Local, Affordable Scholastic Tournament Series
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Oct. 2023 K-12 Tourney at Wells
The Tri-Valley Scholastic Chess Tournament series had a strong launch on Saturday Oct. 7th, with 98 local K-12 players competing for fun, glory and trophies.
Held at Wells Middle School in Dublin, the tournament is the first in a monthly series of affordable, USCF-rated tournaments aimed at both first-time and experienced competitors, and co-organized by two local non-profits: Emerald Hills Chess and Tri-Valley Chess League.
With a $5 entry fee, the morning Challenger tournament was aimed at new USCF tournament players. 50 players competed in this 5-round quick-rated section, which was divided into seven 6-player round-robin groups and one 8-player group.
Top scorers in each section included:
Group A: Wells’ 7th grader Dylan Hoang and John Green 3rd grader Viraj Khullar
Group B: Amador 2nd grader Krish Siddulugari and Fallon 8th grader Nam Le
Group C: Amador 4th grader Vivaani Gogte and Wells 8th grader Rruchir Rupkumar
Group D: Wells 8th grader Mukhil Kannan
Group E: Cal High 9th grader Ethan Hui
Group F: John Green 2nd grader Reyansh Mane, Wells 6th grader Tavisha Gaur and Wells 7th grader Logan Speck
Group G: Wells 6th graders Arham Shah and Oliver Yu
Group H: Hart 7th grader Aneesh Banerjee and John Green 5th graders Viraj Mane and Krish Desai
The afternoon was a 4-round regular-rated Swiss for experienced players.
In the 27-player Championship (500-1000 rating), there was a two-way tie with perfect 4-0 scores: Fairlands third-grader Arjunsai Navaneetha Prabhu and Fallon 6th grader Eshan Ganapathi, with Prabhu taking first on tiebreak. There was a 6-way tie for 3rd place with 3-1 scores. In order of tiebreak, they were: Gautham Ramalingam, Aryaman Majumder, Arhan Saha, and Shivish Aneja (all Fallon Elite class players), and Amador Elementary 5th grader Advaith Nadiminti.
The 21-player Premier (U500 and unrated) was won by John Green 5th grader Krish Desai with a perfect 4-0 score, followed by Fallon’s Neil Mallu with 3.5. There was a 3-way tie at 3-1 for third place between Fallon’s Varchasv Garg and Simha Santosh Tulla and John Green Elementary 5th grader Akshay Bansal.
See many more photos at our Facebook and Instagram posts.
There were many other strong performances that just missed out on trophies.
Full standings for:
Official USCF-rated results for:
USCF rating system explainer. Important note: new player ratings will both go up AND down dramatically. As players get more tournament games under their belt, their ratings become more stable and accurate.
Thanks to Wells Middle School for hosting us! And many many thanks to the Wells PFC and co-president Anne Torok for enabling us to bring the first-ever scholastic chess tournament to Wells. 19 members of Wells’ popular Friday after-school club competed in the tournament, with 7 of them winning trophies! The Wells club is in its 3rd year under teacher Sara Quintero, with student and professional coaching provided by Dublin HS Chess Club and Emerald Hills Chess.
Thanks to Tri-Valley Chess League members that directed the morning beginner tournament: Aryan Kumar, Aryan Achuthan, Advay Bajpai, Gaurav Gupta, Jaymin Byun, and Amogh Chaudhary.
Thanks also to Dublin HS Chess Club members Evan Lim and Katherine Pask for serving as floor tournament directors.
Overall tournament directors were Aryan Kumar, Aryan Achuthan, and Eric Lai, while organizers were TVCL’s Kumar, and Lai and Bhavna Jain of Emerald Hills Chess.
The next tournament in our low-cost and convenient Tri-Valley series will be in early November. Location and time will be announced soon.