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 Repeats as National Champions

The Mission San Jose K-6 National Champions pose with Coach Joe Lonsdale in the back.

Kudos to Mission San Jose Elementary for winning US Chess K-6 Nationals for consecutive years and the third time in the past four years!  The school fielded competitive teams in all four championship divisions in Nashville, finishing Top 5 in three.  Simply said, major props to Coach Joseph Lonsdale and his large group of enthusiastic and talented kids!  Repeated success at states and nationals over so many years speaks for itself.

The following list shows Northern California trophy winners at Elementary Nationals.

• MSJE (Fremont) school team = 1st in K-6, 5th in K-5, 4th in K-3 and 9th in K-1
• Weibel (Fremont) school team = 5th in K-6, 13th in K-5

• Rishith Susarla (MSJE) 9th in K-6 
• Kevin Pan (MSJE) 20th in K-6
• William Sartorio 5th in K-5
• Milind Maiti 12th in K-5
• Shree Jay (MSJE) 2nd U1200 in K-5
• Adrian Kondakov 20th in K-3
• Christopher Yoo 23rd in K-3
• Sriram Krishnakumar 26th in K-3
• Siddharth Arutla (MSJE) 1st U600 in K-3 
• Nitish Nash 16th in K-1
• Jason Liu (MSJE) 32nd in K-1

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

Andrew Hong + MSJE Excel at K-6 Nationals

National Champions! MSJE K-6 team with Coach Joe. Photo by Donna DePietro Woods.

The 2015 National Elementary Championship concluded successfully for the 35 player contingent from Northern California.   No fewer than 11 local children earned trophies for finishing in the top 25 or 30; plus another 5 picked up honorable mention.  Nearly everyone who made the trip to Nashville (30 out of 35) finished with a respectable "plus score" of 4.0 or more.  Well done!

This shirt (from 2012) needs an update!

Congratulations to Saratoga 4th grader NM Andrew Hong for sweeping the tough K-6 section with a 7-0 score.  He came, he saw and he conquered!  It is difficult being the top seed, because each opponent has prepared specifically for you.  Andrew took it in stride, vanquishing second seeded Alexander Costello from San Diego in the penultimate round.  Congrats also to 3rd grader Maurya Palusa for finishing alone in second place in K-3, winning six games and drawing one.

Once again, legendary coach Joe Lonsdale guided his Mission San Jose Elementary squad to victory at Nationals.  The K-6 team seized the pole in round 3 and barely held on, nudging ahead of IS 318 from the Bronx on superior tiebreaks.  This is the third K-6 national championship for MSJE since 2009! Competing schools bring along Grandmasters and other professional chess trainers. MSJE has smart kids and the irreplaceable Coach Joe.  The Fremont program garnered trophies in K-3 and K-5 as well, 4th and 8th place, respectively.  Kudos all around! 

Click here for PAIRINGS and RESULTS.
Final scores after Round 7.

K-6

• NM Andrew Hong 2255 7.0 -- clear 1st place
• David Pan 2087 MSJE 5.5 -- 6th place (tied for 5th)
  
• Karthik Padmanabhan 2021 5.5 -- 11th place (tied for 5th)
  
• Annapoorni Meiyappan 1656 MSJE 5.0 -- honorable mention
• Rishith Susarla 1906 MSJE 4.5
• Daniel Mendelevitch 1643 4.0
• Kavya Sasikumar 1438 MSJE 4.0
• MSJE team 1772 19.0/28 -- 1st place on tiebreaks
  

K-5

• Milind Maiti 1899 5.5 -- 10th place
• William Sartorio 1814 5.0 -- 26th place (tied for 22nd)
  
• Anaiy Somalwar 1887 5.0 -- honorable mention
  
• Chenyi Zhao 1815 5.0 -- honorable mention
  
• Oliver Wu 1789 5.0 -- honorable mention
  
• Jeffrey Liu 1287 MSJE 4.0
• Atul Thirumalai 1333 MSJE 4.0
• Abhinav Raghavendra 1167 MSJE 4.0
• Leo Jiang 1404 MSJE 4.0
• MSJE team 1298 16.0/28 -- 8th place (tied for 7th)
  

K-3

• Maurya Palusa 1831 6.5 -- clear 2nd place
• Kevin Pan 1807 MSJE 5.5 -- 11th place (tied for 7th)
• Christopher Yoo 1761 5.5 -- 12th place (tied for 7th)
• Stephen He 1247 MSJE 5.5 -- 21st place (tied for 7th)
  
• Aidan Chen 1199 MSJE 4.5
• Arnav Lingannagari 1211 MSJE 4.0
• Allyson Wong 1132 MSJE 4.0
• Nicholas Jiang 1152 MSJE 4.0
• MSJE team 1366 19.5/28 -- 4th place

K-1

• Sriram Krishnakumar 1323 6.0 -- 3rd place
• Adrian Kondakov 1500 6.0 -- 6th place (tied for 3rd)
  
• Nikko Le 804 5.0 -- honorable mention
  
• Nikhil Parvathaneni 1034 4.5
• Nitish Nath 1067 4.5 
• Jason Liu 439 MSJE 4.0

MSJE Hunting for More Trophies in Nashville

A huge glass roof covers the Opryland Resort.

