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.

THE QUEEN'S HARVEST 2025

What an amazing turnout of great, young minds to come together for a day filled with competitive and fun games! Sunday, Nov 16, 2025 marked a day that Queens weathered the storm to grow strong to spring into the season. Please join me in congratulating all the players, and a special shout out to the top finishers per below.

K-12 Championship

1 Samuel Le

2 James Scott

3 Gal Reichfeld

4 Benjamin Zheng

Top school: Bala Cynwyd MS

K-12 U700

1 Aarav Ravi

2 Grace Gou

3 Vivian Blaise

4 Matthew Taggart

5 Edison Wolfgang Loidolt

Top schools: Jamison ES followed by Radnor ES

K-5 U400

1 Arya Keshav Sangati

2 Joshua Klimpl

3 Jack Wasserman

4 Gus Sholar

5 Charles Rubinstein

6 Luka Milicevic

Top schools: Chestnutwold ES followed by Buckingham ES

K-3 U200

1 Camden Hong

2 Mason Aleksa

3 Trent Fricker

4 Lucas Aleksa

5 Luke Lee

6 William Zheng

Top schools: McDonald ES followed by Goodnoe ES

A safe and Happy Thanksgiving to all from Shining Knights.

WE NEED INSTRUCTORS

There are lots of aspiring young chess players that could use your wisdom. If you have availability to coach our after (or before) school classes please open the tab for About Us, then the drop down box for Employment to apply. We provide you with training, equipment, lessons AND compensation.

Employment

At Shining Knights, we are always on the lookout for motivated instructors. We give a great deal of training and support to our coaches and offer a flexible schedule. It is very important to us to attract and keep highly qualified coaches, so we offer competitive compensation and bonuses for reaching certain incentives.