Embedded Files
Recap of 300-player East Bay Open & Youth Team Championship
300 players attended the 5th Annual East Bay Open and Youth Team Championship at Pleasanton Middle School, a co-presentation of Emerald Hills Chess, the Tri-Valley Chess League, and the Emerald Knights Chess Club.
300 players (up 43% from last year) of all levels and ages, as well as 40+ K-12 teams, competed for $2,000 and 85+ individual and team trophies.
In a thrilling final-round matchup on first board, Tri-Valley GM Christopher Yoo defeated four-time defending champion (and Emerald Hills Chess coach) GM Enrico Sevillano to take overall first.
The 19-year-old Yoo split $800 with 17-year-old Dublin FM Advay Bansal, who also went a perfect 4-0 in the 1500+ Championship.
Six players at 3-1 split $200 for third place - Kevin Kane, Emerald Hills Chess coach Kadir Baki, Sevillano, Teddy Usman, Calvin Hou, and Raghav Ramesh. Bradley Harger won $300 as first Under 1600, with eight players sharing the $200 second place at 2-2.
In the 64-player Experts (U1500), Anika Prasad of Fallon Middle School went a perfect 5-0 to win $150.
Unrated Topher Tiamzon and Cameron Lee Troy tied for second at 4.5/5 to win $75 each. Vedant Buradkar, Dingding Chen, Nihal Tej Gundu, Yousuf Jamal, and Aarav Ganesh (4th-8th) all scored 4-1.
Eight players tied for 9th at 3.5-1.5: Manav Maheshwari, Dhruv Jadhav, Shourya Meka, Rihaan Choudhury, Arjun Patil, Jack Joseph Westling Dragalin (1st U1200 trophy and cash), Parker Chu and Marcus Lee.
U1200 trophy winners were Dragalin, Ethan Ta, Ethan Sam, Rishabh Kaushik and Eli John Abel.
In the 84-player Premier (U1000), Anika Aravind went a perfect 5-0 to take sole first and win $100. Ayaan Karia and Gerry Laird* (Thurs nite) tied for second at 4.5-0.5 and split $50.
(* denotes one of the 300 students or members of Emerald Hills Chess’s tourney training classes and chess clubs.)
Tying at 4th at 4-1 were Avyan Amritkar, Aravind Sethuraman, Adhish Manoji Prabu, Aarth Chirvi, Micah Toy* (Tri-Valley Homeschoolers), Dhanin Sasikumar, Samarth Sanjay Aswale, and Vishnu Vandanapu.
Outstanding Performers at 3.5-1.5 were Rohith Nukula, Sweya Yeruva* (Sunday tourney training), Theo Puro, Avyay Behara, Chun-Yen Lee, Advik Nevse, Derek Zhao, Vedant Rao, Vvihaan Chanana, and Eileen Zhang.
Top U700 players were Tyler Hong* (Thurs nite), James Muse Sinek, and Lance Michael Kettle* (Thurs nite), also splitting their cash prize.
In the 68-player K12 Challenger (U500), Kade Jax Pascal and Arthur Yang tied for first with perfect 5-0 records. Jeffrey Yan-Cheng was an undefeated third. Rounding out the top ten at 4-1 were Jason Zhang, Katherine Yang, Reva Sangraula, Medhya Marnati, Kushal Babireddygari, Chaitanya Kamat and David Eapen Kurian.
Outstanding Performers at 3.5-1.5 were Anikesh Ramia* (Thurs nite), Isaac Faris Omar, Andrew Gai, and Akshat Rode* (Wed tourney training). Top Under 300 were Maya Sriherder, Hugh Wang, Diyansh Kosaraju, and Paarsh Shah* (Thurs nite).
In the 43-player Novices, Anish Manegari and Adrian Palanciuc placed first at 5-0. Tying for third at 4-1 were Nathan Chen, Hetansh Patel* (Alisal), Ved Parulekar and Joaquin Ramirez* (Tu nite tourney training).
Tied for 7th were Ryan Jacob, Aarush Manegari, Dhruv Badgi, Aarshiv Dechu, and Nomin Naranbat. Vivaan Yamsani* (Hearst) was top K-2.
Final Individual Standings in tiebreak order and Tiebreakers explained
USCF-Rated results (not including Novices, and NOT in actual tiebreak order) and Rating system explained
(Note: Your Published rating is shown by default in your player profile in the USCF rating database. To see your live rating including results from the East Bay Open and the last 30 days, click on Tournament History in the upper right of your Profile. Players may request to use their live rating for section placement when entering the Nov 21st Tri-Valley Open.)
BCS Wins Youth Team Championship
More than 40 K-12 Bay Area schools and clubs competed, represented by their top 4 individual scorers. Read the exact criteria for determining the top finishers in the three categories (NOT top teams per section, as in our March 2026 Youth Team Championship).
Top 8 Teams (rated sections)
1st - Berkeley Chess School (Cameron Lee Troy, Parker Chu, Jack Dragalin, Bradley Harger)
2nd - Fallon Middle School
3rd - Emerald High School
4th - Summer Chess Club, Team 2
5th - Mustang Gambit Masters - Challengers (aka Mission San Jose Elementary)
6th - Summer Chess Club, Team 1*
7th - Walnut Grove Elementary
8th - Kolb Elementary
*Due to game reporting and TD errors, the winners for 6th-8th place announced Saturday deviate slightly from the final standings above.
Top 4 Junior Varsity Teams (Premier and Challenger sections only)
1st - Summer Chess Club, Team 2 (Jeffrey Yan-Cheng, Katherine Yang, Jason Zhang, Amy Wang)
2nd - Mustang Gambit Masters, Challengers
3rd - Fallon Middle School
4th - Berkeley Chess School (on tiebreak over Kolb Elementary School)
Top 3 Novices-only Teams
1st - Amador Elementary (above left, Anish Manegari, Aarush Manegari, Dhruv Badgi, Arin Ambalal)
2nd - ProQueens (center)
3rd - Valle Verde Elementary (right)
Thank Yous
From lead organizers Emerald Hills Chess’s Eric Lai and Bhavna Jain to:
Assistant Chief TD Scott Mason
Nationally-age-ranked juniors Leo Ni and Vedant Verma for 1:1 game analysis for players
Floor TDs Viren Sethi, David Kim, Vikram Snyder and Naman Jain from Emerald High School/Emerald Knights, and Vatsal Srivastava, Yichen Hu, Brandon Mingus, Karan Satish, Saathvik Dharmapuram, Skand Bajpal, and Ryan Chia from the Tri-Valley Chess League.
Coaches Stephen Shaughessy of Berkeley Chess School, Gautham Muthakumar and Zhipeng Li of Mustang Gambit Masters, Summer Xia of Summer Chess Club, IM Rostislav Tsodikov and FM Natalya Tsodikova of Mighty Pawns, Sana of Pro Queens Gambit, and Darmawan Effendi of Valle Verde Elementary.
Return to 4-round, half-day schedule
60+ individual trophies over 5 sections
$300 first prize in the Championship Swiss and $1,200 in guaranteed cash prizes
Register by Tu Nov. 17th, save $10
Report abuse