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

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)

SuperNationals Update #3

The evening round on Saturday is often very difficult, for two reasons.  First, it is the third round of high pressure competition in one day.  Second, the top contenders begin to square off against each other.  After the dust settled, two Bay Area kids remain perfect: Rayan Taghizadeh and Chinguun Bayaraa.  Five more stand at 4.5/5 with a shot at earning a share of first in their section, including masters Cameron Wheeler and Vignesh Panchanatham, both in K-9.

Unlike recent years, none of the Bay Area school teams appear poised to win a national championship.  Still, four teams are currently in the Top 4: Kennedy Middle School in K-9 (3rd and 2.0 behind leaders), Hopkins Junior High in K-8 (4th and 3.0 behind leaders), Mission San Jose Elementary in K-6 (4th and 3.5 behind leaders) and again MSJE in K-1 (3rd and 2.0 behind leaders).

Sunday is crunch time!  The games begin early--at 7am PDT.  Good luck to all!

BREAKING NEWS from Nashville: Siddharth Banik won K-8, Rayan Taghizadeh won K-5 and Chinguun Bayaraa won K-1!!! Congratulations to all three National Champions!  

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Standings After Round 5
After Round 6 in Blue
Click here for Pairings and Standings

K-12 Championship (327 players)

Taylor McCreary (1837) - 3.0 - 3.0

K-9 Championship (145 players)

FM Cameron Wheeler (2291) - 4.5 - 5.5! in three-way tie for first
NM Vignesh Panchanatham (2202) - 4.5 - 5.5! also in the three-way tie
Joshua Cao (2030) - 4.0 and defeated #2 seed NM Velikanov (2293) - 4.5
Daniel Ho (1856) - 3.5 - 4.0  
Pranav Srihari (1884) - 3.0 - 4.0
Justin Wang (1714) - 3.0 - 3.5
Kennedy Middle School - 4 players - 15.5/24 and in 2nd place (1.0 behind)
Irvington High School - 4 players - 12.5/24 and in 6th place

K-8 Championship (256 players)

Allan Beilin (2161) - 4.5
Siddharth Banik (2117) - 4.5 - 5.5!
Armaan Kalyanpur (1933) - 4.0
Alvin Kong (1662) - 3.0 
Shalin Shah (1615) - 3.0
Sayan Das (1411) - 3.0
Hopkins Junior High School - 6 players - 13.0/20 and in 4th place

K-6 Championship (198 players)

FM Tanuj Vasudeva (2150) - 4.0 - 5.0 and playing on board 2
Amit Sant (1735) - 3.5 - 4.5
David Pan (1503) - 3.0 - 3.5
Mission San Jose Elementary - 8 players - 13.0/24 and in 3rd place

K-5 Championship (355 players)

Rayan Taghizadeh (2021) - 5.0 - 5.5! in four-way tie for first
Joanna Liu (1847) - 3.5 - 4.5
Ganesh Murugappan (1761) - 3.5 - 4.5
Anthony Zhou (1741) - 3.5 - 4.5
Jason Zhang (1497) - 3.0 - 4.0
Daniel Mendelevitch (1405) - 3.0 - 4.0
Atri Surapaneni (1345) - 3.0 - 4.0
William Sartorio (1358) - 2.5 - 3.5
Gomes Elementary School - 5 players - 16.5/24 and in 5th place (and tied for first!)
Weibel Elementary School - 6 players - 14.5/24 and in 8th place

K-3 Championship (278 players)

Andrew Hong (1692) - 4.5 - 5.5! and playing on board 2
Milind Maiti (1612) - 4.0 and beat World U8 bronze medalist Christopher Shen (1866) - 4.5
Rishith Susarla (1609) - 4.0 - 5.0
Chenyi Zhao (1558) - 4.0 - 4.5
Callaghan Mccarty-Snead (1485) - 4.0 - 4.5
Oliver Wu (1366) - 3.5 - 3.5
Ben Rood (1798) - 3.0 - 4.0
Annapoorni Meiyappan (1225) - 3.0 - 4.0
Zhiyi Wang (1170) - 3.0 - 4.0
Kavya Sasikumar (823) - 2.5 - 3.5
Mission San Jose Elementary - 6 players - 15.5/24 and in 3rd place (only 0.5 behind)
Weibel Elementary School - 4 players - 11.5/24 and in 11th place

K-1 Championship (349 players)

Chinguun Bayaraa (1644) - 5.0 - 6.0!! and still occupying board 1
Maurya Palusa (1306) - 4.0 after losing to Chinguun - 5.0
Stephen He (808) - 4.0 - 4.0
Pradyum Chitlu (806) - 4.0 - 4.0
Aidan Chen (781) - 4.0 - 4.0
Weslie Chen (664) - 4.0 - 4.0
Allyson Wong (236) - 4.0 - 4.0 
Kevin Pan (1277) - 3.5 - 3.5
Arnav Lingannagari (494) - 3.5 - 4.5
Erin Law (377) - 2.5 - 3.5 
Mission San Jose Elementary - 8 players  - 16.5/24 and in 6th place
Weibel Elementary School - 4 players - 14.5/24 and in 12th place

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If I missed anyone worthy of mention, please email me or leave a message on Facebook.

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

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.