More than 2200 young chess enthusiasts plus their parents, siblings and coaches have descended upon the Nashville, Tennessee for the 2015 National Elementary Championship.  That total includes 35 kids from the Bay Area, all eager to take home a giant trophy.  Can the California boys (and girls) prove their might once again?  I think so!!

Top rated Andrew Hong

A dozen local youngsters enter the weekend seeded in the top 20 of their section, led by NM Andrew Hong, surprisingly the only master in the tournament.  Unfortunately, it is difficult being King of the Hill when literally everyone in the field is underrated--some more than others.  Watch out for the perennial powers of New York!

The only school team to travel to the Gaylord Opryland Resort was Mission San Jose Elementary of Fremont, fresh off an impressive performance at the CalChess Scholastics last weekend.  Coach Joe Lonsdale speaks highly of his teams in K-6 and K-3; even the weaker K-5 squad could finish well.  We shall see!

Click here for PAIRINGS and RESULTS.
Scores updated on Saturday evening after Round 5.

K-6

• NM Andrew Hong 2255 5.0 -- clear leader
• David Pan 2087 MSJE 4.5 -- tied for 2nd
• Karthik Padmanabhan 2021 4.5 -- tied for 2nd
• Rishith Susarla 1906 MSJE 3.5
• Annapoorni Meiyappan 1656 MSJE 3.5
• Daniel Mendelevitch 1643 3.0
• Kavya Sasikumar 1438 3.0
• MSJE team 1772 14.5/20 -- tied for 1st
  

K-5

Coach Joe with MSJE K-6 team at States.

• Milind Maiti 1899 4.5 -- tied for 5th
• William Sartorio 1814 4.5 -- tied for 5th
• Anaiy Somalwar 1887 3.5
• Chenyi Zhao 1815 3.0
• Oliver Wu 1789 3.0
• Leo Jiang 1404 MSJE 3.0
• Jeffrey Liu 1287 MSJE 3.0
• Abhinav Raghavendra 1167 MSJE 3.0
• MSJE team 1298 11.5/20 -- tied for 6th
  

K-3

• Maurya Palusa 1831 4.5 -- tied for 4th
• Kevin Pan 1807 MSJE 4.5 -- tied for 4th
• Christopher Yoo 1761 4.0
• Stephen He 1247 MSJE 3.5
• Aidan Chen 1199 MSJE 3.5
• Arnav Lingannagari 1211 MSJE 3.0
• MSJE team 1366 14.5/20 -- 4th place

K-1

• Sriram Krishnakumar 1323 5.0  -- co-leader
• Adrian Kondakov 1500 4.0
• Nitish Nath 1067 4.0 
• Nikhil Parvathaneni 1034 3.5
• Nikko Le 804 3.0
• Jason Liu 439 MSJE 3.0

Best of luck to all of the players!  Bring home the hardware!

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!

Three Superb National Champs!

Siddharth Banik (by Shorman)

Rayan Taghizadeh (by Shorman)

The last pawn has been pushed and one more Scholar's Mate was played.  Mercifully for the directors and parents, the fifth SuperNationals has drawn to a close.  Some kids proudly show off their shiny trophies while others bemoan lost opportunities.  Regardless of their final score, fond memories of a weekend in Nashville will remain for many years for the record 5,335 participants.

Once again, the delegation from Northern California--82 players strong-- has left their mark.  Out of seven championship sections, three were won by Bay Area stars.  Many hearty congratulations go to Siddharth Banik (K-8), Rayan Taghizadeh (K-5) and Chinguun Bayaraa (K-1)!  Andrew Hong (K-3) scored 6.5/7, but alas, that proved sufficient only for 2nd place.  In K-9, FM Cameron Wheeler and NM Vignesh Panchanatham fought valiantly with aspirations of a tie for 1st, but both succumbed in the final hour of the 7th round.

Two teams captured national titles.  Mission San Jose Elementary of Fremont competed in K-1, K-3, K-6 and K-8 (if you count Hopkins Junior High).  Amazingly, they finished Top 5 in all four sections, and captured a surprising 1st place in K-6 (ahead of I.S. 318)!  Coach Joe Lonsdale has conducted a championship team for several years, incredibly with a different bunch of students each time.  Crosstown rival Gomes Elementary already tasted success at the annual CalChess Scholastics, and now they upgraded by winning K-5 nationals!  Last year's K-8 national champions from Kennedy Middle competed in K-9 and came within a half point of a repeat performance.

