Welcome to the website of the Shining Knights Chess Company! We partner with Elementary schools, Middle schools, and community centers to teach chess to children. We teach students of all different levels, from total beginners to national champions. We also run scholastic tournaments, where students can compete both individually and as members of their school’s team. For the more advanced scholastic chessplayers, we organize monthly adult chess tournaments to allow for stronger competition. We currently teach classes and run tournaments and camps in Pennsylvania.NEXT TOURNAMENT - SATURDAY Nov 7, 2026
EXTON, PA
Registration is open. Please open heading for "Tournaments".
2026 SPRING FINALE
Congratulation to all the kids that participated in the 2026 Spring Finale. As the weather gave us an amazing day, 120 enthusiastic youths gathered for a friendly competition on the chess boards. It was a pleasure seeing familiar and new faces putting their minds to work while making new friends. Some games stretched into the bottom of the ninth, and no one struck out as there were great challenges throughout all sections of play.
Here are the top performing players per section.
U200 Top Teams: Ithan and Merion Elementary
Andrew Yu
Jacob Kozick
Ethan Yu
Shinobu Matsumoto
Jack Sanders
Lila Shelton
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U400 Top Teams: Meadowbrook School and Buckingham Elementary
Oliver Keller
Conor Wright
Vihaan Silambarasan
Josh Price
Daniel Warunker
Landon Oakes
with medals going to 3.0 finishers Graham Griffin, Evelyn Aleksa, and Taemin Lee
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U700 Top Teams Jamison and Bridge Valley Elementary
Tymofii Dudchenok
Alexander Li
Edison Wolfgang Loidolt
Jack Wasserman
Abhinav Vasishta
with medals going to Ava Li, James Madden, and Sayak Majumdar
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Championship Top Teams: Merion Elementary
John Zheng
Gal Reichfeld
Cole Connors
Nickolas Warunkar
Ashley Zhao
with medals going to Aarav Ravi and Hyindhav Murugesh
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Keep up the great work and practice those notation skills to learn from the past and craft the best for the future.
THE PAWN'S CRUSADE 2026
With many wanting to compete in their first tournament and many also getting ready for the state championship (Harrisburg, March 7 and or 8), 121 players met for The Pawn's Crusade at the Chester County Hotel and Conference Center, which will host the Exton Open, May 16 and or 17.)
In the K-3 Under 200, almost all the players were playing in their first tournament. Vincent Zhou Gu won first place on tiebreaks over Henry Erpel, both scoring 4-0. (Please note that if you are looking at the US Chess Website at - The Pawn's Crusade 2026 | US Chess Ratings, the players are NOT listed in tiebreak order.) In third through ninth place, all 3-1 are Bennett Asher Lee, Eli Guliyev, Theodore Park, Nathan Schriver, Conor Wright, Colin Crowley, and Alexander Chong, respectively. The top two teams were Merion and then Cynwyd.
In the K-5 Under 400, three players tied for first with a perfect score: Matthew Shulau, Jay Reddy, and Cyrus Jayroe. Players 4 through 13, respectively, were Jake Weinstein, Kiran Aleti, Rohan Reddy, Jack Bond, Colin P. Bowling, Thomas Brown, Vihaan Panjwani, Ari Zandberg, Aren Baluyan, and Leo Reo Roure, all with 3 points. The top two teams were Pocopson and Montessori.
In the K-12 Under 700, Alex Fall was the only player with a perfect 4-0 score. Three players were nicked with just a draw: Ethan Zhang, Jai Advik Perumalla, and Zane Deprospo, respectively. Tying for fifth to tenth were Gavin Bowling, Hyindhav Murugesh, Nolan Taglialatela, Parth Kumar Singhal, Anthony Smith, and Charlie Bontempo, respectively, with 3 points. The top teams were Merion, first, and Radnor was second.
In the Championship section, Riaan Lalbahadur edged Nickolas Warunkar on tiebreaks after they drew each other in round 2, and won all their other games. Lily Neilson and Daniel Li tied for 3rd - 4th, a half point back. Another half point back from them at 2.5 - 1.5 were James Scott and Ashley Zhao. The top team was McCall.
The event was directed by tournament directors Samika Nettem, Charan Perumalla, Vahini Sadhu Venkata, and Joshua Anderson. Chris Romeril and Daniel Aleksa aided them.