CalChess State Scholastics History

Bay Area Chess hosts the annual CalChess State Scholastic Championships this weekend in Santa Clara. This year is the 44th edition of a tradition that started at a school, but has grown to fill several halls of a major convention center. Roughly 1200 children compete in 16 sections divided by age and chess skill. On Sunday evening, state champions will be crowned for the five Championship divisions: K-3, K-5, K-6, K-8 and K-12.

List of Scholastic Champions from 1986 to present

Check out the following trivia from more than three decades. Unfortunately, the records from 1976 through 1985 are not readily available.

• First exceeded 500 players = 1997
• First exceeded 1000 players = 2001
• Largest turnout = 1319 in 2006
• New sections added = Elementary K-5 section was only introduced in 2007 while Kindergarten began in 1997
• Most High School individual titles = Vinay Bhat won 4 from 1998-2002. Three masters won 3 times: Andy McManus (1987-1990), Dmitry Zilberstein (1994-1997) and Cameron Wheeler (2013-2015).
• Most High School team titles = 6 shared by Lowell High (1986-1994) and Saratoga High (2005-2010)
• Youngest High School winner = 5th grader Daniel Naroditsky
• Three 5-time champions = Vinay Bhat (K-3, K-12, K-12, K-12, K-12), Neel Apte (K-3, K-5, K-6, K-8, K-8), and Cameron Wheeler (K-5, K-6, K-12, K-12, K-12)
• Four 4-time champions = Micah Fischer-Kirshner (K-3, K-6, K-6, K-12), Adam Lischinsky (K-3, K-3, K-8, K-12), Daniel Naroditsky (K-3, K-6, K-12, K-12), and James Kwok (K-3, K-6, K-8, K-8) 
• Eleven 3-time champions = Andy McManus, Alan Stein, Dmitry Zilberstein, Keith Yost, Daniel Schwarz, Steven Zierk, Yian Liou, Kyle Shin, Tanuj Vasudeva, Siddharth Banik, Kevin Pan
• Grand Slam champions = None! Must win all four of K-3, either K-5 or K-6, K-8, and K-12. Eight juniors have won 3 out of 4. 
• Champions to become GM = Vinay Bhat, Steven Zierk, Daniel Naroditsky
• Champions to become IM = Alan Stein, Dmitry Zilberstein, Philip Wang, Yian Liou, Vignesh Panchanatham, Cameron Wheeler, Kesav Viswanadha
• Current US Champion Sam Shankland never won at the CalChess Scholastics. However, he became adult State Champ at age 16 (a record that was recently broken).
• The Schism of 2005 saw the CalChess Scholastics in Oakland compete against the CalNorth Regional in San Jose on same weekend. The Regional drew over twice as many kids (906 to 397).
• More than 20 false 9-1-1 calls from public telephones marred the 1998 edition at the Santa Clara Convention Center.
• Kudos to the main organizers = Ray Orwig, Dr. Alan Kirshner, Richard Peterson, Dr. Salman Azhar, and Dr. Judit Sztaray

Please contact Michael Aigner with errors, omissions, or additional trivia. Many thanks to Dr. Alan Kirshner for maintaining the records from 1986 to 2011. 

National Elementary Championships

The annual US Chess National Elementary Championships bring more than 2200 eager youngsters together in Nashville on Mother's Day weekend. The Northern California delegation consists of 45 kids plus their parents and coaches. More than half represent two historically strong Fremont elementary schools, Mission San Jose and Weibel, both which won national championships in recent years. How many trophies will the local participants bring home this year?

Most of the attention goes to the K-6 Championship section, which features the most local players and the best opportunities for high place trophies. Indeed, 7 kids are rated in the top 40 of the section, which is approximately the 70th percentile and up. Both Mission San Jose and Weibel have teams in K-6, with MSJE seeking to duplicate their shared first place in K-5 last year. The other interesting section appears to be the K-1 Championship, with first graders Rohan Rajaram and Lucas Jiang seeded among the top three. MSJE also hopes to finish near the top in K-1 after taking second place last year.