• Full Standings and Trophy Winners
• USCF Rating Report

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Final Standings

K-12 Championship (327 players)

Taylor McCreary - 3.5

K-9 Championship (145 players)

FM Cameron Wheeler (KENN) - 5.5 - 5th place trophy
NM Vignesh Panchanatham - 5.5 - 6th place trophy
Pranav Srihari (KENN) - 5.0 
Joshua Cao - 4.5
Justin Wang (IRVG) - 4.5
Daniel Ho (IRVG) - 4.0
Solomon Ruddell - 4.0
Vikram Vasan - 4.0
Arhant Katare (KENN) - 4.0
Nikhil Jaha (IRVG) - 3.0
Kingsley Wang (KENN) - 3.0
Amarinder Chahal (IRVG) - 2.5
Kennedy Middle School - 17.5/28 - 2nd place team
Irvington High School - 14.0/28 - 6th place team

K-8 Championship (256 players)

Siddharth Banik - 6.5 - NATIONAL CHAMPION
Allan Beilin - 5.5 - 6th place trophy
Armaan Kalyanpur (HOPK) - 5.0 - honorable mention
Shalin Shah (HOPK) - 4.0
Isaac Ruddell - 4.0
Alvin Kong (HOPK) - 4.0
Eric Zhu (HOPK) - 4.0
Hopkins Junior High School - 17.0/28 - 5th place team

K-6 Championship (198 players)

Amit Sant (MSJE) - 5.5 - 13th place trophy
FM Tanuj Vasudeva - 5.0 - 15th place trophy
Christopher Pan (MSJE) - 4.0
David Pan (MSJE) - 4.0
Anjan Das (MSJE) - 3.0
Mission San Jose Elementary - 16.5/28 - NATIONAL CHAMPIONS

K-5 Championship (355 players)

Rayan Taghizadeh - 6.5 - NATIONAL CHAMPION
Anthony Zhou (WEIB) - 5.5 - 22nd place trophy
Ganesh Murugappan (GOME) - 5.5 - 23rd place trophy
Joanna Liu (GOME) - 5.0 - honorable mention
Jason Zhang (GOME) - 5.0 - honorable mention
William Sartorio (GOME) - 4.5 - U1400 class prize 
Daniel Mendelevitch - 4.5
Atri Surapaneni (WEIB) - 4.0
Serafina Show (WEIB) - 4.0
Jeremy Chen (WEIB) - 3.5
Gomes Elementary School - 20.0/28 - NATIONAL CHAMPIONS
Weibel Elementary School - 17.0/28 - 8th place team

K-3 Championship (278 players)

Andrew Hong - 6.5 - 2nd place trophy
Milind Maiti - 5.5 - 9th place trophy
Chenyi Zhao - 5.5 - 18th place trophy
Rishith Susarla (MSJE) - 5.0 - 20th place trophy
Ben Rood - 5.0 - honorable mention
Zhiyi Wang - 5.0 - honorable mention 
Callaghan Mccarty-Snead - 4.5
Oliver Wu (WEIB) - 4.5
Louis Law (WEIB) - 4.0
Annapoorni Meiyappan (MSJE) - 4.0
Kavya Sasikumar (MSJE) - 4.0
Jeffrey Liu (MSJE) - 4.0
Eshaan Mistry (WEIB) - 3.0
Aaron Lee (WEIB) - 3.0
Mission San Jose Elementary - 17.0/28 - 5th place team
Weibel Elementary School - 14.5/28 - 9th place team

K-1 Championship (349 players)

Chinguun Bayaraa - 7.0 - NATIONAL CHAMPION
Maurya Palusa - 6.0 - 8th place trophy
Pradyum Chitlu (WEIB) - 5.0 - honorable mention
Stephen He (MSJE) - 5.0 - honorable mention
Weslie Chen (WEIB) - 5.0 - honorable mention
Aidan Chen (MSJE) - 5.0 - honorable mention
Arnav Lingannagari (MSJE) - 4.5
Kevin Pan (MSJE) - 4.5
Vasudeva Rao (MSJE) - 4.0
David Sartorio - 4.0
Allyson Wong (MSJE) - 4.0  
Erin Law (WEIB) - 3.5
Aaron Hu (WEIB) - 3.0
Mission San Jose Elementary - 19.0/28 - 5th place team
Weibel Elementary School - 16.5/28 - 11th place team 

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If you find a typo or someone else worthy of mention here, please email me.

SuperNationals V This Weekend

Once again, the magnificent Grand Ole Opry in Nashville hosts the granddaddy of all scholastic chess tournaments.  Held every four years like the Olympics, the SuperNationals draws young chess enthusiasts from across the country, representing their hometown schools and competing to bring home giant trophies.  The 2009 edition attracted a record 5,300 players to Music City, a mark that has apparently fallen.

Indeed, the final tally of advance entries reached 5,344, a number that includes withdrawals, but does not include last minute entries and a few inevitable no-shows.  Despite the distance, an impressive delegation of 82 will represent Northern California, led by a trio of masters who sharpened their skills around the world.  Six schools will compete for team trophies, seeking to demonstrate that the hottest spot for scholastic chess is Fremont and not the Bronx.

