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2018 DECEMBER CRUSH

94 children enrolled to chill out at the 2018 Shining Knights December Crush putting their minds to work on the chess board.  We saw a great mix of veteran and newbie tournament players.  There was an overwhelming number of brain teasing predicaments, critical endgames, and mid-game conundrums.  With all the stress that could have been, the smiles lit up the playing room making it all worth the wondering in the waiting room.

Here are the top players per section:

 K-6 U200 Individual:                                                                 Top Teams: Merion Elementary followed by Newtown

1 Nate Promer
2 Ryan Sensen Brenn
3 Jack Cai
4 Finbar Ryan
5 Matthew Majewski
6 JJ Gordon
with special props to Andrew Fann, Mark Cai, Casey Cloud with 3 points.

 

K-6 U500 Individual:                                                                  Top Teams: Shipley followed by Merion Elementary


1 THEODORE JA KRIEG
2 WILLIAM ARONSTAM
3 BENAS ANTANAVICIUS
4 TERRANCE XIA
5 JACOB ROB WALTERS
6 HOLT RECORD


K-12 U800 Individual:                                                                 Top Teams: Welsh Valley and then Radnor Elementary in 2nd


1 VARSHA SU IYENGAR
2 NIGEL PIERMAN
3 CLARK KERKSTRA
4 GRETCHEN LUTZ
5 AUSTIN LI
6 JAY DABRAL
 

 

K-12 Championship Individual:                                                 Top Team: Abington Jr High


1 JONATHAN BONNELL
2 MAX KIKKAWA
3 HASSAN "HA BOYOUK
4 PETER WI GOLDBERG
with special props to medalist Benjamin Yang
 
 

In case you missed it...
The World Youth U16 Olympiad is underway in Konya Turkey (November 24-December 3) and Team USA is putting on an inspiring performance, even drawing the attention of top Grandmasters like Grandmaster Robert Hess, who was in the thick of daily chess.com commentary for Carlsen-Caruana. The U.S. team ...


Have a cozy holiday season, filled with joyous times of building a snowman, sledding down steep hills, making stretched out snow angels, and warming up by the fire with a good cup of cocoa and a thoughtful chess book.

 
 

 
 
 

 
 
 

The QUEEN'S HARVEST 2018

The 2018 Shining Knights’ Queen’s Harvest was a hit with grateful young chess players and their proud parents.  Kids seemed to really enjoy themselves while testing their intellect.  There was exceptional respect for fellow players during the award ceremony: solid attention to the top winners and nice recognition to all participants.  

Here are the top performers: 

K-4 U200                                             Top Teams: Lower Gwynedd with Devon a close 2nd                

1          Mihir Khanna

2          Krish Kasina

3          Benjamin Jarrett

4          Prakhar Dhabria

5          Ayden Ortiz

6          Benjamin Shaheid
 

K-6 U400:                                            Top Teams: Merion followed by Skyview

1          CLARK KERKSTRA

2          BRIAN HSIEH

3          TERRANCE XIA

4          OLIVER SHIH

5          ROMAN OLIJNYK-WONG

6          Jacob Walters

 

K-12 U600:                                          Top Teams: Colonial with Welsh Valley following

1          COLUM DOUGHERTY

2          NIGEL PIERMAN

3          Taiyo Ishida

4          ANTON LALWANI

5          Shreesh Joshi

6          Declan Lees

 

K-12 U900 Individual:                                      Top Team: Pickering Valley

1          TIMOTHY HAN

2          ABHIN RAVISHANKAR

3          NEEL CHAKRABORTY

4          ANIRUDH RED AKULA

5          ABHIRAM VADIGURI

6          SIDDH PRABHUDESAI

K-12 Championship:                            Top Team:  Lionville   

1          YAJAT GUPTA

2          HASSAN BOYOUK

3          MAX KIKKAWA

4          SOMIL TARE

5          SOPHIA STOY 

Stay warm by cozying by the fireplace with low-fat marshmallows and a good chess book, learning to take almost effortless chess notation for the December Crush Tournament on 12/8 at Radnor Elementary.  Happy Holidays!

2018 AUTUMN KNIGHT

Seventy-one players met at the 4 H building in Collegeville to compete in four sections for individual and school team trophies. 

