram	1978	22	1675
8	10	Shivakumar, Shawnak	1919	131	1713
9	11	CM Nachiappan, Aghilan	1911	94	1631
10	11	Sairam, Pranav	1866	57
11	11	Kamath, Atul R	1832	66	1478
12	9	CM Nath, Nitish	1811	187	1506
13	9	Sivakumar, Shaaketh	1792	109	1522
14	11	WCM Wong, Allyson	1746	107	1479
15	10	Le, Nikko D	1745	96
16	11	Zhou, Nolan Y	1742	128
17	10	Weng, Nicholas	1737	138
18	7	Rajaram, Rohan	1718	505	1321
19	9	WCM Rajaram, Anika	1706	181	1371
20	11	Kou, Daniel	1703	-71	1444

• Derived from August 2018 US Chess Top 100 Lists.
• Age as of August 1, 2018.
• Rating Change from August 2017.

Berkeley GM Norm RR

The front desk and chess library. (Credit: Chessdryad)

Berkeley Summer GM Norm Invitational

August 17 to 21

Hosted by the Berkeley Chess School

Watch the games live at the Follow Chess app!

Time control = G/90 + inc/30
Average rating =  2433
Required score = 6.5 for GM norm, 5.0 for IM norm
Participants:

• GM Conrad Holt (2592)
• GM Priyadarshan Kannappan (2554) from India THIRD PLACE
• GM Mark Paragua (2506) from Philippines
• IM Joshua Sheng (2415) FIRST PLACE - GM NORM!!
• IM Bryce Tiglon (2392)
• NM Gabriel Bick (2391)
• IM Ahuja Rohan (2387) from India 
• FM Christopher Yoo (2378) IM NORM!!
• IM Kim Yap (2366) from Philippines SECOND PLACE - GM NORM!!
• FM Josiah Stearman (2346)

Crosstable:

GM Conrad Holt  | X | = | 1 | 0 | = | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | = |   3.5
GM Kannappan    | = | X | = | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | = | = | 1 |   6.0
GM M. Paragua   | 0 | = | X | 0 | 1 | 1 | = | = | = | 1 |   5.0
IM Josh Sheng   | 1 | 1 | 1 | X | 1 | = | = | 1 | 0 | 1 |   7.0
IM B. Tiglon    | = | 0 | 0 | 0 | X | = | 1 | = | 0 | = |   3.0
NM Gabe Bick    | 1 | 0 | 0 | = | = | X | 0 | = | 0 | = |   3.0
IM Ahuja Rohan  | 0 | 0 | = | = | 0 | 1 | X | 1 | = | 0 |   3.5
FM Chris Yoo    | 1 | = | = | 0 | = | = | 0 | X | 1 | 1 |   5.0
IM Kim Yap      | 1 | = | = | 1 | 1 | 1 | = | 0 | X | 1 |   6.5
FM J. Stearman  | = | 0 | 0 | 0 | = | = | 1 | 0 | 0 | X |   2.5

World Cadet - Bay Area Scores

Nitish Nath, Yan Rui Yang, Adrian Kondakov and Christopher Yoo pose wearing

team jackets outside the hotel in Brazil. Photo credit: Young-Kyu Yoo.

World Cadet Chess Championships

Pocos de Caldas, Brazil
August 22-31, 2017

Watch the Top Boards LIVE at Chess24.

Bay Area Final Results after Round 11

Open - U12

• Alex Kolay 7.0 - 15th place
• FM Christopher Yoo 6.5

Girls - U12

• Aksithi Eswaran 6.0
• Annapoorni Meiyappan 6.0

Open - U10

• Vyom Vidyarthi 7.0 - 14th place
• Adrian Kondakov 6.5
• Eric Li 6.5

Girls - U10

• Yan Rui Yang 7.5 - 9th place

Open - U8

• Nitish Nath 6.0

Girls - U8

• Omya Vidyarthi 7.0 - 9th place
• Kavya Meiyappan 6.0

World Cadet - Top USA Scores

World Cadet Chess Championships

Pocos de Caldas, Brazil
August 22-31, 2017

Watch the Top Boards LIVE at Chess24.
Click here for a Photo Album on Facebook thanks to Marcelo Konrath of Brazil.

