Dec 17th at Stratford

Seventy local K-12 players competed at Stratford Middle School in Pleasanton on Sunday Dec 17th, 2023 for fun, glory and trophies.

(See many more photos at our Facebook post.)

The morning Challenger section attracted 29 unrated and novice (under 300 rated) players competing in 5 or 6-player round robins. The trophy winners (min 4 out of 5 or 3 out 4) were:

Group 1: John Green Elementary’s Neel Mehta

Group 2: Amador Elementary’s Amala Jeyalingam and Hearst Elementary’s Nikhil Kaushik 

Group 3: Stratford School’s Vvihaan Chanana

Group 4: Foothill HS’s Sanjay Senthil and Hart Middle School’s Krithave Anand

Group 5: Donlon Elementary’s Farhan Haris and Kolb Elementary’s Abhiraam Veeravalli

In the 25-player afternoon Premier section (U600 rating), Fallon Middle School’s Neil Mallu went a perfect 4-0 to take first. 

Fallon’s Varchasv Garg and Wells Middle School’s Anup Shanbhag tied for second with 3.5 out of 4.

Four players tied for 4th with 3-1 scores: Green Elementary’s Adhyan Banuri, Harvest Park Middle School’s Ian Lam, Adhrit Goswami, and Wells’ Arham Shah. 8th place/Top U400 went to Fallon’s Sriniket Srikanti.

In the 20-player Championship (600+ rating), Fallon’s Preron Chakrabarty and Aryaman Majumder drew in the final round to tie for first with 3.5/4, with Chakrabarty taking first on tiebreak. 

October co-champion Arjunsai Navaneetha Prabhu of Fairlands Elementary came from behind in the final game to take 3rd with a 3-1 score, beating out fellow October co-champ Eshan Ganapathi and Pranav Mehta (both of Fallon). 

Mendenhall Middle School’s Nivedh Panchal and Stratford’s Yaqub Uzair Ruhullah tied for 6th. 

Full Standings: Challenger and Premier/Championship

USCF rated results: Challenger (quick-rated only) and Premier/Championship 

Two notes: 

1. Rating system explainer. 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.

2. Duplicate USCF IDs. If you find more than one USCF membership ID in your name, please email USCF at membership@USchess.org and ask them to merge your duplicate USCF ID records together.  

Not all about the trophies: There were many other great games and players that competed hard and with great sportsmanship.

Equally important was the camaraderie among the players. We observed one player in tears, distraught about his performance. Another player from the same school noticed and immediately tried to cheer him up. “Dude, at least you didn’t lose a game using just 6 seconds on your clock!” he said, finally eliciting a small smile.

Big Thank Yous! from the chief TDs and organizers (Emerald Hills’ Eric Lai and Bhavna Jain and TVCL’s Aryan Kumar and Aryan Achuthan) to:

• Stratford Middle School and their Pleasanton head of school Sanny Figueroa for hosting us for a second month in a row! 

• Tri-Valley Chess League members Austen Yee and Amogh Chaudhary for helping the two Aryans manage the Challenger section. 

• Fallon Chess parent and soon-to-be-coach Derick Fogt for serving as floor TD in the Premier section.

Next tournament will be Saturday January 20th at Wells Middle School. Registration info coming after the New Year.