News

2020 State Warm-Up

The Shining Knight's State Warm-Up brimmed with excitement from the analytical young minds. There were over 100 chess kidlings battling with each others' wits. There was great sportsmanship amongst the various ages of boys and girls at the new venue of the Double Tree Hotel. Thank you to the parents and coaches that have been so greatly involved in this intellectual realm of their children. The next Shining Knight's chess tournament is the Pawn's March on Sun, March 15, 2020 at the Double Tree Hotel in Plymouth Meeting!

Here are the top players per section:

K-6 U200 Individual: Top Teams: Ithan Elementary

1 MARCUS FRIEDMAN Valley Forge Elementary

2 CHRISTIAN ZHANG

3 LUIS ROMANO

4 BRANDON EDWA CHAN

5 HANSOHL LEE

6 JASON HONG

K-6 U500 Individual: Top Teams: W Vincent Elementary

1 YUVAN PUTUMBAKA Valley Forge Elementary

2 NICHOLAS ANTON

3 HARRY SCHREITER

4 BENJAMIN FELTMAN

5 MAX LABARBERA

6 PRATIK FERNANDES

K-12 U800 Individual: Top Teams: Marsh Creek

1 SRIRAM MARNI Valley Forge Middle

2 ANIRUTH SATISH

3 KEERTHAN CHALLA

4 JACK ALBERT CHEN

5 RYAN KIM

6 JAKE ANTON

hooray to medalists with 3 points ARNAV SADASHIV and ARYAN ROY

K-12 Championship Individuals: Top Team: Lionville

1 TANAY PARRIPATI

2 NATHANIEL KELLER

3 TIMOTHY HAN

4 ABHIRAM VADIGURI

congrats to medalists HEMANTH K KOLLURI and FAYE FEI MO

DECEMBER CRUSH 2019

Eighty-eight players met at the 4-H Center in Collegeville, PA for the last Shining Knights
tournament of the year. All four sections were hard fought with few perfect results. The
results are posted on the US Chess website at -
http://www.uschess.org/msa/XtblMain.php?201912147862.0-16427183 (results are not in tie
break order so your child may have finished third but be listed as sixth.) The next Shining
Knights event will be in late February. Happy Holidays everyone!
Here are the top players per section:

K-6 U200 Individual: Top Teams: Kutz Elementary
St. Phillip Neri Elementary
1 Eliot Weber
2 Paul McLaughlin
3 Dimitris Kesisoglou
4 Chetan Nallapaneni
5 Ben Seeger
6 Prateek Menon

K-6 U500 Individual: Top Teams: Valley Forge Middle School
1 Albert Wang Exton Elementary
2 Saharsh Hulage
3 Siddhartha Alluri
4 Han Sam Kim
5 Haasya Putumbaka
6 Vahini Sadhu Venkata

K-12 U800 Individual: Top Teams: Wallingford Elementary
1 Jude Torrens Spring-Ford Intermediate
2 Shadi Harb
3 Clark Kerkstra
4 William Isaac Aronstam
5 Jacob Robert Walters
6 Shrey Hulage

K-12 Championship Individual: Top Team: Lionville Middle School
1 Ilya Galushkin
2 Dylan Liu
3 Tanay Parripati
4 Varsha Sudarshan Iyengar

The QUEEN'S HARVEST 2019

The Queen's Harvest on a chilly November day brought in 86 gifted kids to the mental battlefield in Wyndmoor, PA. There was great enthusiasm in the main room among chess parents and coaches. We saw a decent number of players taking chess notation, and many claimed they possessed knowledge of En Passant. The next Shining Knight's chess tournament is Sat, Dec 14 in Collegeville, PA: December Crush!