Top USA Final Results after Round 11

Open - U12 (19 USA players)

• Vincent Tsay (NY) 8.5 - GOLD MEDAL
• NM Justin Wang (TX) 8.0 - 4th place
• FM Maximillian Lu (CT) 8.0 - 5th place
• FM Anthony He (WA) 7.0
• Alex Kolay (CA-N) 7.0

Girls - U12 (6 USA players)

• WFM Nastassja Matus (MN) 8.5 - SILVER MEDAL
• WCM Ambica Yellamraju (TX) 7.0 - 9th place
• Rianne Ke (CA-S) 7.0 - 11th place
• WCM Aksithi Eswaran (CA-N) 6.0
• Annapoorni Meiyappan (CA-N) 6.0

Open - U10 (18 USA players)

• NM Liran Zhou (NY) 9.5 - GOLD MEDAL
• Arthur Xu (IL) 8.5 - SILVER MEDAL
• Adi Murgescu (NY) 7.5 - 10th place
• Vyom Vidyarthi (CA-N) 7.0
• Frank Prestia (NY) 7.0

Girls - U10 (7 USA players)

• Ellen Wang (NY) 7.5 - BRONZE MEDAL
• Tianna Wang (MA) 7.5 - 8th place
• Yan Rui Yang (CA-N) 7.5 - 9th place
• Sanjana Ramesh (MI) 7.0

Open - U8 (10 USA players)

• Aren Emrikian (IL) 9.0 - GOLD MEDAL
• Abhimanyu Mishra (NJ) 8.5 - SILVER MEDAL
• Steve Wongso (AZ) 7.0
• Bryan Xie (CA-S) 7.0
• Kevin Duong (NY) 6.5

Girls - U8 (8 USA players)

• Alice Lee (MN) 8.0 - 5th place
• Iris Mou (NY) 7.0 - 7th place
• Omya Vidyarthi (CA-N) 7.0 - 9th place
• Lila Field (NJ) 6.5
• Kavya Meiyappan (CA-N) 6.0 

NorCal Top 20 Elementary (Age 11 & Under)

Christopher Yoo became the youngest master in US history
at 30 days before his 10th birthday. Credit: USChess

USCF Rating List
July 2017
Age as of July 1

1. NM Yoo, Christopher (10) 2235
2. CM Bayaraa, Chinguun (11) 2112
3. WCM Wu, Rochelle (11) 2082
4. Pan, Kevin (11) 2051
5. Li, Eric Yuhan (9) 2040
6. Palusa, Maurya (11) 1974
7. Yan, Rui Yang (10) 1970
8. Vidyarthi, Vyom (10) 1958
9. Nathan, Krishna (11) 1953
10. CM Krishnakumar, Sriram (8) 1945
11. Kondakov, Adrian (9) 1884
12. Peng, Andrew Wayne (11) 1876
13. Boldi, Ethan (10) 1838
14. Sairam, Pranav (10) 1809
15. WCM Eswaran, Aksithi (11) 1801
16. Thirumalai, Atul (11) 1800
17. CM Nachiappan, Aghilan (10) 1795
18. Shivakumar, Shawnak (9) 1781
19. Kamath, Atul (10) 1766
20. Zhang, Nathaniel A (11) 1763

http://www.fpawn.com/NorCalTop20Juniors.pdf

Time odds: Mamedyarov versus Yoo

Time odds: white has 25 seconds and black has 3 minutes
White is GM Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (#6 in World)
Black is 10 y/o NM Christopher Yoo (youngest master in US history)
White wins
Credit: San Jose Hackers chess camp @ Bay Area Chess

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 - 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)