Scholastic Chess Update

(September - June)2007. 

College of St. Rose, Oct. 6.  The Right Move 16 got under way at 10:00 with 106 players in seven sections.  Albany High School won the team honors with 18 points for first place.

• The Open Championship section featured Deepak Aaron, 5-0, beating Patrick Chi and Aidan Hite in the last two rounds to take honors in the top section. Coxsackie had the top team in this section.
• The Under 1200 Championship section was unable to slow down Zubin Murerjee, 5-0. Alex Pospesel (3.5) beat Dilip Aaron (3) in Round 5 to close out second and third place, while Koushik Pernati (3) settled for fourth place on tiebreak points after beating Aditya Agashe in Round 5. 
• Joseph Bromley handily won the Under 800 Championship section with 4.5 points after beating out Andrew Wise (4) in Round 5.  Arielle Weinstein captured third place with her win over Ziqing Dong in Round 5. The Chinese School took the top team place in this section, followed closely by Menands, St. Pius X, and Giffen.  
• Brian Smith (3.5) stopped Paul Kwon (4-1) from a shutout in the Under 500 Championship section with a Round 5 knockout and settling the top two spots.  Shamanth Murundi (3.5) beat Tierra Fryar to claim third place.
• In the Non-member Gr 7-12 Championship section Siahr Siddiqi (5) beat Brook Nichols (4) to share first place with his brother Masoud Siddiqi (5). This section saw Albany High School outshine the competition, while Myers, Catskill and Livingston gave chase to finish second, third, and fourth.
• The Gr 4-6 Championship section saw Nicholas Lawless (4) rebound from a Round 3 loss to Charlie Chen (4) to take top place on tiebreak points. Yogi Kanakamedala of Glencliff (4) took third place. St. Mary of the Snow in Saugerties beat out the Chinese School and the Montessori School of Pine Hills in this team competiion. 
• The  Gr K-3 Championship section saw a four-way tie at 3.5 points, where Michael Raimo took first place over Mariel Calderon, Sophie Calderon and Sofia Fasullo. The Montessori School of Pine Hills went uncontested to first place team score in this division.

College of St. Rose, Oct. 27. This time the Chinese School jumped into first place in the team competition as things are really getting hot. 

• The Right Move 17 saw five strong players again chase Deepak Aaron, (5-0), in the Open Championship section only to find his undefeated streak continue. Patrick Chi (3.5) gave a draw to Zubin Mukerjee (2), while Siahr Siddiqi (3) took third place after losing to Deepak and Patrick. 
• Bernard Crawford (4.5) gave up a draw to Timothy Daly (4) as they settled first and second place in the Under 1200 Championship section. Aditya Agashe (3.5) drew with Evan Laccetti (3.5) for third and fifth place, while Alexander Fedorov (3.5) took fourth place on tie-break points.
• Arielle Weinstein (4.5) gave up a second round draw to Ziqing Dong for undisputed first place in the Under 800 Championship section. Yaswanth Bojja (4) lost to Jeremy Sepulveda (4), who in turn lost to Anmol Sharma (4) as the tie-break points determined second, third, and fourth place among them. 
• George Shi (4) escaped with only one loss to Mariel Calderon (3) to rank first in the Under 500 Championship section. David Ackerman, Anthony Raimo and Mariel Calderon all tied for second with three points, so the famous tie-break methods were employed.

Coxsackie, Nov. 3. 12th Capital District Scholastic Chess Championship.   Furious action paved the way!      

• Aidan Hite (5) beat Justin Pacuk (4) in Round 4 to settle first and second place in the Open Section of the Capital District Scholastic Chess Championship. Jonathon Goldson took sole possession of third place with 3.5 points.
• The Under 800 section had a three-way tie with William Meyer (4) beating Pratick Baral (4) but losing to Colin Scali (3), while Rifath Ahmed (4) lost to Arielle Weinstein (3.5). 
• Pirave Vyramuthu (4.5) won the Under 500 section, giving up a draw to Leonard Warren (3.5), third place. Kyle Warren took second place with a lone loss to Pirave in Round 3.

Latham, NYS Quick Chess Championship, Nov. 10.  The State Quick Chess Champion with a perfect 6-0 record belongs to Ronen Har-Zvi. Deepak Aaron wrestled into a clear second place with 4.5 points.  The Scholastic State Quick Chess Champion title belongs to Patrick Chi (6), with Joshua Jaffe (5) second and John Chidsey (4) third.

