News

STATE WARM-UP 2016

On Saturday,February 27th, 2016, a record breaking 137 bright chess players competed at the Shining Knights State Warm Up tournament in King Of Prussia, PA.  There was decidedly no shortage of energy or fighting spirit in the room, and each point was hard-earned.
 
Here are the standings and points for each section:
 
U200 Individual:
1. Vishnu Jagannathan - 4.0
2. Ava Luu - 4.0
3. David Zhang - 3.5
4. Sasidhar Budhavarapu - 3.5
5. Jonah Luo - 3.5
6. Devan Telwala - 3.5
7. Nick Sweeney - 3.0
 
U200 Team:
 1. West Chester Public Library Chess Club - 11.5
2. Friends Select  - 11.0
 
U500 Individual:
1. Peter Judge - 4.0
2. Nathaniel Keller - 3.5
3. Ben Russo - 3.0
4. Tristan Peng - 3.0
5. Samuel Hamilton - 3.0
6. Lilian Wang - 3.0
7. James Buck - 2.5
 
U500Team:
1. Friends Select - 9.0
2. The Philadelphia School - 6.5
 
U800 Individual:
1. Paolo Marchiano - 4.0
2. Kenta Tsukamoto - 4.0
3. Zachary Spangler - 3.5
4. Anand Rajagopalan - 3.5
5. Will Gibbs - 3.0
 
U800Team:
1. West Chester Public Library Chess Club - 12.0
2. The Philadelphia School - 10.5 
 
Championship Individual:
1. Karthik Murugan - 3.5
2. Noah Thomforde-Toates - 3.5
3. Qianshuo Wang - 3.0
4. Sarvesh Joshi - 3.0
5. Aaron Lutz
 
Championship Team:
1. Valley Forge Middle School - 5.0
2. Friends Select - 4.0
 
Congratulations to our top finishers and a tremendous thanks to all who participated in this energetic event.  Special mention goes out to the parents and guardians of our competitors for their ceaseless support.  See you again very soon!

DECEMBER CRUSH 2015

 

On Saturday, December 12th, nearly 100 determined chess players fought it out over five and a half hours at the Shining Knights December Crush tournament in Wayne, PA.  Here are the standings and points for each section:
 
U200 Individual:
1. Bineet Roy - 4.0
2. Michael Williams - 4.0
3. William Wan - 3.0
4. Andrew Solovyev - 3.0
5. Siddhand Prabhudesai - 3.0
6. Miles Hormell - 3.0
7. Colum Dougherty - 2.5
 
U200 Team:
 1. West Chester Public Library Chess Club - 6.0
2. Pine Road Elementary - 4.0
 
U500 Individual:
 1. Saket Banda - 4.0
2. Jack Leitzell - 4.0
3. Tibor Barankay - 3.0
4. Nikolai Nawrocki - 3.0
5. Zach Lofton - 3.0
6. Cole Kelman - 3.0
 
U500Team:
1. Friends Select - 7.0
2. Skippack Elementary - 6.0
 
U800 Individual:
1. Jake Anton - 4.0
2. Max Orenstein - 4.0
3. Camden Chin - 3.0
4. Panav Sheth - 3.0
5. Evan Liddy - 3.0
 
U800Team:
1. The Philadelphia School - 18.5 (!)
 
Championship Individual:
1. Jaewon Paik - 3.5
2. Andrew Malinsky - 3.5
3. Harisankar Radhakrishna - 3.0
4. Joshua Ouyang - 3.0
 
Championship Team:
1. Wyomissing Area Jr/Sr High School - 5.5
 
Great job to all competitors for showing exemplary fighting spirit and sportsmanship, and congratulations to our top finishers. Happy Holidays to all and we'll see you at our next event!

 

CONGRATULATIONS TO SHAWN WANG!

           Shining Knights would like to congratulate all of the Pennsylvanians who just finished competing in the National Grade School Championships.  More than half of the participants have competed in Shining Knights tournaments.  Special congratulations to Shawn Wang.  This fifth grader starting playing chess in the Shining Knights class at Eagleville, attended numerous chess camps at Methacton and played in various Shining Knights tournaments, before his fifth place finish in the fifth grade section of this national tournament.

 

2015 GR PHILADELPHIA SCHOLASTIC CHESS CHAMPIONSHIP

A bright and energetic crowd of 127(!) talented chess players fought it out on Saturday, November 21st at Charlestown Elementary in Malvern, PA for the 2015 Greater Philadelphia Scholastic Chess Championship.
 