Here are the top players per section:

K-6 U200 Individual: Top Teams: Mill Creek Elementary

Devon Elementary

1 OWEN LIU

2 Hardik Talwar

3 LUCIUS FRIBORG

4 COLIN LU

5 HUDSON GENTZEL

6 ANJANA SAKTHIKUMAR

K-6 U500 Individual: Top Teams: Valley Forge Elementary

1 JACK ALBERT CHEN East Ward Elementary

2 AZIM AHMAD JULKIPLI

3 BENJAMIN FELTMAN

4 BEDIRHAN SADE

5 COLIN MICH VARANO

6 LUCAS CAO

Kudos to medalist AVANEESH RAMAMURTHY

K-12 U800 Individual: Top Teams: Welsh Valley Middle School

1 RUOMING AI Beaumont Elementary

2 SHENGHAO YUAN

3 ANTON LALWANI

4 DHRUV MENON

5 GRETCHEN LUTZ

6 ATHARV NUNEMUNTHALA

hooray to RONAN MURPHY and JAKE ANTON!



K-12 Championship Individual:                  Top Team: Welsh Valley Middle School

1 AARON LUTZ

2 PETER WI GOLDBERG

3 ILYA GALUSHKIN

4 JUSTIN DEROSA

2019 AUTUMN KNIGHT

97 children competed in the 2019 Shining Knights Autumn Knight Tournament on another beautiful day. The town of Bryn Mawr brimmed brightly with brilliant youth chess players. There were a number of tight games that went to only a few mintues left on the clock. There was tremendous sportsmanship throughout the day.

Here are the top players per section:

K-6 U200 Individual:                                              Top Teams: Hillendale Elementary and

South Elementary coming in 2nd

1 DYLAN YIN

2 SHATAKSHI RAGALA

3 AAKASH RAMESH

4 GABRIEL MATTHEWS

5 ETHAN WANG

6 MYRA RALHAN

honorable mention to RONAN DALY with 3 points

K-6 U500 Individual: Top Teams: Valley Forge Middle School

followed by Gladwynne Montessori

1 ANDREW YOON

2 PRATIK FERNANDES

3 RACHEL DAVIES

4 RYAN MCDERMOTT

5 ISHAN VERMA

6 SEJAL GARG

K-12 U800 Individual: Top Teams: Colonial Middle School

followed by Spring Ford Intermediate

1 ILYA GALUSHKIN

2 ANDREW YU

3 TRAVIS JOHNSON

4 NIDHI NAGUMALLA

5 EFRAIN ORTIZ

kudos to ANTON LALWANI, ALEX W BABKA and ARNAV KANDIKONDA



K-12 Championship Individual:                     Top Team: Penn Wynne Elementary

1 TIMOTHY HAN

2 DEV MENO MADHAVAN

3 MATTHEW YOON

4 ABHIRAM VADIGURI

SPRING FINALE 2019!

90 children competed in the 2019 Shining Knights Spring Finale on another beautiful day. There were magnificent battles on the chess grounds in Collegeville, with bishops and knights weaving through the kingdoms of their opponents. Thank you to the parents and coaches who brought good sportsmanship to the front.

Here are the top players per section:

K-6 U200 Individual: Top Teams: General Wayne

1 YI YUAN JEDIDI LU and Charlestown in 2nd

2 ADAM ASKALA

3 BRAYDON SHAW

4 HARRY SCHREITER

5 JIA YAN

6 CARTER HE

K-6 U500 Individual: Top Teams: Lower Gwyned

followed by Merion Elementary

1 SRITAN BHUMIREDDY

2 BENJAMI SLIVINSKI

3 JACOB ROB WALTERS

4 NICHOLAS LALWANI

5 SYLVIA GW SPENCER

6 COLE SAMUE MILLER

special props to medal winners ALBERT WANG, ALEXANDER HA RUSS, SIMON NICKERSON and LEO HENRY VERBUCH

K-12 U800 Individual: Top Teams: KD Markley

1 DEV MENON MADHAVAN with New Eagle in second

2 AUSTIN LI

3 ALEX W BABKA

4 ARNAV SADASHIV

5 MIHIR KHANNA

6 ANDREW YU

and with 3 points OLIVER NICKERSON

K-12 Championship Individual: Top Team: Pickering

1 ABHIRAM VADIGURI

2 SIDDH PRABHUDESAI

3 JONATHAN YANG

4 BRIAN LI

5 ABHIN RAVISHANKAR

Check this out...

Nakamura and Yu become 2019 Chess Champs!