No doubt, this will be a weekend filled with ups and downs, stunning victories and maddening upsets, the glee of success and the agony of defeat.  The letters NY automatically indicate that the rating is 200 points too low.  The top boards will be occupied by budding prodigies, perhaps a new generation of American Grandmasters.  A mass of humanity spills from the cavernous hallways into the vast courtyards, filled by nervous soccer moms and hockey dads all praying for the same answer to the same question: Did my son/daughter win?  Three grueling rounds on Saturday can wipe out even the most energetic kids and adults.  Having attended two of the previous SuperNationals, I can personally attest to the stressful atmosphere--and I didn't play!

• 20 sections, 7 rounds, 18,000 games!
• Schedule (PDT): Friday 11am, 5pm; Saturday 7am, 12pm, 5pm; Sunday 7am, 12pm
• Pairings and Results
• Games on MonRoi (currently only K-12)

The following is a list of the top rated players in each section and the six school teams from Northern California.  Check back here for periodic updates throughout the weekend.

Unfortunately, the Pairings and Results appear to be quite a mess.  It is nearly 11pm PDT and there are no results in most sections, or they put standings for Unrated into the file for the Championship section.  Now they took down *all* of the results.

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K-12 Championship (329 players)

#139 Taylor McCreary (1837)

K-9 Championship (145 players)

#3 FM Cameron Wheeler (2291)
#7 NM Vignesh Panchanatham (2202)
#18 Solomon Ruddell (2065)
#23 Joshua Cao (2030)
#43 Pranav Srihari (1884)
#53 Daniel Ho (1856)
#54 Arhant Katare (1838)
#55 Vikram Vasan (1837)
Kennedy Middle School (Cupertino) 4 players (Wheeler, Srihari, Katare, Wang)
Irvington High School (Fremont) 4 players (Ho, Wang, Chahal, Jaha)

K-8 Championship (260 players)

#3 Allan Beilin (2161)
#5 Siddharth Banik (2117)
#25 Armaan Kalyanpur (1933)
Hopkins Middle School (Fremont) 6 players (Kalyanpur, Kong, Shah, Zhu)

K-6 Championship (203 players)

#1 FM Tanuj Vasudeva (2150)
#37 Amit Sant (1735)
Mission San Jose Elementary (Fremont) 8 players (Sant, Pan, Pan, Das)

K-5 Championship (359 players)

#2 Rayan Taghizadeh (2021)
#15 Joanna Liu (1847)
#29 Ganesh Murugappan (1761)
#31 Anthony Zhou (1741)
Gomes Elementary School (Fremont) 5 players (Liu, Murugappan, Zhang, Sartorio)
Weibel Elementary School (Fremont) 6 players (Zhou, Surapaneni, Show, Mandadi)

K-3 Championship (280 players)

#4 Ben Rood (1798)
#13 Andrew Hong (1692)
#18 Milind Maiti (1612)
#22 Rishith Susarla (1609)
#27 Chenyi Zhao (1558)
Mission San Jose Elementary (Fremont) 6 players (Susarla, Meiyappan, Thomas, Liu)
Weibel Elementary School (Fremont) 4 players (Wu, Law, Mistry, Lee)

K-1 Championship (351 players)

#1 Chinguun Bayaraa (1644)
#10 Maurya Palusa (1306)
#13 Kevin Pan (1277)
Mission San Jose Elementary (Fremont) 8 players (Pan, He, Chen, Rao)
Weibel Elementary School (Fremont) 4 players (Chitlu, Chen, Hu, Law)

New National Champions In Our Midst

Orlando World Center Marriott Hotel

The National Grade Level Championships took place last weekend in Orlando.  A total of 1300 players flew in from around the country to play chess and visit the House of Mouse.  The main tournament went 7 rounds over 3 days, with competitors divided into grades K through 12th.

Thirteen Bay Area juniors and their parents made the trek to Florida.  The trip proved successful, and the local delegation brought home 11 trophies: six top 10 places, two honorable mentions, two rating class prizes and one big team trophy. 

Special congratulations to the two individual national champions: Chinguun Bayaraa in 1st grade and Andrew Hong in 2nd grade!  Andrew is the new kid on the block, attending his first chess tournament merely five months ago.  By comparison, Chinguun proved himself as a veteran, playing chess since age 3 and winning his second nationals after Kindergarten last year.

The 7th grade team from Kennedy Middle School earned two individual prizes and picked up a nice team trophy to store alongside the first place K-8 award from last April.  Indeed, they finished ahead of national power IS 318 from the Bronx.  Check out reports and photos at Cameron's blog.