LATEST RESULTS (RFINAL RESULTS)

• Click here for Pairings and Standings
• LIVE Games (from top boards)
• US Chess Twitter (with photos)
• Schedule (PDT): Friday 11am, 4pm * Saturday 8am, 12noon, 4pm * Sunday 8am, 12noon

Kevin Pan (credit @USChess)

K-6 Championship (16 local players)

• Kevin Pan (MSJE) - 6.0 - CO-NATIONAL CHAMPION
• Abhinav Penagalapati - 4.5
• Aghilan Nachiappan (MSJE) - 5.0 - 17th place
• Stephen He (MSJE) - 4.0
• Nikko Le (Weibel) - 4.0
• Nicholas Jiang (MSJE) - 4.0  
• Allyson Wong (MSJE) - 4.5
• Alex Shrauger - 4.5
• Saatvik Krishnan - 3.5
• Dharshan Vetrivelan (Weibel) - 3.5
• Aidan Chen (MSJE) - 4.0
• Umesh Gopi (Weibel) - 3.0
• Krish Gangal (Weibel) - 3.0 - 2nd U1400
• Nivedha Maniv (MSJE) - 3.0
• Reyansh Gangal (Weibel) - 2.0
• Savir Khanna (Weibel) - 2.0
• MSJE K-6 team (7 players) - 19.5 - CO-NATIONAL CHAMPIONS
• Weibel K-6 team (6 players) - 13.5 - 6th place

K-5 Championship (9 local players)

• Shaaketh Sivakumar - 4.5
• Anika Rajaram - 4.0
• Nikhil Parvathaneni - 3.5
• Kavya Meiyappan (MSJE) - 4.0
• Jayden Xu - 4.0
• Leo Jiang - 2.5
• Jason Liu (MSJE) - 3.0
• Ayaan Kassamali (MSJE) - 3.5- 1st U1100
• Jolene Liu (MSJE) - 2.5 - 2nd U1100
• MSJE K-5 team (4 players) - 13.0 - 9th place

K-3 Championship (4 local players)

• Nitish Nath - 5.5 - 7th place
• Ryan Wang - 5.0 - 16th place
• Jaden Cheung - 3.0
• Tanishi Varma - 2.5

Rohan Rajaram (credit @USChess)

K-1 Championship (12 local players)

• Rohan Rajaram - 6.5 - NATIONAL CHAMPION
• Lucas Jiang (MSJE) - 6.0 - 4th place
• Arnam Pawar (MSJE) - 6.0 - 7th place
• Artham Pawar (MSJE) - 6.0 - 3rd place
• Louis Le - 4.0
• Aditya Arutla (MSJE) - 5.0 - 23rd place
• Bhaasvan Varma - 5.0 - 16th place
• Yahor Hrynko - 5.0 - 27th place
• Shreyank Krishnan - 5.0 - 17th place
• Anvitha Penagalapati - 3.0
• Swagatha Selvam (MSJE) - 3.5
• Sarvesh Maniv (MSJE) - 1.5
• MSJE K-1 team (6 players) - 13.5 - NATIONAL CHAMPIONS

MSJE Says Yes2Chess!

The Champions! (Credit: Hui Wang)

Already crowned State and National K-6 champions, the Mission San Jose Elementary chess team capped a magical year by winning the Yes2Chess World finals!  This multiple stage competition began with online matches and culminated in an expenses paid trip to London.  Congratulations to Coach Joe Lonsdale, team coordinator Hui Wang and, most importantly, the young champs themselves!

Kevin was only kid to beat Grandmaster
David Howell in simul. (Credit: Yes2Chess)

 Team MSJE

• David Pan, 6th grader rated 2000
• Rishith Susarla, 4th grader rated 1891
• Kevin Pan, 3rd grader 1802
• Annapoorni Meiyappan, 4th grader rated 1702
• Leo Jiang, 4th grader rated 1393

The USA finals saw the California kids pitted against three top tier squads from New York City.  The players must have felt a little bit like Bobby Fischer facing all of the Russians.  Needing a team victory in the last match, MSJE prevailed 4:1.  They advanced with 5 match points out of 6, narrowly ahead of second and third place.

Group photo of all 8 countries in front of Parliament. (Credit: Yes2Chess)

Eight countries competed in the World finals.  This morning, the Americans dispatched schools from Sweden, Spain and Norway in Pool A to advance to the championship match.  Then they dominated Pool B winner Portugal 4.5-0.5 to claim first place!  More details to come.   

Way to go!!