2019 CHESS PIECES OF APRIL

114 children competed in the 2019 Shining Knights Chess Pieces of April on a glorious Spring day. It was great to see familiar faces as well as dozens of new tournament players. There were players from quite a diverse number of chess teams, representing their schools with their bright, analytical minds. Thank you all for your great participation in a fantastic tournament brimming with smiles and good sportsmanship.

Here are the top players per section:

K-6 U200 Individual:                             Top Teams: Gladwyne Elementary followed by

1 AMIR AHSAN                                                              Our Lady of Mt Caramel

2 FREDERIC PHELIZON

3 Nicholas Lalwani

4 HENRY FREEBODY

5 Niko Snee-Garza

6 Reid Blarney

and special props to 3 pointers Jaidon Horvath, Victor Pan, Oliver Kosmalski and PRATIRP MALVANKAR

K-6 U500 Individual:                        Top Teams: Skyview followed by Lower Gwyned

1 Luke Navarrete

2 Ryan Sensen Brenn

3 Advaith Elluru

4 Owen Rutt

5 RYAN DING

6 Brian Hsieh

and kudos to Faye Fei Mo and EDWIN VUONG

K-12 U800 Individual:                        Top Teams: Colonial and then Skyview in 2nd

1 Anderson Chan

2 Jake Anton

3 Kasyap Tumuluri

4 Alex W Babka

5 Rhea Sofia Howard

6 Austin Li

nice job Josiah Tjoe and Kathan Desai

K-12 Championship Individual:                       Top Team: Pickering Valley
1 Vasishta Tumuluri

2 Max Kikkawa

3 Brian Li

4 John M Cureton

with special props to medalist Yajat Gupta

In case you missed it...

Nakamura and Yu are 2019 U.S. Champs

By John Hartmann|April 1, 2019|News, Top American Players, Women

It took two weeks, eleven rounds, and a heavy dose of final day drama, but US Chess now has its 2019 Champions: Hikaru Nakamura and Jennifer Yu.

Yu was effectively crowned after the tenth round, when no one else could catch the 17-year old from Virginia. Hikaru Nakamura had to wait until the very last game was decided in the Open Championship to claim his title. His victory over Jeffery Xiong coupled with draws by co-leaders Fabiano Caruana (against Sam Shankland) and Leinier Dominguez (against Timur Gareyev), gave Nakamura his fifth U.S. Championship.

PA STATE WARM-UP 2019

The 2019 Shining Knights' 12th Annual State Warm-Up Chess Tournament truly incorporated 100+ students of the game and their parents from so many different backgrounds. There was a collection of familiar faces along with an introduction of so many new ones. It was a pleasure to feel the energy in the room generated by the analytical minds of the youth. Congratulations to all who participated!

Here are the top players per section:

K-6 U200 Individual:                     Top Teams: Germantown Academy & 2nd Cynwyd Elem

1 ANOUSHKA YADAV

2 JACK BARTON

3 JOSHUA TJOE

4 ALBERT WANG

5 WARREN SHI

6 CARLY RUTT

with special props to Edwin Vuong with 3 points.

K-6 U500 Individual:                           Top Teams: Skyview followed by Ithan

1 ANDREW YU

2 BENAS ANTANAVICIUS

3 AVANEE RAMAMURTHY

4 OWEN BLAMEY

5 ALEXANDER HA RUSS

6 TANAY PARRIPATI

and a shout out to 3 pointers OWEN RUTT, ANDREW GUTHRIE and SANJITHA KRISHNAN

K-12 U800 Individual:                             Top Teams: Pickering and then Spring Ford

1 CONNOR VITZ

2 ETHAN WANG

3 SHREY HULAGE

4 SIDDH PRABHUDESAI

5 DEV MENO MADHAVAN

and good job to TRAVIS JOHNSON with 3 points

K-12 Championship Individual:                                     Top Team: Lionville

1 SIDDHANT SURESH

2 ANIRUDH RED AKULA

3 YAJAT GUPTA

4 BENJAMIN YANG

with kudos to ABHIRAM VADIGURI and SOMIL TARE who earned 3 points

With less than a few weeks from spring let the unpredictable but cold weather inspire ever developing chess minds. Animated GIF

Hope to see you all at the March 30th Chess Pieces of April Tournament!

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