Northern California Scores
USCF Rating Report

• Gr 1 - Chinguun Bayaraa 6.0 - co-NATIONAL CHAMPION 
• Gr 1 - Maurya Palusa 5.5 - 8th place
• Gr 2 - Andrew Hong 6.5 - co-NATIONAL CHAMPION
• Gr 2 - Rishith Susarla 6.0 - 4th place
• Gr 3 - Chenyi Zhao 5.0 - honorable mention
• Gr 5 - Jason Hong 4.0 - 1st 1000-1199
• Gr 5 - Simona Nayberg 4.0
• Gr 6 - Amit Sant 5.0 - honorable mention
• Gr 7 - Cameron Wheeler 5.5 - 5th place
• Gr 7 - Art Zhao 5.5 - 6th place
• Gr 7 - Kingsly Wang 4.5 - 1st 1200-1399
• Gr 7 - Pranav Srihari 4.0
• Gr 7 - Kennedy Middle (Cameron, Kingsly, Pranav) - NATIONAL CHAMPIONS
• Gr 9 - Joshua Cao 4.5

Panchanatham, Moy and Fremont Schools Victorious at Elementary Nationals

Vignesh Panchanatham

Kevin Moy

Update on Sunday midday.  Heading into the final round, only one NorCal player has a chance to win his or her section.  Vignesh and his 1945 rated opponent from New York have the only two 5.5s in K-6.  Winner takes all!  Seven local kids check in at 5.0 and can earn a nice big trophy simply by winning the last game.  In team competitions, all eyes are on the 1st graders from MSJE, who remain in 1st, barely ahead of New York powers Hunter and Dalton.  Good luck!!

Final results.  Competing at the Nationals is a challenge for even the very best.  Indeed, the best player may not win.  I tell juniors and their parents that they might score 5.5 or 6.0 by skill, but need luck to finish in the top-3.  By this standard, I offer my kudos  to Rishith, Milind, Agnes, Edwin, Balaji, Chenyi, Jason Z., Michael W. and Abhishek!  Vignesh and Kevin M. finished at an even higher level, sharing first place in the K-6 division (photos by Shorman).  All told, the Northern California delegation combined to win 15 individual trophies in the championship sections!

Here is a special round of applause for the players, coaches and parents at MSJE.  They dominated the CalChess Scholastics across the board.  Three weeks later, the team flew to Nashville and earned a trio of top-7 trophies at National Elementary, including the highest honors in K-1.  Year in and year out, the Mission San Jose chess community is simply amazing!  Way to go Coach Joe Lonsdale!

I would be remiss if I didn't mention another school that (sadly) sat out the CalChess Scholastics.  The highly rated Weibel Elementary team struggled for much of the weekend.  Needing to pull a rabbit out of the hat in the last round, Coach Alan Kirshner gave his best motivational speech.  The four players all won, and the team squeaked into first place on tiebreaks, ahead of two New York City programs.  

Northern California Final Results
Click here for standings and trophies.

K-6 Championship

• Vignesh Panchanatham 6.0 - CO-CHAMPION and 2nd on tiebreaks
• Kevin Moy 6.0 - CO-CHAMPION and 5th on tiebreaks
• Michael Wang 5.5 - 8th place
• Abhishek Handigol 5.5 - 12th place
• Shalin Shah 4.5
• Alvin Kong 4.0
• Anthony Zhou 4.0 
• Sayan Das 4.0
• Eric Zhu 4.0 
• Weibel team - CO-CHAMPION and 1st on tiebreaks
• MSJE team in 6th place

K-5 Championship

• Amit Sant 5.0- 28th place
• Drake Lin 4.0

K-3 Championship

• Chenyi Zhao 5.5 - 13th place
• Jason Zhang 5.5 - 17th place
• Ben Rood 5.0 - 25th place
• John Chan 4.5
• Anvi Surapaneni 4.5
• Mihir Bhuptani 4.0
• Tommy Koh 4.0
• Daniel Mendelevitch 4.0
• Atri Surapaneni 4.0
• MSJE team in 7th place

K-1 Championship

• Rishith Susarla 6.0 - 4th place
• Milind Maiti 6.0 - 8th place
• Agnes William 6.0 - 9th place
• Edwin Thomas 5.5 - 16th place 
• Balaji Daggupati 5.5 - 17th place
• Louis Law 5.0 - 30th place
• Zhiyi Wang 5.0 - 46th place
• Amulya Harish 4.0 
• Oliver Wu 4.0
• Annapoorni Meiyappan 4.0
• Vincent Wang 4.0
• Xander Del Bosque 4.0
• Kevin Pan 4.0
• MSJE team -- CO-CHAMPION and 1st on tiebreaks

A Long Saturday in Music City

Back of Mission San Jose Elementary t-shirt.

The Saturday schedule at any of the Nationals is always a battle against fatigue.  For younger kids, it is just a r-e-a-l-l-y-l-o-n-g-d-a-y.  Older juniors test their stamina with up to 12 hours at the board.  The brutal third round for the day, and fifth round in the tournament, starts at 7:00pm.  The final weary warriors set up their pieces at 11:00pm, well after bedtime for most elementary school participants.