Latham, NYS Action Chess Championship, Nov. 10.  The New York State Action Chess Champion, with an unblemished 3.5 record, belongs to Ronen Har-Zvi, while Deepak Aaron finished a strong second with 3 points. Ken Evans tied for third with Maxim Siline with 2.5 points. The title for Scholastic NYS Action Champion belongs to Aidan Hite, who beat out Patrick Chi in the final round.  Eddie Merenda, Joshua Jaffe, Nils Wendel and Colin Scali all tied for second with 3 points.

Kingston, Nov. 17. 36th Kingston Classic.  Best School: St. Mary's of the Snow 16.5. (Nicholas Lawless 5, Jonathan Richman 5, Ethan Richman 4, Jacob Lawless 2.5)

• Open Rated Section.  Christopher Herries and Justin Pacuk led a field of 22 chessplayers with perfect 4-0 scores. A ten-minute game determined Christopher to be the winner of this 36th Kingston Championships.  The four players who tied for third are Aidan Hite, Nils Wendel, Benjamin Siper and Mathew Wetzler, all with 3-1 scores.
• Bernard Crawford rolled over the 16 competitors in the K-6 Rated Section with a perfect 4-0 score.  Tied for second place with 3-1 scores were Michael Liu, Jonathon Davidson, and Lorelei Smith.
• The Open Non-Rated KHS Championship belongs to Joshua Rodriguez from NFA, who obtained a perfect 5-0 record among the 16 players. Matt Rolando from Burke stood alone in second with 4-1, while six players tied for third with 3-2 scores.
• The K-6 Non-Rated KHS Championship title belongs to Nicholas Lawless and Jonathan Richman, who each outplayed a telented field of 22 players to finish with perfect 5-0 scores. Ethan Richman and Charles Restko tied for third with 4-1 scores, both having one loss to Nicholas.

Schenectady, Dec. 1. The Right Move 18 at Proctor's 

Team: 1st Chinese Community Center

• The first snowfall of the year brightened the sky as Proctor's in Schenectady saw Deepak Aaron predominate the Open section with five straight wins.  Aaron Stokes (3-2) captured second outright with his last round win over Evan Laccetti, while Bernard Crawford (2.5-2.5) gave up a last round draw to Brook Nichols and Zubin Mukerjee (2.5-2.5) lost to Alydaar Rangwala. 
• Michael Liu of Edson, Kingston, cruised to victory in the Under 1200 section with five straight wins.  Dilip Aaron took second place with 3.5 points, while Zachary Calderon took third place with 2.5 points.
• Arielle Weinstein led all 16 competitors with 4.5 points to win the Under 800  section.  A three-way tie for second place with 3.5 points had Jeremy Sepulveda, Anmol Sharma and Matthew Bell decide places by means of tie-break points.
• Nicholas Lawless went unscathed to a perfect 5-0 record in the Under 500 section.  Kyle Warren took second place with 4 points, while Brian Smith and Leonard Warren tied for third place with 3 points.
• Vishnu Adi broke through with a 5-0 record to lead the Non-Member Grade 7-12 section. Clear second place was won by Jimmy Yuan with 3.5 points, while third place had a three-way tie with 2.5 points by Troy Jenkins, Darin Hyman, and Ethan DiCintio.
• Jason Yuan and Kanakamedala Yogi varun shared first place in the Non-Member Grade 4-6 section with perfect 5-0 scores. Mark Kamm of St Pius X emerged as the third place winner with 3.5 points.
• Michael Raimo won first place in the Non-Member Grade K-3 with a perfect 5-0 score. A second place tie with 4 points was shared by Michael Zhou and Kevin Huang.

Kingston, Dec. 15.  Bailey's Chess Tournament.

• Zubin Mukerjee of Guilderland (5) won all five games over the 27 competitors in the top section of the JW Bailey school tournament held in Kingston. Tied for second place were Nicholas Lawless (St Mary, 4), Jonathan Goldson (Coxsackie, 4) and James Howard (Haviland, 4)  Arielle Wienstein and Michael Liu (3.5) rounded out the top winners in that section.
• Nathan Matteson of Bailey (5) beat out 40 other players to remain the only undefeated player in the Lower section. Geoffrey McGlinn (Anna Devine, 4.5) finished in clear second.  The five players with four points included Fieldina Water, Levi Usticke, Peter Gorman, Leonard Warren, and Sean Kelly. 

Saratoga, Dec. 29-30. K-8 State Grade Championships.

