May 25: Memorial Weekend Open 2024
Ninety players competed at Stratford Middle School in Pleasanton on Saturday May 25th. They included seasoned K-12 tournament competitors, novices from after-school clubs, and our largest adult turnout yet!
In our six-player unrated Novice section for first-time scholastic tournament players, Brendan Ma and Naman Pai finished 1-2.
In the 24-player rated Challenger (U400), Donlon Elementary’s Pratham Jain and Coyote Creek Elementary (San Ramon)’s Dhruv Jadhav both went a perfect 4-0 to tie for first, with Jain taking first on a tiebreak. Tiebreak explainer
Five players tied for third at 3-1: Mo Liu, Arjun Sah, Jayden Wong, Abhiram Veeravalli (top U200), and Oliver Yu. Devagya Jain was the final trophy winner with 2.5-1.5 score.
In the 25-player U800 Premier, Krish Desai from John Green Elementary went a perfect 4-0 to take first and boost his rating 350 points! Amador Elementary’s Advaith Nadaminti and Moreland Middle School’s Jayant Somashekar tied for second with undefeated 3.5/4 scores.
Three players tied for 4th at 3-1: Krithave Anand, Akhil Veeravalli, and Nathan Wen Wang. Other trophy winners were Henry Bonham, Aparna Raj and Rishi Krishnan (top U600).
In the 21-player Championship, Livermore HS’s Kadir Baki went a perfect 4-0 to take first, followed closely by John Green Elementary’s Tristan Ma in second with 3.5/4. There was a massive nine-way tie for 3rd with 2.5/4: Naman Jain, Aryaman Majumder, Arjunsai Navaneetha, Anika Prasad (top U1000), Arnav Solan, Eshaan Kashyap Amin, Yuvan Nandhakumar, Aneesh Banerjee, and Vihaan Joshi.
Finally, in the 12-player unrated Over-21 section, Steven Pachen took first place with a perfect 4-0 score, followed by three players in second place at 3-1: Amit Lohia, Ritesh Dharmatti, and Abhishek Shrivastava.
US Chess Federation-rated results 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 at Stratford School, in particular to Head of Schools Sanny Figueroa!
Our partners Mathnasium of Pleasanton and San Ramon, who were on hand with entertainment and prizes
Our floor TDs from Tri-Valley Chess League - Brian Su, Thomas Zhu and Austen Yee.
And finally, to all of our players and parents for their patience with the delayed start and some in-game issues. We will take these as lessons to improve our check-in process and tournament management!
Look for our next Tri-Valley tournament in June! Details coming soon.
Organizers
Tri-Valley Chess League is a Pleasanton student-led non-profit organization holding free classes and tournaments.
Emerald Hills Chess holds weekly before- and after-school chess clubs teaching more than 250 students in Dublin and Pleasanton.
We are holding summer classes and camps in Pleasanton, East Dublin, San Ramon and Tracy! Open to Grades 1-10 of all levels, with small (4-6:1) sections divided by ability and taught by professional coaches, rated USCF tournaments with trophies and fun competitions such as blitz and bughouse.