Update on Saturday early evening.  After round 4, two California children were still perfect in K-1, but everyone else has a pocket score.  Vignesh and Michael drew in K-6 to join Kevin and Abhishek, all at 3.5.  Five local players have 3.0 in K-3.  The state champions from MSJE are tied for 1st in K-1 and sit at 5th and 6th, respectively, in K-3 and K-6.  Good skill to all!

Update on Saturday night. The long day has mercifully come to an end.  The Bay Area will "occupy" the top boards in the K-6 and K-1 sections tomorrow.  Three players have 4.5 in K-6: Vignesh, Kevin and Abhishek!  Go guys!  In K-1, a pair of 1400 rated 1st graders find themselves in a group of seven perfect 5-0 scores.  Go Rishith and Agnes! The MSJE K-1 team also moved into 1st place, tied with Hunter College from New York.

Update on Sunday midday.  Heading into the final round, only one NorCal player has a chance to win his or her section.  Vignesh and his 1945 rated opponent from New York have the only two 5.5s in K-6.  Winner takes all!  Seven local kids check in at 5.0 and can earn a nice big trophy simply by winning the last game.  In team competitions, all eyes are on the 1st graders from MSJE, who remain in 1st, barely ahead of New York powers Hunter and Dalton.  Good luck!!

Northern California Watch List
(round 6 of 7)
Click here for standings and pairings.

K-6 Championship

• Vignesh Panchanatham 5.5 (playing on board 1 against the only other 5.5)
• Kevin Moy 5.0 
• Michael Wang 4.5 
• Abhishek Handigol 4.5 
• Shalin Shah 4.0
• Alvin Kong 4.0
• Anthony Zhou 3.0 
• Sayan Das 3.0
• Eric Zhu 3.0
• MSJE team in 6th place

K-5 Championship

• Amit Sant 4.0
• Drake Lin 4.0
• Anjan Das 3.5

K-3 Championship 

• Ben Rood 5.0 
• Chenyi Zhao 4.5
• Jason Zhang 4.5
• Daniel Mendelevitch 4.0
• John Chan 4.0
• Atri Surapaneni 3.5
• Anvi Surapaneni 3.5
• MSJE team in 9th place

K-1 Championship

• Rishith Susarla 5.0
• Agnes William 5.0 
• Milind Maiti 5.0
• Louis Law 5.0
• Zhiyi Wang 5.0
• Balaji Daggupati 4.5
• Edwin Thomas 4.5  
• Oliver Wu 4.0
• Amulya Harish 4.0
• Annapoorni Meiyappan 4.0
• Vincent Wang 4.0
• MSJE team in 1st place, 0.5 ahead of Hunter and 1.0 ahead of Dalton

National Elementary in Nashville!

The spacious interior of the Gaylord Opryland Resort.

The largest chess tournament in America starts today at the humongous Gaylord Opryland Resort in Nashville.  No, it is not World Open, but rather the National Elementary Championships.  Over 2,200 players have registered in one of nine sections based on age and rating. 

A total of 47 NorCal kids (plus their parents, siblings and coaches) flew to Nashville for a wild weekend of chess and fun.  About three-fourths of this grand delegation represents two elementary schools from the city of Fremont.  The roster ranges from two 6th grade experts, Vignesh Panchanatham (2127) and Kevin Moy (2015), all the way down to a pair of kindergartners.  Almost all of the Bay Area players entered in the highly competitive "open" sections, meaning no rating restriction.

Stage with trophies lined up in back.

The format is a 7-round swiss with two games today, three on Saturday and the final two on Sunday.  The time control is G/2 hours, meaning someone could potentially play for 12 hours on Saturday.  I will try to follow the top players on my blog at least once a day, which will be challenging given the ongoing US Championship and the World Championship (Anand vs Gelfand).

Update on Friday evening:  By my count, 13 NorCal juniors finished the first day with a perfect score of 2-0.  The three stars in K-6 (Vignesh, Kevin and Michael Wang) all remain in contention for a possible national title! 

Update on Saturday morning:  Most of the top players are still perfect, but that will change as Vignesh is paired against Michael W. in K-6.  CalChess champion MSJE team demonstrates balance across all sections, holding on to three different top-4.

Northern California Watch List
(round 3 of 7)
Click here for standings and pairings.

K-6 Championship

• Vignesh Panchanatham 3.0 (paired against Michael W.)
• Kevin Moy 3.0
• Michael Wang 3.0 (paired against Vignesh)
• Abhishek Handigol 2.5
• Alvin Kong 2.5
• Anthony Zhou 2.0
• Shalin Shah 2.0
• Eric Zhu 2.0
• MSJE team in 4th place

K-5 Championship

• Amit Sant 3.0
• Anjan Das 2.0
• Drake Lin 1.5
• MSJE team in 10th place

K-3 Championship

• Ben Rood 3.0 (playing on board 1)
• Daniel Mendelevitch 2.0
• John Chan 2.0
• Chenyi Zhao 2.0
• Jason Zhang 2.0
• Luke Zhao 2.0
• Soorya Kuppam 2.0
• Mihir Bhuptani 2.0
• Tommy Koh 2.0
• MSJE team in 3rd place

K-1 Championship

• Rishith Susarla 3.0
  
• Agnes William 3.0
• Oliver Wu 3.0
• Milind Maiti 2.0
• Balaji Daggupati 2.0
• Louis Law 2.0
• Zhiyi Wang 2.0
• MSJE team in 2nd place

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.)