• New York State Grade Level Champions for 2007 are as follows:
• Alex Lenderman 5-0 Empire State OPEN Champion.   Deepak Aaron 3.5 (T7); U1900 Patrick Chi 3.5 (T23)
• Grade Level Champs:
• Gr 7-8 Vance Zuo             6.5    1509
• Gr 6    Justin Duda             7.0    1348
• Gr 5    Kevin Rosenberg    6.5    1824
• Gr 4    Timothy Duda         6.0    1060
• Gr 3    Daniel Pascetta       6.5    1295
• Gr 1-2 Reva Singh             6.5    1026

Schenectady, Jan. 12. The Right Move 19 at Proctor's

Team: 1st Chinese Community Center

• Deepak Aaron continued to show class and style, winning his 20th straight game in the open section.  Zubin Mukerjee emerged in second with two points, while third place tie with 1.5 had Justin Pacuk and Michael Liu.
• Zachery Calderon (4) beat Ziqing Dong (3) to edge out Alexander Fedorov (4) for first place in the Under 1200 section.  Third place went to Arielle Weinstein (3.5).
• Vishnu Adi (5.0) beat Jack Zhao to take first place in the Under 800 section. Second place went to Colin Scali (4) and Nicholas Lawless (4). 
• Jonathan Richman (4.5) set the pace in the Under 500 section, beating Eric Fischer to take top honors.  Second place went to Jason Yuan (4). Third place was shared by Ezra Beckman-Moore, Shamanth Murundi, and Yogi Kanakamedala with 3.5 points each.
• Jimmy Yuan took Grade 7-12 honors with four points in this small, almost round-robin section.  Matthew Lawrence of Gibbons took second place with 3.5 points, while Darin Hyman of Albany took third.
• Josh Li, Sean McHugh and David Luo each scored four points in the hotly contested Grade 4-6 section. Charlie Chen took the fourth place trophy with 3.5 points, while George Kolath of St Pius X got the fifth place trophy.
• Michael Zhou marched undefeated through the field to win first place in the Grade K-3 competition with five points. Second Place went to Noah John with 3.5, while undisputed third place went to Heaven Jones.

Kingston, Jan. 21. Mighty Pawns of St. Joseph/ Martin Luther King Jr #14

Team: 1st Place: St Joseph Mighty Pawns, 2nd Battling Bishops of St Mary of the Snow.

• Corey Sansola stole the show with five straight wins to take the top rated section.
• David Fletcher performed a perfect five wins in the lower rated section for clear first place.

Schenectady, Feb. 2. The Right Move 20 at Proctor's

Team: 1st Chinese Community Center, 3rd Martin Luther King

• Patrick Chi (5-0) won first place in the Open-Under 1200 combined section with his victory over Zubin Mukerjee (3). Second place Open went to Alydaar Rangwala (4) for his victory over Michael Liu (3). Zubin won the top U1200 spot, while Dilip Aaron (3) claimed second in the U1200 for beating Ziqing Dong (3).
• Jack Zhao (5-0) beat Yogi Kanakamedala (2.5) for the championship of the Under 800 section.  Nichaolas Lawless (3.5) beat Jonathan Richman for second, while Abhishek Sharma (3) took third place by defeating Shamanth Murundi .
• Robert Seth (5-0) crushed Jasmel Sepulveda (3) to claim first place in the Under 500 championship.  George Shi (4) took clear second with his victory over Anthony Raimo (2).  Alex Cao (3) won third place on tie-break points, beating Ezra Beckman-Moore (3) and Jasmel.
• Earl Co (4.5) beat Robert Lee Song (4) for clear first place in the Grade 7-12 championships. Fieldina Water (4) beat Mahindra Sing (2.5) to garner second place, while Scott Ditmars (3.5) jumped into third place with his victory over Marc Schiffres (2).
• Sarah Dennis (4.5) claims sole possession of the Grade 4-6 championship, beating Jerry Qu (4) in the final round. William Wang (4) took second place on Tie-break points by defeating Sean McHugh in the final round. Charlie Chen (4) won 4th place, beating Josh Li in round five.
• Thomas Kolath (4.5) took first place in the Grade K-3 section, beating Heaven Jones (3) to become undistputed king. Elijah Winfield (4) emerged in second place with four points with his victory over Noah John (3).

