Shining Knights Chess is smart fun for schools & kids

ImageWelcome to the website of the Shining Knights Chess Company! We partner with Elementary schools, Middle schools, and community centers to teach chess to children. We teach students of all different levels, from total beginners to national champions. We also run scholastic tournaments, where students can compete both individually and as members of their school’s team. For the more advanced scholastic chessplayers, we organize monthly adult chess tournaments to allow for stronger competition. We currently teach classes and run tournaments and camps in Pennsylvania.

To register for one of our chess events, click on the appropriate link above. If you have any questions about our chess events, feel free to contact us or look at our FAQs.

2018 DECEMBER CRUSH

94 children enrolled to chill out at the 2018 Shining Knights December Crush putting their minds to work on the chess board.  We saw a great mix of veteran and newbie tournament players.  There was an overwhelming number of brain teasing predicaments, critical endgames, and mid-game conundrums.  With all the stress that could have been, the smiles lit up the playing room making it all worth the wondering in the waiting room.

Here are the top players per section:

 K-6 U200 Individual:                                                                 Top Teams: Merion Elementary followed by Newtown

1 Nate Promer
2 Ryan Sensen Brenn
3 Jack Cai
4 Finbar Ryan
5 Matthew Majewski
6 JJ Gordon
with special props to Andrew Fann, Mark Cai, Casey Cloud with 3 points.

 

K-6 U500 Individual:                                                                  Top Teams: Shipley followed by Merion Elementary


1 THEODORE JA KRIEG
2 WILLIAM ARONSTAM
3 BENAS ANTANAVICIUS
4 TERRANCE XIA
5 JACOB ROB WALTERS
6 HOLT RECORD


K-12 U800 Individual:                                                                 Top Teams: Welsh Valley and then Radnor Elementary in 2nd


1 VARSHA SU IYENGAR
2 NIGEL PIERMAN
3 CLARK KERKSTRA
4 GRETCHEN LUTZ
5 AUSTIN LI
6 JAY DABRAL
 

 

K-12 Championship Individual:                                                 Top Team: Abington Jr High


1 JONATHAN BONNELL
2 MAX KIKKAWA
3 HASSAN "HA BOYOUK
4 PETER WI GOLDBERG
with special props to medalist Benjamin Yang
 
 

In case you missed it...
The World Youth U16 Olympiad is underway in Konya Turkey (November 24-December 3) and Team USA is putting on an inspiring performance, even drawing the attention of top Grandmasters like Grandmaster Robert Hess, who was in the thick of daily chess.com commentary for Carlsen-Caruana. The U.S. team ...


Have a cozy holiday season, filled with joyous times of building a snowman, sledding down steep hills, making stretched out snow angels, and warming up by the fire with a good cup of cocoa and a thoughtful chess book.

 
 

 
 
 

 
 
 

The QUEEN'S HARVEST 2018

The 2018 Shining Knights’ Queen’s Harvest was a hit with grateful young chess players and their proud parents.  Kids seemed to really enjoy themselves while testing their intellect.  There was exceptional respect for fellow players during the award ceremony: solid attention to the top winners and nice recognition to all participants.  

Here are the top performers: 

K-4 U200                                             Top Teams: Lower Gwynedd with Devon a close 2nd                

1          Mihir Khanna

2          Krish Kasina

3          Benjamin Jarrett

4          Prakhar Dhabria

5          Ayden Ortiz

6          Benjamin Shaheid
 

K-6 U400:                                            Top Teams: Merion followed by Skyview

1          CLARK KERKSTRA

2          BRIAN HSIEH

3          TERRANCE XIA

4          OLIVER SHIH

5          ROMAN OLIJNYK-WONG

6          Jacob Walters

 

K-12 U600:                                          Top Teams: Colonial with Welsh Valley following

1          COLUM DOUGHERTY

2          NIGEL PIERMAN

3          Taiyo Ishida

4          ANTON LALWANI

5          Shreesh Joshi

6          Declan Lees

 

K-12 U900 Individual:                                      Top Team: Pickering Valley

1          TIMOTHY HAN

2          ABHIN RAVISHANKAR

3          NEEL CHAKRABORTY

4          ANIRUDH RED AKULA

5          ABHIRAM VADIGURI

6          SIDDH PRABHUDESAI

K-12 Championship:                            Top Team:  Lionville   

1          YAJAT GUPTA

2          HASSAN BOYOUK

3          MAX KIKKAWA

4          SOMIL TARE

5          SOPHIA STOY 

Stay warm by cozying by the fireplace with low-fat marshmallows and a good chess book, learning to take almost effortless chess notation for the December Crush Tournament on 12/8 at Radnor Elementary.  Happy Holidays!

2018 AUTUMN KNIGHT

Seventy-one players met at the 4 H building in Collegeville to compete in four sections for individual and school team trophies. 

                In the Under 200 section, Peter Goldberg scored the only perfect score, 4 – 0 to win the section.  Five players scored 3 – 1 for 2nd to 6th place: Arush Maitra, Bhargav Medasani, Jeremiah Attalia, Cole Miller, and Arnv Pinsetty, respectively.   Devon Elementary was the top team with 5.5 points (Arush Maitr and Apeksha Bansal) and Upper Providence was 2nd (Jeremiah Attalia an Ryan Tighe.)

                In the Under 500 section, all six prize winners scored 3 – 1 and were: Owen Blarney, Arnav Kandikonda, Michael Legnola, Anton Lalwani, Sylvia Spencer, and Pratik Fernandes, respectively.  The two schools to win a trophy were Skyview (Owen Blarney and Michael Legnola) and in second place, Devon Elementary (Anton and Nicholas Lalwani) .

                In the Under 800 section, Arnav Sadashiv had a perfect 4-0 result.  This was followed by Greta Goldberg, Anderson Chan, and Navein Suresh, all going 3-1 and Alex Babka, who edged out several other 2.5s on tiebreaks.  The school trophys went to Springford (Abhi and Neel Attilli) and Penn Wynn Elementary (Timothy Han and Shadi Harb).

                In the Championship section, Yajat Gupta scored 3.5 – 0.5 to secure 1st place.  Joshua Ouyang, came in 2nd, with a 3-1 score with Somil Tare, 3rd, and Jonathan Yang, 4th, both still with 3-1.  The final trophy went to Vasishta Tumuluri with 2.5 points.   The school trophy went to Lionville Middle School with 5.5 points (Yajat Gupta and Abhinav Ravishankar).

                Hope everyone enjoyed the event and will make the event in Plymouth Meeting on November 17th!

More Articles...