National Junior High in San Diego

 

The 2012 National Junior High School Chess Championship is underway at the Town and Country Resort in San Diego.  Players compete for national titles in both K-9 and K-8 sections.  There are ten rated masters in attendance--nine in the much stronger K-9 division.  The overall turnout seems disappointingly light at only about 650 kids, owing both to the weak economy and the location at one corner of the country.  People complained about the attendance of nearly 1000 at the same tournament in Sacramento in 2007.  This year, a modest local delegation of 64 players traveled south, a week after 840 youngsters descended on Santa Clara for the CalChess Scholastics. 

I don't expect to find many chess tourists in San Diego, certainly not among Bay Area kids.  In fact, seven are rated over 2000, led by newly minted master Cameron Wheeler (photo at left).  Fielding four of the top eight seeds, including Cameron and two-time CalChess 6-8 winner Neel Apte (photo on right), Kennedy Middle School from Cupertino plans to Occupy San Diego.  Can they pull off national honors, both as individuals and as a team?  I believe!!

However, national attention will focus on Intermediate School 318, an inner-city Brooklyn public middle school that took 1st place at the National High School Championship two weeks ago.  As a reward, World #1 Magnus Carlsen (see photo below) visited their school on Monday!  Readers may be disappointed that the top players of I.S. 318, including two masters above 2300, switched from K-8 to K-9 at the last moment.  Did the High School champs duck the challenge from 2136 average rated Kennedy?  Maybe!!  They probably hoped to split their masters and win both sections, just like last year, but coach Elizabeth Spiegel realized that she would need her team's full strength 2162 rated lineup just to win K-8.  While K-9 is more competitive with nine masters at the top, the Brooklyn team has a much easier path to victory.

Saturday AM Update: The first day passed well.  Most Northern California participants are 2-0.  Kudos to Hemang for drawing a master in round 2.  All five Kennedy Middle players are seated at consecutive boards this morning in round 3.  Good luck everyone!  Check out Cameron's blog for a first-hand account and Chess Life Online for a TV news report.

Northern California Watch List (after round 2 of 7)

K-9 Championship

• Colin Chow 2.0
• Vignesh Panchanatham 1.5
• Hemang Jangle 1.5 - draw with master
• Taylor McCreary 1.0
• I.S. 318 TEAM 8.0/8 (Next best teams have 5.5.)

K-8 Championship

• Kesav Viswanadha (Kennedy) 2.0
• Cameron Wheeler (Kennedy) 2.0
• Neel Apte (Kennedy) 2.0
• Udit Iyengar (Kennedy) 2.0
• Allan Beilin 2.0
• Art Zhao 2.0
• Gabriel Bick 2.0
• Naveen Janarthanan 2.0
• Pranav Srihari (Kennedy) 2.0
• Michael L. Wang 2.0
• Vikram Vasan 1.5
• Daniel Ho 1.5
• KENNEDY M.S. TEAM 8.0/8 (I.S. 318 is 2nd, but way back at 5.5.)

National Elementary Championships

The Bay Area has performed well at the National Elementary Championships in recent years, including two team titles. Mission San Jose Elementary won the K-6 section in 2009 while Weibel Elementary tied for first in the K-3 section last year. MSJE and Weibel are crosstown rivals in Fremont and compete for top honors at the CalChess Scholastics each year. The photo above shows last year's players.

This year, a whopping 62 Bay Area juniors traveled to Dallas to compete at Nationals. More than a third of the kids, 22 to be exact, represented MSJE while 11 more attended Weibel. MSJE fields teams in all four Championship sections. Weibel put all their eggs in one basket, shooting for the K-6 title. Another strong team this year is Regnart Elementary in the K-5 division.

Several local youngsters have excellent chances to take home big individual trophies. One is the top seed in K-5 (Cameron Wheeler) while another is ranked second in K-3 (Rayan Taghizadeh). Click on this link for the latest results and standings. The tournaments runs seven rounds: two on Friday, three on Saturday and last two on Sunday. GOOD LUCK EVERYONE!!!

