Tournaments
Recap: April 21st Pleasanton K-12 Championships!
140 scholastic players ranging from unrated first-time tournament players to our nationally-ranked top seed competed at Valley View Elementary on Sunday afternoon April 21st for fun, glory, and trophies.
There were two unrated Challenger sections for unrated players up to a max of 300 US Chess rating.
In the 36-player K-3 Challenger, Kolb Elementary classmates Aakarsh Solan and Abhiraam Veeravalli both went a perfect 4-0 to tie for first, with Solan taking first on a tiebreak. Tiebreak explainer
Eight players tied for third at 3-1: Neel Nayak, Mo Liu, Raghav Singh, Aayush Bhupathiraju (top 3rd grader), Virat Singh (top 2nd grader), Siya Khanna, Krish Sah, and Arjun Sah (top 1st grader). Other trophy winners at 2.5-1.5 were Krishav Kurulkar, Ved Ritesh Dharmatti, and Ananya Joshi.
In the 26-player Grade 4-12 Challenger, Abhi Arun Kumar of Fremont’s Horner Middle School edged Alisal Elementary’s Teijoparthav Maddula by a tiebreak, with both players scoring a perfect 4-0.
Five players tied for 3rd at 3-1: Ghazi Hussain, Sebastian Karagozlu, Rithik Gudivaka, Arin Gurha, and Rishaan Das. Other trophy winners were Omkar Mungse (top 5th grader), Dhruv Jadhav (top 4th grader), Dylan Pandya and Rohan Banwasi (top 6th grader).
In the 36-player Premier section (U700 rating), Fallon Middle School’s Akhil Veeravalli matched his younger brother with a perfect 4-0 score, taking first on a tiebreak over Wells Middle School’s Arham Shah (also 4-0).
There was a 7-way tie for 3rd at 3-1: Sairaghav Kumar, Sanvi Singh, Risha Molholkar, Rushil Khare (top U500), Bradley Hood (2nd U500), Nolan Woo (3rd U500) and Rishi Tumkur (4th U500). Top K-5 were Vivaani Gogte and Ivan Pershin. Other trophy winners at 2.5-1.5 were Arjun Maddi, Abhinav Garg, and Adhith Sakthivel.
In the 34-player Championship (700+ rating), Arjunsai Navaneetha of Fairlands Elementary went a perfect 4-0 to become the overall tournament champion. In a dramatic final-round match, Navaneetha defeated the top seed, 1407-rated (and the 60th best 8-year-old in the U.S.) Sreyshthaa Krishnan, on the first board.
Fallon’s Aryaman Majumder went an outstanding 3.5/4 to place second. There was a nine-way tie for third at 3-1: Krishnan, Shivam Prasad, Shreyan Goli, Austin Chen (top U1000), Bhargava Ogireddy, Rayan Jain (2nd U1000), Kadir Baki (3rd U1000), Aneesh Banerjee (4th U1000) and Arjun Shenoy. Bradley Harger and Vihaan Joshi captured the top K-5 prizes.
Finally, in the Pleasanton school team competition, Thomas Hart Middle School took first place with a total of 12 points from their top 4 scorers: Risha Molhokar, Aneesh Banerjee, Arin Gurha, and Bradley Hood.
There was a three-way tie for second place at 9.5 points, with tiebreaks giving second place to Mohr Elementary (Raghav Singh, Ananya Joshi, Aarnav Chandra and Darsh Arora) over 3rd place Donlon Elementary (Rishaan Das, Krishav Kurulkar, Leonard Hsu and Vihaan Joshi) and 4th place Fairlands Elementary (Arjunsai Navaneetha, Subhayan Guha, Aarin Saha, and Keller Ma).
Full Individual and Team Standings (choose tabs): Caissa Chess Software
US Chess Federation-rated results: Premier and Championship and rating system explained
Big Thank Yous! from the organizers (Emerald Hills’ Eric Lai and Bhavna Jain and Tri-Valley Chess League’s Aryan Kumar and Aryan Achuthan) to:
Our hosts – Valley View Principal Andrea Withers and the Valley View PTA, in particular President Jenn Pranschke and Executive Vice-President Brittany Hassebrock!
Our floor TDs from Tri-Valley Chess League are Nirav Jaiswal, Advay Bajpal, Brian Su, Austen Yee, Skand Bajpal, and Jaymin Byun.
Our other volunteers Nitin Jain, Cassius Lai, and Kashyap Amin.
And finally, to all of our players and parents for their patience with the weak Internet, hotter-than-expected weather, and delayed start. We will improve our check-in process to ensure we stay on schedule next time.
Look for our next Tri-Valley tournament in the second half of May! Details coming soon.
