Jan 2026 at Wells Middle School

169 players competed at the Tri-Valley Jan 17th Open at Wells Middle School in Dublin, a co-presentation of Emerald Hills Chess, the Tri-Valley Chess League, Emerald Knights Chess Club and the Wells Chess Club, and part of our monthly tournament series. 

(See and share more pics at Instagram and Facebook).

In our Championship (1200+) Quads, our first-place winners were:

Group 1 (1500+, $120 first): Kadir Baki (Emerald Hills Chess coach)

Group 2 (1400+, $100 first): Tristan Ma

Group 3 (1300+, $80 split): Rayan Jain* (GM High-Performance class) and Theodore Hwang

Group 4 (1200+, $80 first): Gloria She

Group 5 (~1200, $80 first): Aarav Ganesh

(* denotes one of the 300 students of Emerald Hills Chess’s tourney training classes and afterschool clubs.)

In the 45-player Experts (U1200) youth/adult section, Spencer Hu and Jason Sun tied for first with perfect 4-0 scores, winning $75 each. Sairaghav Kumar went an undefeated 3.5 out of 4 to take third place.

There was a nine-way(!) tie for fourth place at 3-1. Fourth through ninth places went in tiebreak order to: Varchasv Garg* (Thursday tournament training), Xiaoxi Sha, Reyansh Mane* (GM High-Performance), Dhyan Pratheesh, Aditya Ashwin* (Cottonwood Creek), and Dhruv Jadhav.

The top U1000 prizes went to 3-1 finishers Adrit Nudurupati* (Donlon Elementary), Joshua Zenarosa* (Thursday Night Social Chess Club), and Raghav Tiwari* (Mohr Elementary). 

In the 47-player Premier (U800) section, Arya Ashwin* (Cottonwood Creek) and Micah Toy* (Tri-Valley Homeschoolers) went a perfect 4-0 to tie for first. Maximo Chu went an undefeated 3.5/4 to take sole third.

There was a 12-way tie for fourth place with strong 3-1 scores. In tiebreak order, trophy winners were: Vaishnav Srihari, Avyan Amritkar, Atharva Kudva* (Sunday tournament training), Vihaan Annam* (Sunday tournament training), Krish Kaudinya, Dev Girish Kumar, Jayden Wong (1st U600), Advik Krishnadas Angayarkanni* (2nd U600, Sunday tournament training), Zhiyuan Tian* (Sunday tournament training), Shauryveer Chaundkar, Arjun Sah* (Wed tournament training), and Bhavik Kakkar (3rd U600, Wells MS).

In the 31-player K12 Challenger (U400), Adhish Prabu and Saiansh Rastogi (Wells MS) tied for first with perfect 4-0 scores.

Sarangan Vijayan* (Sunday tournament training) took sole third with an undefeated 3.5/4 score.

Rounding out the top ten were: Karthikeya Muthamsetty, Saketh Kollipara* (Fairlands Elementary), Krithik Bharani (Wells), Rishaan Das* (Sunday tournament training), Vasudeva Gonegandla, David Kurian, and Virat Singh (Wells).

Top players Under 200 or unrated were: Loden Lee (Wells), Pranavi Abburi* (Sunday tournament training), and Raghavachary Balaji.

In the 26-player non-rated Novice, Andre Wu* (Thursday tournament training) went a perfect 5-0 to take first.

Mark Taranov (Wells), Aria Ponde, and Anant Sonthy* (Sunday tournament training) tied for 2nd with very strong 4-1 records.

Tying for 5th with 3.5-1.5 scores were: Bhuvan Dharshik Konduru, Nikolas Kalogerakis* (Hearst), and Andrew Tang. 

Our top players K-2 were, in tiebreak order: Krishav Mahesha* (Coyote Creek), Kedarnath Kalidindi, Arjun Srinivas, and Vedaant Das.

Final Standings in prize tiebreak order and Tiebreakers explained

US Chess Federation-Rated results (not including Novices, not in prize tiebreak order) and Rating system explained 

(Note: Your rating from the Tri-Valley Open is still unofficial for up to thirty days. Official ratings are updated and published once a month. See your official rating on your player profile in the USCF rating database, which is used by tournaments for section placement.)

Thank Yous

From lead organizers Emerald Hills Chess’s Eric Lai (Chief Tournament Director) and Bhavna Jain to:

• Assistant TD FIDE Master Advay Bansal and Floor TDs Viren Sethi, Neil Mallu, David Kim and Shivish Aneja from co-organizer, Emerald Knights Chess Club (aka Emerald HS Chess).

• Floor TDs from our other co-organizer Tri-Valley Chess League: Yichen Hu, Shulin (Tiger) Lu, Aditya Vuligonda, Shashank Bonthu, and Saathvik Dharmapuram.

• Sara Quintero, teacher advisor, and Aryan Prasad, student president of the Wells Chess Club. As a thank you for hosting us, we are donating $500 to Wells’ free Friday Chess Club.  

Coming Events

Jan 31: Free K-12 Chess Night in Pleasanton

Join us for an evening of friendly competition with snacks and prizes! Beginners will get a lesson and coach-monitored free play. Experienced players (up to 1200 rating) will get to play a 4-round non-rated Swiss tournament with trophies for top finishers.

When: Saturday Jan 31st, from 5:30-7:30 PM

Where: AoPS Academy Pleasanton -- 5200 Franklin Dr, Suite #110, Pleasanton

Feb TBD: Tri-Valley Feb Open

We will again be offering 50+ trophies and ~$700 in cash prizes over five rated/unrated sections. We will also be adjusting rating limits for the Championship Quads and Experts sections to give more flexibility to players rated between 1000 and 1400.