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SPRING FINALE 2019!

90 children competed in the 2019 Shining Knights Spring Finale on another beautiful day.  There were magnificent battles on the chess grounds in Collegeville, with bishops and knights weaving through the kingdoms of their opponents.  Thank you to the parents and coaches who brought good sportsmanship to the front.

Here are the top players per section:

 K-6 U200 Individual:                                                                 Top Teams: General Wayne
1 YI YUAN JEDIDI LU                                                                           and Charlestown in 2nd             
2 ADAM ASKALA
3 BRAYDON SHAW
4 HARRY SCHREITER
5 JIA YAN
6 CARTER HE

 

K-6 U500 Individual:                                                                  Top Teams: Lower Gwyned

                                                                                                          followed by Merion Elementary
1 SRITAN BHUMIREDDY
2 BENJAMI SLIVINSKI
3 JACOB ROB WALTERS
4 NICHOLAS LALWANI
5 SYLVIA GW SPENCER
6 COLE SAMUE MILLER
special props to medal winners ALBERT WANG, ALEXANDER HA RUSS, SIMON NICKERSON and LEO HENRY VERBUCH
 
 


K-12 U800 Individual:                                                                 Top Teams: KD Markley

1 DEV MENON MADHAVAN                                                        with New Eagle in second

2 AUSTIN LI

3 ALEX W BABKA

4 ARNAV SADASHIV
5 MIHIR KHANNA
6 ANDREW YU
and with 3 points OLIVER NICKERSON
 
 

 

K-12 Championship Individual:                                                 Top Team: Pickering

1 ABHIRAM VADIGURI
2 SIDDH PRABHUDESAI
3 JONATHAN YANG
4 BRIAN LI
5 ABHIN RAVISHANKAR
 
 

Check this out...

2019 CHESS PIECES OF APRIL

 
 
114 children competed in the 2019 Shining Knights Chess Pieces of April on a glorious Spring day.  It was great to see familiar faces as well as dozens of new tournament players.  There were players from quite a diverse number of chess teams, representing their schools with their bright, analytical minds.  Thank you all for your great participation in a fantastic tournament brimming with smiles and good sportsmanship.

Here are the top players per section:
 K-6 U200 Individual:                             Top Teams: Gladwyne Elementary followed by
1 AMIR AHSAN                                                              Our Lady of Mt Caramel
2 FREDERIC PHELIZON
3 Nicholas Lalwani
4 HENRY FREEBODY
5 Niko  Snee-Garza
6 Reid Blarney
and special props to 3 pointers Jaidon Horvath, Victor Pan, Oliver Kosmalski and PRATIRP MALVANKAR

 

K-6 U500 Individual:                        Top Teams: Skyview followed by Lower Gwyned

 
1 Luke Navarrete
2 Ryan Sensen Brenn
3 Advaith Elluru
4 Owen Rutt
5 RYAN DING
6 Brian Hsieh
and kudos to Faye Fei Mo and EDWIN VUONG
 


K-12 U800 Individual:                        Top Teams: Colonial and then Skyview in 2nd

1 Anderson Chan
2 Jake Anton
3 Kasyap Tumuluri
4 Alex W Babka
5 Rhea Sofia Howard
6 Austin Li
nice job Josiah Tjoe and Kathan Desai
 

 

K-12 Championship Individual:                       Top Team: Pickering Valley

1 Vasishta Tumuluri
2 Max Kikkawa
3 Brian Li
4 John M Cureton
with special props to medalist Yajat Gupta
 
 
In case you missed it...

Nakamura and Yu are 2019 U.S. Champs

By |April 1, 2019|News, Top American Players, Women

It took two weeks, eleven rounds, and a heavy dose of final day drama, but US Chess now has its 2019 Champions: Hikaru Nakamura and Jennifer Yu.

Yu was effectively crowned after the tenth round, when no one else could catch the 17-year old from Virginia. Hikaru Nakamura had to wait until the very last game was decided in the Open Championship to claim his title. His victory over Jeffery Xiong coupled with draws by co-leaders Fabiano Caruana (against Sam Shankland) and Leinier Dominguez (against Timur Gareyev), gave Nakamura his fifth U.S. Championship.

PA STATE WARM-UP 2019

The 2019 Shining Knights' 12th Annual State Warm-Up Chess Tournament truly incorporated 100+ students of the game and their parents from so many different backgrounds.  There was a collection of familiar faces along with an introduction of so many new ones.  It was a pleasure to feel the energy in the room generated by the analytical minds of the youth.  Congratulations to all who participated!
 
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Here are the top players per section:
 
 K-6 U200 Individual:                     Top Teams: Germantown Academy & 2nd Cynwyd Elem
 
1 ANOUSHKA YADAV
2 JACK BARTON
3 JOSHUA TJOE
4 ALBERT WANG
5 WARREN SHI
6 CARLY RUTT
with special props to Edwin Vuong with 3 points.

 

K-6 U500 Individual:                                               Top Teams: Skyview followed by Ithan

 
1 ANDREW YU
2 BENAS ANTANAVICIUS
3 AVANEE RAMAMURTHY
4 OWEN BLAMEY
5 ALEXANDER HA RUSS
6 TANAY PARRIPATI
and a shout out to 3 pointers OWEN RUTT, ANDREW GUTHRIE and SANJITHA KRISHNAN


K-12 U800 Individual:                                       Top Teams: Pickering and then Spring Ford

 
1 CONNOR VITZ
2 ETHAN WANG
3 SHREY HULAGE
4 SIDDH PRABHUDESAI
5 DEV MENO MADHAVAN
and good job to TRAVIS JOHNSON with 3 points

 

K-12 Championship Individual:                                     Top Team: Lionville


1 SIDDHANT SURESH
2 ANIRUDH RED AKULA
3 YAJAT GUPTA
4 BENJAMIN YANG
with kudos to ABHIRAM VADIGURI and SOMIL TARE who earned 3 points

With less than a few weeks from spring let the unpredictable but cold weather inspire ever developing chess minds.Animated GIF

 
 
Hope to see you all at the March 30th Chess Pieces of April Tournament!
 

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.