Recap: Dublin K-12 Championships 2023

Fallon 8th grader Tejas Kunduru recovered from a first-round draw to record four straight wins and emerge as the overall winner of the Dublin Scholastic Chess Championships 2023 on Saturday Sept. 9th.

The Fallon Middle School MPR hosted 162 competitors this year. That’s up 27 percent from last year’s then in-person record of 128, and higher even than our online attendance of 156 in 2021 during COVID. 

Moreover, 71 players (44%) were from outside of Fallon, including 11 from Dublin HS, 7 from Wells Middle School, 7 from Emerald HS, and 15 other schools around the Tri-Valley.

Founded in 2016, this year’s tournament had four sections. The 26-player Championship (800+) section was very strong, with 15 out of 26 players sporting 1000+ ratings. In the final round, Kunduru upset the leader up to that point, fellow Fallon 8th grader Aavi Bharucha, to finish atop with an outstanding 4.5 out of 5 points. Aavi, who has placed 3rd in the last two years, was runner-up this year at 4-1, topping Fallon 7th grader Evan Jiang, who won his last four games and played well above his 902 rating. 

High schoolers abounded among the other top finishers. Sachit Hegde, Dhruv Torney (EHS) and Bhargava Ogireddy tied for 4th-6th with 3.5 points, with Bhargava taking the top U1200 trophy. There was a five-way tie for 7th at 3-2, with Preron Chakrabarty winning Top U1000, Mrinal Agarwal (EHS) taking 2nd U1200, Shreyan Goli (DHS) taking 2nd U1000 and Shivam Prasad (DHS) and Hemanth Merugu (DHS) also in the mix. Unrated Ashton Lu (DHS) won Top U800, while Rayan Jain won 2nd U800. 

In the 48-player Premier (U800) section, there was a two-way tie for first between Fallon sixth graders Daksh Vijh (winner on tiebreak) and Eshan Ganapathi at 4.5/5. There was a five-way for 3rd-7th. With very strong 4-1 scores, they were in tiebreak order: Kamaldheer Perumalla, Ian De-Li Hsu (DHS), Naman Jain, Maulik Rastogi and Arjun Shenoy. 

Arhan Saha, Shivish Aneja and Arnav Solan tied for 8th with a strong 3.5/5 score, with Arnav taking Top U600, while Ishman Gogte took 2nd U600 on tiebreak at 3-2 over Sidhak Khanuja, Edward Wang, Rishi Bhartiya, Tharun Anandh, Guatham Doddapaneni, Avery Sue, and Sreekar Macherla. Evan Lim was Top U400, while Harikrish Kalakata took 2nd U400. Top U200 was Junhyuk Kim with 2nd place U200 going to Akshay Kumaruguru.   

In the massive 68 player Gr4-12 Unrated Challenger, there was a three-way tie for first at an unblemished 5-0, with Krish Desai winning on tiebreak over Alan Wan and Sidhanth Lall. There was a 7-way tie for 4th place at the excellent score of 4-1: Viraj Mane, Akshay Bansal, Dylan Hoang, Anish Reddy Alturu, Mukandh Aravindh, Simha Tulla, and Advit Mahajan. 

There was another 7-way tie for 11th place in the Grade 4-12 Challenger with 3.5 points: Sebastian Karagozlu, Rishi Tumkur, Sanvi Singh, Nithin Prakash, Vihaan Nerella, Shreya Bansal, and Ayaan Chowdhary. They along with other players that scored 3.5 or better will belatedly receive trophies for their outstanding scores. Look for emails from tournament organizers. 

Finally, in the 20-player Unrated Primary (K-3) Challenger, Aarush Talakokkula took sole first with a 5-0 score, followed by Reyansh Mane with 4-1. Rohan Maddi and Reyansh Bangera tied for third with 3.5 points. Six players tied for 5th-10th place with 3-2 scores: Trinav Das Roy, Abhiraam Veeravalli, Neel Mehta, Arastua Shrivastava, Charlie Chiu, and Arjun Kondapalli. 

Full standings here: https://www.caissachess.net/live/3184

USCF-rated results for Championship and Premier: https://www.uschess.org/msa/XtblMain.php?202309099182-16134673 

Many thanks to the FallonPFC for sponsoring the Chess Club and booking the MPR at Fallon again for what is becoming a local community tradition!

Thanks to our DHSchess volunteers for serving as floor TDs, managing games and rules disputes. They included Katherine Pask, a two-time past champion (2017, 2019) of this tournament and Wells Middle School chess club student head coach; 2021 champion Vikrant Ganesan, and DHSchess Club VP, Sudith Thota.

Thanks to our other volunteers: Fallon Chess parent-leads Sumit Aneja, Sudha Vijay and Bhavna Jain, Abhishek Shrivastava, Derick Fogt, and Kashyap Amin. Head TD and organizer was Eric Lai.