FINAL RESULTS

K-6
Allan Beilin 5.5 -- 6th place
Armaan Kalyanpur (MSJE) 5.5 -- tied for 6th place
Kevin Moy (Weibel) 5.0 -- 11th place
Michael Wang (Weibel) 5.0 -- tied for 11th place
Kesav Viswanadha 5.0 -- tied for 11th place
Alvin Kong (MSJE) 4.5
Erik Wong (MSJE) 4.0
Sameer Vijay (Weibel) 3.5
Alex Yin (MSJE) 3.5
Ishas Kekre (Weibel) 3.5
Sharon Lu (Weibel) 3.5
TEAM MSJE earned 2nd place at 17.5
TEAM Weibel finished in 3rd place at 17.0

K-5
Cameron Wheeler (Regnart) 7.0 -- NATIONAL CHAMPION!!!
Udit Iyengar (Regnart) 6.0 -- 2nd place
Vignesh Panchanatham 5.5 -- 6th place
Pranav Srihari (Regnart) 5.5 -- tied for 6th place
Alexander Feghhi 5.5 -- tied for 6th place
Amit Sant (MSJE) 5.0 -- tied for 20th place
Abhishek Handigol 5.0 -- tied for 20th place
Joseph Zhang 5.0 -- tied for 20th place
Shalin Shah (MSJE) 4.5
Steven Li (MSJE) 4.5
Eric Zhu (MSJE) 4.0
Pramodh Srihari (Regnart) 3.5
TEAM Regnart is NATIONAL CHAMPION with 22.0, 3.5 points ahead of the field.
TEAM MSJE captured 4th place at 18.0

K-3
Rayan Taghizadeh 6.0 -- 4th place
John Chan (MSJE) 5.0 -- tied for 20th place
Om Chinchwadkar 5.0 -- tied for 20th place
Mihir Bhuptani (MSJE) 4.0
Ojas Arun (MSJE) 4.0
Alvin Zhang (MSJE) 3.5
TEAM MSJE finished in 4th place (tied for 3rd) at 16.5

K-1
Ben Rood 7.0 -- NATIONAL CHAMPION!!! (two perfect scores)
Milind Maiti 6.5 -- 3rd place as a Kindergartner!
Balaji Daggupati 6.0 -- 10th place (tied for 4th) also as a Kindergartner
Zarek Azam 5.0 -- 24th place
Jason Zhang 5.0 -- tied for 24th place
Rishith Susarla (MSJE) 5.0 -- tied for 24th place
Bryan Wong 5.0 -- tied for 24th place
Chenyi Zhao (MSJE) 4.5
Soorya Kuppam (MSJE) 4.5
Jeffrey Liu (MSJE) 4.0
TEAM MSJE captures 3rd place at 18.0

Important Links
National Elementary website
Results and Pairings
Chess Life Online -- May 6
Cameron photo on US Chess -- May 8
Cameron Wheeler blog
Weibel Elementary blog

Bay Area Results from Elementary Nationals

A whopping 55 local youngsters, their parents and coaches flew to Atlanta for the Bert Lerner National Elementary Championship this weekend. The local delegation includes most of the Bay Area's elite elementary age players plus large teams from the two strong Fremont schools. I hope these kids can bring home a few national titles plus an assortment of trophies from many different sections! Go Bay Area!

Northern California Standings
(final results)
(click here for full results)

K-6

• Daniel Liu 6.0, NATIONAL CHAMPION!!! (4th on tiebreaks)
  
• Kevin Moy 5.0, 18th place (tied for 16th, beating three 1700s)
  
• Daniel Ho 5.0, 24th place (tied for 16th)
  

K-5

• Allan Beilin 6.5, NATIONAL CHAMPION!!! (clear 1st)
  
• Art Zhao 6.0, 4th place (tied for 2nd)
  
• Kesav Viswanadha 5.5, 8th place (tied for 7th)
  
• Jeffrey Tao 5.5, 16th place (tied for 7th)
• Armaan Kalyanpur 5.5, 17th place (tied for 7th)
  
• Alvin Kong 5.0, 31st place (tied for 19th)
  
• Cameron Wheeler 5.0, 33rd place (tied for 19th)
  

K-3

• FM Tanuj Vasudeva 6.0, 4th place (tied for 2nd, losing to top seed Roland Feng)
  
• Michael Wang 5.5, 13th place (tied for 9th, also losing against Roland Feng)
• Leyton Ho 5.5, 17th place (tied for 9th)
  
• Amit Sant 5.0, 24th place (tied for 19th)
  

K-1

• Solomon Ge 6.0, 6th place (tied for 3rd)
  
• John Chan 5.5, 18th place (tied for 12th)
  
• Luke Zhao 5.0, 33rd place (tied for 25th)
• Mihir Bhuptani 5.0, 38th place(tied for 25th)
  

Team Standings

• Weibel K-6 finished in THIRD PLACE!
  
• MSJE K-6 took 10th place
  
• MSJE K-5 took THIRD PLACE
  
• Weibel K-5 slipped to 17th place
• Weibel K-3 NATIONAL CHAMPIONS!!! (2nd on tiebreaks)
  
• MSJE K-3 got 5th place
  
• MSJE K-1 took SECOND PLACE!!
  

If anyone who was in Atlanta took photos at the awards ceremony, pretty please with a cherry on top send me some pictures for my blog.