Kennedy Middle Wins K-8 Nationals

Kennedy team: Cameron, Pranav, Neel, Udit and Kesav, photo by Rob Wheeler.

Congratulations to the National K-8 Champions from Kennedy Middle School in Cupertino!!  With a final margin of 4.5 points ahead of the nearest competition, the team practically wrapped up top honors one round before the end.  Always hungry for more, the young Cougars bravely clawed through the top of the leaderboard.  Alas, they could not grab a share of the individual title.

Nonetheless, Kennedy earned four of the top 15 place trophies.  Udit Iyengar led the way with 3rd place at 6.0 out of 7.  Kesav Viswanadha and Cameron Wheeler took 7th and 8th, respectively, at 5.5.  Last, but not least, two-time CalChess K-8 winner Neel Apte scored 5.0, unfortunately falling to both of the national co-champions.

Five other Bay Area juniors also finished in the top 20 of the K-8 section, for a grand total of nine individual awards and two big team trophies!  Amazingly, Horner Junior High School in Fremont was the second best team in K-8.  Led by Daniel Ho at 13th place with 5.5, the Horner team muscled its way past IS 318 in the last two rounds.  Way to go!!

Finally, kudos to Colin Chow of Sacramento for a strong result in the K-9 division.  He beat one master, drew two more and lost just once, unfortunately on board 3 in the final round.

Check out Chess Life Online and CalChess for a pair of additional reports written by Randy Hough and Alan Kirshner, respectively.

Northern California Final Results 

K-9 Championship

• Colin Chow 5.0 - 7th place
• Vignesh Panchanatham 4.5 
• Hemang Jangle 4.5
• Taylor McCreary 4.0
• Russell Bik 3.5 

K-8 Championship

• Udit Iyengar (Kennedy) 6.0 - 5th place
• Kesav Viswanadha (Kennedy) 5.5 - 7th place
• Cameron Wheeler (Kennedy) 5.5 - 8th place
• Gabriel Bick 5.5 - 11th place
• Daniel Ho (Horner) 5.5 - 13th place
• Neel Apte (Kennedy) 5.0 - 15th place
• Allan Beilin 5.0 - 17th place
• Art Zhao 5.0 - 18th place
• Naveen Janarthanan 5.0 - 19th place
• Pranav Srihari (Kennedy) 4.5
• Kory Hui (Horner) 4.5
• Sameer Vijay 4.5
• Audrey Zhao 4.5
• Amit Sant 4.0
• Vikram Vasan 4.0
• Amarinder Chahal (Horner) 4.0
• KENNEDY M.S. TEAM 22.0/28 - NATIONAL CHAMPIONS
• HORNER J.H.S. TEAM 17.5/28 - 2nd place

JHS Nationals Day 2

Lots of kids play chess.  Photo credit: San Diego Union Tribune.

The players, parents and coaches keep busy on the middle day of the Nationals, with three full-length rounds.  The grueling evening round will make or break the tournament for a lot of top players.  Some parents end up feeling even more exhausted than the children.  For the coaches, this day brings 15 hours of analyzing games, starting soon after 9am and often continuing until midnight.   

Team Kennedy occupies top K-8 boards.

Round 3 brought all five members of Team Kennedy together, from boards 3 to 7.  Three won, two lost.  In K-9, Colin drew with one of the masters.  All told, five CalChess kids earned perfect 3-0 and another five have a solid 2.5.  So far so good! 

After round 4, three Bay Area stars continue to share the lead in K-8 with perfect scores.  They will play on boards 1-3 tonight.  Neel seems to have the most difficult pairing against top seed Christopher Wu (2293).  Three more local kids sit with 3.5 going into the evening round.  Colin squares off in another tough pairing against Varun Krishnan (2292). I counted 13 more local players with either 2.5 or 3.0. Kennedy modestly expanded its lead to 2.5 points.  I began tracking Horner Middle School, currently tied for 4th place.

Almost all good things come to an end.  Round 5 was the hour of reckoning for Team Kennedy.  Although four of the five players lost, the team somehow maintained its 2.5 point lead.  Unfortunately, I found no local kids among the leaders going into the final day, but eight have a solid score of 4.0/5.  Good luck!!

Colin Chow pulled off the upset in round 6 to move into a tie for 2nd in K-9 at 5.0!  With an undefeated 2.0/3 against masters, Colin faces a fourth one for all the marbles.  Four Bay Area kids reached 5.0 points in K-8. They could tie for 1st, 2nd or 3rd simply by winning their final games! Team Kennedy recovered in with 3.5 points in round 6, expanding their lead.  They essentially clinched 1st place K-8 team with a round to go!  Horner moved up in the standings and could finish as high as 2nd with a strong final push.

Northern California Watch List (after round 6 of 7)

K-9 Championship

• Colin Chow 5.0 - win against a master and draws with two other masters
• Vignesh Panchanatham 4.5 
• Hemang Jangle 3.5 - draw with master
• Russell Bik 3.5 
• I.S. 318 TEAM 17.5/24 (Leading by 2.5 over Masterman of Philadelphia PA)

K-8 Championship

• Neel Apte (Kennedy) 5.0
• Udit Iyengar (Kennedy) 5.0
• Allan Beilin 5.0
• Art Zhao 5.0
• Kesav Viswanadha (Kennedy) 4.5
• Cameron Wheeler (Kennedy) 4.5 
• Gabriel Bick 4.5
• Daniel Ho 4.5 (Horner)
• Naveen Janarthanan 4.0
• Pranav Srihari (Kennedy) 3.5
• Michael L. Wang 3.5
• Justin Wang (Horner) 3.5
• Audrey Zhao 3.5
• Amit Sant 3.5 
• Kory Hui (Horner) 3.5
• Nikhil Jaha (Horner) 3.5
• Bryce Wong 3.5
• KENNEDY M.S. TEAM 19.0/24 (Expanded lead to 3.5 over IS 318's weaker players.)
• HORNER M.S. TEAM 15.0/24 (Tied for 3rd place and only 0.5 out of 2nd.)