The tournament was grouped by grade with the K-2 players making up the largest section (39 players in this section alone!):  
 
Individual:
1st - Kevin Li - 5.0
2nd - Amogh Kollipara - 4.0
3rd - Ethan Zhang - 4.0
4th - Rohit Balaji - 4.0
5th - Andrew Feng - 4.0
6th - Dev Madhavan - 4.0
7th - Max Greineder - 3.5
 
Team:
1st - The Philadelphia School - 12
2nd - Walton Farm School - 7
 
Results for the K-4 section:
 
Individual:
1st - Jonathan Xu - 4.5
2nd - Noah Thomforde-Toates - 4.5
3rd - Nolan McCloskey - 4.0
4th - Advaith Kollipara - 4.0
5th - Lauren Tung - 4.0
6th - Chi Xu - 3.5
7th - Micah Dubnoff - 3.5
 
Team:
1st - Merion Elementary - 10.5
2nd - Friend's Select - 10
 
Here are the energetic K-6 section standings:
 
Individual:
1st - Hemanth Kolluri - 5
2nd - Pranitha Gunasekaren - 4.0
3rd - Aaron Lutz - 4.0
4th - Camden Chin - 4.0
5th - Stan Wang - 4.0
6th - Devesh Posa - 3.5
7th - Mason McClintic - 3.0
 
Team:
1st - The Philadelphia School - 10
2nd - Skyview Upper Elementary - 6.5
 
The tough K-8 section saw these players in the top 6:
 
Individual:
1st - Harisankar Radhakrishna - 4.0
2nd - David Sang - 3.0
3rd - Ryan Hu - 3.0
4th - Quinn Dominick - 2.5
5th - Karthik Murugan - 2.5 
6th - Nikki Khmelnitsky - 2.0
 
Team: N/A
 
And the small but very tough K-12 section standings:
 
Individual:
1st - Ram Singh - 3.5 
2nd - Jaewon Paik - 3.0
3rd - Colin Messenger - 3.0
4th - Jack Lieberman - 2.5
5th - Michael Wang - 2.0
6th - Noah Xu - 2.0
 
Team:
1st - Wyomissing Area Jr/Sr High School
2nd - N/A
 
Congratulations to all competitors!  Everyone played with heart and determination, displaying exemplary sportsmanship and skill.
 
See you in December for the DECEMBER CRUSH TOURNAMENT on 12/12 at Wayne Elementary!

 

Autumn Knight Tournament

On October 24th, close to 120 scholastic chess players gathered to compete at Wayne, Elementary at the Shining Knights "Autumn Knight" tournament.  One and all displayed exemplary sportsmanship, fighting spirit and skill.
 
In the under 200 section, Justin Xu placed third, James Buck came second and Wesley Bridge took top honors.
The U500 section found Jacob Bushee claiming third place, Kyle Bos in the runner-up spot with a perfect score, and Camden Chin also with 4 points took the first place trophy on tiebreaks.
The tough U800 field found Vincent Zouras in third, Varun Rajan scored 4 points for second place and Qianshuo Wang took top honors with a perfect score on tiebreaks.
The hotly-contested top spots in the Championship section went to Advaith Kollipara in third place, Karthik Murugan in the second place spot and Noah Xu claimed the top prize with a flawless performance.
The team awards were as follows:
U200: Shipley School, 2nd place; Radnor Elementary, 1st place
U500: Penn Valley Elementary, 2nd place; The Philadelphia School, 1st place
U800: Bridge Valley Elementary, 2nd place; The Philadelphia School, 1st place
Championship: Walton Farm School, 1st place
 
Congratulations to all competitors for an inspiring event.  We look forward to seeing you again soon!

CONGRATULATIONS!!!! OUTSTANDING!!!

Shining Knights would like to extend congratulations to the Skyview Elementary chess team of Shawn Wang, Kevin Cui, Jeffrey Gong and Patrick Li for winning the K-6 Open Section at the 2015 Pennsylvania State Scholastic Chess Championships.

And congrats to Karthik Murugan for placing 9th at the 2015 National Elementary Championship in the K-3 U800 section.  Karthik is a student at Pickering Valley Elementary.  

 

Great job to all of those that particpated!!!

2015 SPRING FINALE

On May 16th, some of the most experienced and brilliant scholastic chess players from all over the Philadelphia area played in the Spring Finale tournament in Wayne, PA at Wayne Elementary to close out what has been an awe-inspiring chess school year.  In the U200 section, Jake Race took 1st place with a perfect 4.0 points and Plymouth Elementary claimed the 1st place team award.  Jake Anton came out on top with a 1st place finish in the U500 Section with 4.0 points, and Stony Creek Elementary added yet another 1st place team trophy to their collection.  The U800 section saw Roey Gal earn top honors with a perfect 4.0 score, and Penn Valley Elementary carried home the 1st place team trophy. First place in the Championship section went to a deserving Andrew Malinsky who fought hard for a score of 4.0.  Congratulations to all of our competitors!  We look forward to seeing your determined play again in the fall.  Have a safe and enjoyable summer!