Mar 2025 at John Green

121 youth and adult players competed for fun, glory, and prizes at the Tri-Valley Open on March 22nd at John Green Elementary School in Dublin, a co-presentation of Emerald Hills Chess and Tri-Valley Chess League and part of our monthly tournament series. 

(See more action and trophy photos on Facebook and Instagram.)

Vedant Verma was the overall Champion, going a perfect 4-0 in the 14-player Open to win the $150 first prize. 

Through precise defense, Verma of Fremont’s Horner Middle School defeated the two runners-up tied at 3-1, Emerald Hills coaches Fred Sabobo and Kadir Baki, who each took home $70. 

Fallon Middle School’s Reyansh Nuti tied for 4th and won the $50 Top U1200 prize.

In the 32-player Experts (U1200) youth/adult section, Dhyan Pratheesh from Lawrence Elementary in Livermore won clear first and the $100 cash prize with a perfect 4-0 score. 

Nihal Gundu (Epic Academy) and Spencer Hu (Rocklin Academy Gateway) tied for second with undefeated 3.5-0.5 scores, sharing the $50 second prize.

Three players tied for 4th at 3-1 (in tiebreak order): Fallon’s Nolan Woo, Mahat Aravind (Mission San Jose Elementary), and Granite Oaks MS’s Mason Deeble. 

Jason Sun from host John Green Elementary won 7th place, while three players tied for Top U1000 - Taylor Shen (Quarry Lane), Sriniketh Srikanti (Fallon) and Ishaan Philar (Quail Run).

Two players from Fallon, Dev Kumar and Rithvik Gudivaka, tied for first in the 23-player Premier (U800) youth/adult section with undefeated 3.5-0.5 scores. 

Four players tied for third at a strong 3-1: Reyansh Mane (John Green), Anvit Nadendla (Cottonwood Creek/Emerald Hills Chess), Oliver Yu (Emerald/Wells MS), and Brendan Ma (Burton Valley Elementary).

Two members of our after-school clubs tied for 7th place - Utsav Godara (Walnut Grove/Emerald) and Raghav Singh (Mohr/Emerald).

In the 31-player K-12 U400-rated Challenger, Shivik Jain (Lydiksen) went a perfect 4-0 to take first, followed by Aditya Ashwin (Cottonwood/Emerald) in sole second with 3.5-0.5.

Seven players tied for third with 3-1 scores: Divyaan Kumar (Challenger Ardenwood), Charith Pavuluri (Centerville Junior High), Vihaan Joshi (Dougherty Elementary), Kian Khan (Valley View/Emerald), Krish Sah (Cottonwood/Emerald), Haritaa Ramesh (Iron Horse MS, top U200), and Renesh Saravanan (Loma Vista Elementary).

Fallon’s Pratyush Shishir took 2nd place U200, while Krish Kaudinya (Mohr/Emerald) won an Outstanding Performer trophy.

Finally, 14 youth players competed in the non-rated Novices section.

Trophy winners from the 7-player round-robin groups (first, second, and anyone else scoring at least 3.5 out of 5) were:

1st place - Yash Bhagat, Prajan Sundaramoorthy

2nd Place - Vincent Winderl (Emerald), Sankalp Bala (Emerald), Reyansh Venkatraman (Hidden Hills/Emerald) and Ehaan Parekh (John Green/Emerald)

US Chess Federation-Rated results and rating system explained

Full Standings (except Novices)

Thank Yous 

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

• Our floor TDs, including Head Floor TD Aryan Kumar, Yichen Hu, Saathvik Dharmapuram, Karan Satish, and Vatsal Srivastava, all from the Tri-Valley Chess League, as well as Rohan Nihalani from Dublin HS.

• The staff at John Green and Dublin Unified School District.

• Our players and parents for their patience. This tournament started and ended on time, thanks in part to all of you.

Next Tournament April 19th

Coming right after Spring Break on Saturday April 19th is the 2nd Annual Pleasanton Open and Scholastic Team Championships at Valley View Elementary.

(Read the recap of last year’s 140-player tourney) 

In addition to the usual 40+ individual trophies and $500 in guaranteed cash prizes over five sections, we will be offering team trophies for the top five school or K-12 club teams. 

Learn more & catch the early bird discount