                In the Under 200 section, Peter Goldberg scored the only perfect score, 4 – 0 to win the section.  Five players scored 3 – 1 for 2nd to 6th place: Arush Maitra, Bhargav Medasani, Jeremiah Attalia, Cole Miller, and Arnv Pinsetty, respectively.   Devon Elementary was the top team with 5.5 points (Arush Maitr and Apeksha Bansal) and Upper Providence was 2nd (Jeremiah Attalia an Ryan Tighe.)

                In the Under 500 section, all six prize winners scored 3 – 1 and were: Owen Blarney, Arnav Kandikonda, Michael Legnola, Anton Lalwani, Sylvia Spencer, and Pratik Fernandes, respectively.  The two schools to win a trophy were Skyview (Owen Blarney and Michael Legnola) and in second place, Devon Elementary (Anton and Nicholas Lalwani) .

                In the Under 800 section, Arnav Sadashiv had a perfect 4-0 result.  This was followed by Greta Goldberg, Anderson Chan, and Navein Suresh, all going 3-1 and Alex Babka, who edged out several other 2.5s on tiebreaks.  The school trophys went to Springford (Abhi and Neel Attilli) and Penn Wynn Elementary (Timothy Han and Shadi Harb).

                In the Championship section, Yajat Gupta scored 3.5 – 0.5 to secure 1st place.  Joshua Ouyang, came in 2nd, with a 3-1 score with Somil Tare, 3rd, and Jonathan Yang, 4th, both still with 3-1.  The final trophy went to Vasishta Tumuluri with 2.5 points.   The school trophy went to Lionville Middle School with 5.5 points (Yajat Gupta and Abhinav Ravishankar).

                Hope everyone enjoyed the event and will make the event in Plymouth Meeting on November 17th!

2018 Spring Finale

The 2018 Shining Knights Spring Finale blossomed with ambitious, young chess players.   The tournament seemed to host a greater proportion of players in 6th grade or under vs older students.  Energy in the room was evident for every round and it rocked during the award ceremony.  We saw an increase in the number of students bringing their own chess clocks and recording chess notation, so kudos.

Here are the top players per section:                   

                                          
K-6  U200
1 SHIVAM MILIND WAGH
2 THEODORE PEEBLES
3 DAVID CHEN
4 BENJAMIN FERRARO
5 NATALIE CHOW
6 ADAM STEINNAGEL TAYLOR
with special mention to Ian Forbes with 3 points.
Top teams, Chadds Ford Elementary followed by Candlebrook Elementary


K-6  U500
1 OLIVER NICKERSON
2 ANTON LALWANI
3 LAUREN TUNG
4 WILLIAM ARONSTAM
5 THEODORE KRIEG
6 SIMON CASTELLO
Top teams, Shipley Lower School followed by Radnor Elementary
                                                          
K-12  U800
1 JONATHAN YANG
2 GRANT DEWILDE
3 VARSHA  IYENGAR
4 SIDDHANT PRABHUDESAI
5 ARNAV SADASHIV
6 KUSH JAIN
Top teams, Valley Forge Elementary followed by Hillendale Elementary

 

K-12 Championship

1    JUSTIN DEROSA
2    VASISHTA TUMULURI
3    HASSAN BOYOUK
4    KENTA TSUKAMOTO
5    ROHIT RAM KRISHNAN
Top team, Perkiomen Valley Middle School East



 Cheers to the kickoff of wonderful weather with summer right around the corner.  Perhaps parents will schedule chess outings to some great parks like Clark Park by U of P during nice afternoons, along with Bryant Park and Washington Square in NY. 

2018 Chess Pieces of April

The 2018 Chess Pieces of April proved to be a fun-filled tournament with the majority of players having prior Shining Knights tournament experience.  Good sportsmanship resulted in making first-timers welcome, parents even more proud, and creating new friendships.   Here are the top players per section:

 K-6 U200 Individual:                            Top Teams: Ithan with Gladwyne Elementary coming in 2nd

1    Ezra Fenkel
2    Clyde McAllister
3    Pratik Fernandes
4    David Falcone
5    Samuel Kim
6    Sebastian Bauza

 

K-6 U500 Individual:                                  Top Teams: The Philadelphia School besting Pickering

1    Max Light
2    Aarav Hosanagar
3    Kyler Parker
4    Deegan Campbell
5    Michael Al Lerner
6    Sahasvat Vasikarla
Recognition to Josiah Tjoe, Simon Castello, Colin Varano, and Meghana Vasireddy.