Schenectady, Mar. 1. The Right Move 21 at Proctor's Free (March comes in like a lion...Winter Storm) 

Team: 1st Chinese Community Center, 2nd St. Pius X, 3rd Martin Luther King

• Section A, Open and B, Under 1200, combined:  Three players tied with 4-0 scores as the A & B sections were combined in this 15 player field.  Justin Pacuk (4) beat out a determined Zubin Mukerjee (4) in the round five game that settled first and second place.  Jonathan Goldson (4) beat out Michael Liu for third place.   Aditya Agashe took first place in the B section with 3.5 points. Alexander Fedorov (3) beat Arielle Weinstein for second place, while William Wang (3) defeated Jason Pacuk to take third place.
• Section C, Under 800, and Section D, Under 500, combined: Nicholas Lawless (5-0) left no room for questions as to who owns this section, going undefeated in this combined section. Jonathan Richman (4) settled for second place with his victory over Anthony Benardo, beating out Jason Yuan (4) by tie-breaks.  Jason claimed his trophy by beating Michael Zhou in round five.
• Gr 6-7-8:   This section combined the Gr 6 with the Gr 7-12 based on the number of entries.  Jimmy Yuan cruised through the field with a perfect 5-0 record to claim his first place trophy.  Second place was earned by Kenny Cummines (4) for his fifth round defeat of Sean McHugh, while Mahindra Singh (3) claimed third place, having lost in his chance to duplicate the NY Giants by taking Jimmy Yuan away from his perfect record in round five.
• Gr 4-5:     George Kolath (4) finished undisputed second with his win over Jason Cotugno, while Matthew Kusche (3) beat out Jason (3) and Jeffrey Shen (3) and Quinn Lanciault (3) for the third place trophy based on tie-break points.
• Gr K-3: Thomas Kolath (4) won first place on tie-breakers over Keeshma Singh (4) in this closely contested section.  Jacob Lawless (3) lost to Keeshma in round 5 to finish in third place.

Saugerties, St Mary of the Snow, March 8

Team:  1st Battling Bishops of St. Mary of the Snow, 2nd Mighty Pawns of St. Joseph

• Gr 6-8:  Jordan Arnold (4), Michael Liu (4), and Jonathan Richman (4) grabbed a tie for the lead and were awarded first, second and third place in this 20-player field.  Troy Velie (3.5) won out over Vernon Kleinsasser (3.5) for fourth and fifth place.  Christopher Cangelosi (3) was awarded sixth place on tie-break points over three other players who also scored three points: Kyriacos Ouloupis, Amy Arnold, and Joe Carmody.  
• Gr 3-5:  Nicholas Lawless traveled undefeated to first place in this 29 player field. Four players finished with one loss: Sheldon Hofer (4) got second place, while Theo Ouloupis (4) took home third.  Ethan Richman (4) defeated Sheldon in round five, but had to settle for fourth place, while Tara Horton (4) won fifth place with her two draws and no losses.  Sixth place was earned by CJ Andola (3.5), who won out over Earnest Williams (3.5) on tie-break points.
• Gr K-2:  Jacob Lawless and Jax Mautone finished 1-2 with 4.5 points each in this 19 player field. Zachary Wesolowski (3.5) and Joseph Garozzo (3.5) settled for third and fourth place.  Fifth and sixth place were awarded to Evan Liu (3) and Jair Mautone (3) on tie-break points.

Saratoga, Mar. 15-16.  NYS Scholastic Championships.

In the High School section Deepak Aaron scored four points to tie for 7th place. In the Junior High section Vishny Adi scored two points to tie for 46th place  The Elementary section saw Patrick Chi earn 4.5 points and a tie for 6th place, while Zubin Mukerjee's three points netted him a tie for 35th.  Dilip Aaron and Ziqing Dong each scored 2.5 points to tie for 54th place. The Elementary Novice section had Jonathan Richman earn a tie for Third Place with 5 points, while Nicholas Lawless tied for 8th place with four points. Jacob Lawless scored 3 points to tie for 35th, while Danny Diaz and Amani Jones tied for 40th place with 2.5 points. Abhishek Sharma scored 2 points to tie for 45th place.  In the Primary section Jack Zhao eaned 3.5 points to tie for 16th place.  

Schenectady, Apr. 5. The Right Move 22 at Proctors Free

The team competition: Chinese Cultural Center 16.5, Kingston 16,Central Park MS 15.5, Martin Luther King 15, Montessori 11.5 

Aidan Hite (4.0) captured first place on tiebreak points over Richard Black (4.0) in the Open Section of The Right Move 22 at Proctors.  Ziqing Dong (4.5) needed only a draw against Zachary Calderon (2.5) for first place in the Under 1200 section. Dilip Aaron (4) got second, while Michael Liu (3) took third place with his victory over Andrew Wise. Vishnu Adi (5) beat Anthony Banardo (3) to dominate the Under 800 section. Jonathon Richman (4) took clear second place with his defeat of Abhishek Sharma (3). Jason Yuan (3) took third place on tie break points over a crowded field of champions. Four players tied for first with four points in the very competitive Under 500 section: Shamanth Murundi (1st), Ronald Perry II (2nd), Leonard Warren (3rd), and David Ackerman (4th).  Earl Co (4.5) and Ben Butryn (4.5) took 1st and 2nd Place in the Grades 7-12 section. Sam Boise was clear victor of 3rd by virtue of his 3.5 points. In the Grade 4-6 section, Josh Li (5) beat Sean McHugh (4) in fourth round action that provided 1st and 2nd place.  Alex Wei (4) won third place on tie break poiints over Charlie Chen (4) and Dinghan Zhang (4). In the Grade K-3 section Keeshma Singh claimed sole possession of first with 4.5 points, followed by Elijah Winfield with 4. Sophie Calderon (3.5) won 3rd Place on tie break points over JaQuan Mial (3.5) and Heaven Jones(3.5).

Albany, NYS Library: Empire State Plaza.  April 12. The Right Move 25 Free.  Doors Open at 10:00.  Four rounds starting at 10:30.

Menands Team scored 16 points to take first place from the Chinese Cultural Center, which had dominated for the past six Right Move tournaments.  The Open Section went to (David) Te-Ching Chen from Shaker (3.5), with Alydaar Rangwala (3, Albany Academy) in second and Matt Myers (2, Kingston) in third. Zachary Calderon (3, Sacandaga) led four players tied within the Under 1200 Section,  as Alex Pospesel (3, Catskill), Alexander Fedorov (3, Guilderland) and Jack Zhao (3, Chinese Cultural Center) settled for 2nd, 3rd, and 4th Place on tie-break points. Yaswanth Bojja (4) and Vishnu Adi (4) took First and Second Place in the Under 800 Section, while Hruthvik Bojja (3) beat out Anthony Banardo (3) and Jimmy Yuan (3) on tie-break points.  Yogi Kanakamedala (4) went undefeated to claim First Place in the Under 500 Section, with five players tied for second: (In tie-break order) Alex Cao, Michael Zhou, Amani Jones, Jared Scali and Kristofer Diacovo. Arman Hossain claimed First Place in the NonMember Grade 7-12 Section, with Rich Haines second and Scott Cote third.  Isaac Malski (4) took First Place in the NonMember Grade 4-6 Section, with David Luo (3.5) second. Mary Mahoney (3) won third on tie break over Michael Zhu, Ty-Jean Goodbee, Charlie Chen, and Sean Kusche. Kevin Huang (4) won First Place in the NonMember Grade K-3 Section, with Sumanth Gajjala (3) second and Alexander Kolath (2.5) third.

Menands, 19 Wards Lane. April 26. The Right Move 26 at Menands Free

Schenectady, May 5. The Right Move 23 at Proctors Free

The Chinese Cultural School captured first place in the team competition through a series of happenstance.  The NonMembers section did not have enough players for separate sections making the combined section with nine (9) trophies. However, this tended to favor the upper grades in the scoring, since they now competed against grades 4-6 and grades K-3.  Scorers awarded CCC with 31.5 points first place, while Central Park and ML King captured second and third.

In the combined A & B Section, Ziqing Dong (4) won first A, Brook Nichols (4) first B.  Yaswanth Bojja (3.5) won second place A, while Aditya Agashe (3) was awarded second place B. Nicholas Lawless (3) earned third place A with Alexander Fedorov (3) garnering third place B. Jonathen Richman (4) won tie-break points over Jason Yuan (4) and Anthony Bernardo (4) and Chen Qu (4) for the Under 800 section. Kenneth Cummines (4), George Kolath (4) and Michael Zhou (4) split the trophies for first, second and third with their courageous play in the Under 500 section. NonMember results to follow

Coming up soon--               Sat., Sun. Chess Among the Tulips May 12-13 in Washington Park.  Invite Mom to play chess for Mother's Day!

Grand Picnic with Awards - May 21 Wednesday 4:00-7:00 *** Chess Player of the Year 2008 and Chess Coach of the Year 2008   Award for the Best Player from each school, etc.

Schenectady, May 31. The Right Move 24 at Martin Luther King School, Free