 

K-12 U800 Individual:                        Top Teams: Germantown Friends with Shipley coming in 2nd

1    Abhiram Vadiguri
2    Sophia Stoy
3    Sam Goldsborough
4    Rhea Sofia Howard
5    Travis Johnson
6    Pranav Sangani


K-12 Championship Individual:                                   Top Team: Pocopson

1    Sathvi Bollepalli
2    Anshul Kollur
3    Saket Banda
4    Enmon Liu
5    Siddhant Suresh

The World Chess Championship 2018 is an upcoming chess match between the reigning world champion since 2013, Magnus Carlsen, and challenger Fabiano Caruana to determine the World Chess Champion. The 12-game match, organized by FIDE and its commercial partner Agon, will be played in London between 9 and 28 November 2018.  
 
Enjoy the wonder of the Spring!   Hope to see all the kids proficient with chess notation as that skill translates to more than just reading the chess language.

 

2018 State Warm-Up

The 2018 Shining Knights State Warm-Up Tournament proved to be a venue of great chess play among the youth.  Pawns were pushed, horses jumped abound, and Queens scoped great distances.  It was great to see much energy in the room and support trying to peer from the outside by intrigued parents and coaches.  Here are the top players per section:

 K-6 U200Individual:               

             Top Teams: Lower Gwynedd with Perelman as a close 2nd
1    Erez Danilewitz
2    Benjamin Clemens
3    Sumit Laha
4    Rithvik Kasina
5    Evan Sielski
6    Roman Olijnyk-Wong
Special accolades to Touma Miyakawa, Amicha, Danilewitz, and Taegan Mason.
 

K-6 U500 Individual:                             Top Teams: Kutz followed by Radnor

1    Enmon Liu
2    Jack Pickel
3    Henry Ma Tornetta
4    Cole Patterson
5    Anirudh Red Akula
6    Kyler Parker
Recognition to Rithik Rao and Rushil Reddy.
 

K-12 U800 Individual:                           Top Teams: Skyview followed by Pocopson

1    Justin Derosa
2    Siddh Prabhudesai
3    Manik Narula
4    Saket Banda
5    Daniel Goldovsky
6    Abhin Ravishankar
 
 

K-12 Championship Individual:            Top Team: Walton   

1    Amogh Kollipara
2    Seth Kellan Casel
3    Advaith Kollipara
4    Hemanth K Kolluri
5    Kenta Tsukamoto
Shout out to Alexandros Pratsos.
    

Following in the steps of the world champion Philadelphia Eagles, the kids playing at our tournament all had a winning spirit.  Hope to see all the kids proficient with chess notation as that skill translates to more than just reading the chess language.  See you at the April tournament!  And Good Luck to all players heading to the PA State Chess Championship.
 

DECEMBER CRUSH 2017

The December Crush Tournament housed the best behaved group of players I have ever directed over.  We are seeing more and more players take notation and using clocks.  Looks like the Nice List has been expanded/reinforced by another 79 names.    Please take some time to congratulate all our tournament participants as well as the top performers listed as follows:

Standings December Crush 

K-6 U200 Individual:               Top Team: Merion ES       2nd Team: DE County Christian

1          Kaushik Sivakumar

2          David Mermar

3          Ethan Wang

4          Greta Golberg

5          Caleb  Best

6          Akshith Nair

K-6 U500 Individual:                 Top Team: Belmont      2nd Team: Pickering

1          Jonathan Yang

2          Arnav Kandikonda

3          Max Light

4          Rithik Rao

5          Kyler Parker

6          Sahrsh Hulage

Recognition to Deeya Mulchandani

K-12 U800 Individual:              Top Team: Upper Merion MS       2nd Team: Skyview

1          Somil Tare

2          Saket Banda

3          Abhina Ravishankar

4          Travis Johnson

5          Ronan Murphy

6          Damon Sun

K-12 Championship Individual:            Top Team: Lionville MS      

1          Charles Yang

2          Vasishta Tumuluri

3          Siddhant Suresh

4          Hemanth Kolluri

5          Siddarth Sankar

Enjoy your holidays and keep on learning!   Hope to see all the kids proficient with chess notation as that skill translates to more than just reading the chess language.