December, 2005

Austin Area Students Play Well at 2005 National K-12 Championships!

The results of the National K-12 Championships are in and “somewhat filtered” to reveal how well the Austin participants fared. If you find that your name was left out of this report, please notify us and we'll correct what we have displayed here ASAP!

Counting the one Collegiate entry, Austin fielded some 59 players (about 4% of the 1578 players total) who scored about 54%, and picked up some 1634 rating points (averaging +29! each!) based on the unofficial rating report included in the posted USCF cross-tables of the event.

There were Austin Area players in each section but 11 th Grade. Each section is summarized below … the first column is the player's final standing, the third column is his/her ‘tied for' position, and the fourth column is the player's total “score” out of 7 rounds(including Byes, etc.) …

Finish First ... Last Name Score Place Prize   Kindergarten – Austin had 3 of 57 players #20   Fletcher Barnhill   4   3 rd   U1000 1 st Grade – Austin had 3 of 111 players #34   Dustin Chang,   4   3 rd   U600 #40   Saavan Nanavati   4 2 nd Grade – Austin had 7 of 117 players #26   Keith James   4.5   2 nd   U1000 #30   Henry Barnstone   4.5   1 st   U600 St. Andrews – 5 th Place Team: Henry Barnstone, Katherine Baker, Cole Baker, Andres Sanchez 3 rd Grade – Austin had 2 of 174 players #56   Daniel Sweeny   4 #68   Sunay Nanavati   4 4 th Grade – Austin had 7 of 208 players #13   Derek Chang   5.5   13 th #33   Advaith Anand   5   33 rd #38   Venkatesh Dagupati   4.5 #39   Dylan James   4.5 #46   Steven Chen   4.5   1 st   U1000 #54   Brandon Johnson   4.5 #66   Dhurv Garg   4 5 th Grade – Austin had 7 of 162 players #19   George Qi   5   19 th #42   Eric Zhang   4.5 #55   Eric Chen   4 #59   Russell Yang   4 #73   Jeffrey Wylie   4 Laurel Mountain Elementary took 3 rd Place Team (George Qi, Eric Chen and Russell Yang) 6 th Grade – Austin had 8 of 166 players #13   Christian Lay   5.5   13 th #14   Matthew Liu   5   14 th #23   Danny Chen   5   23 rd #25   Eric Lu   5   25 th #37   Serena Zadoo   4.5 Canyon Vista MS – 2 nd Place Team: Christian Lay, Matthew Liu, Danny Chen, Eric Lu, Eric Hung 7 th Grade – Austin had 4 of 141 players #10   Alexander Balkum   5   10 th 8 th Grade – Austin had 10 of 137 players #18   Andrew Nguyen   5 #24   Sean Li   4.5 #39   Kevin Lu   4.5 #48   Nathan Halaney   4   2 nd   U1200 #53   Sanjna Zadoo   4 Canyon Vista MS 4 th Place Team: Andrew Nguyen, Sean Li, Balam Budwal, Jimmy Wu, Jonathan Chang, Steven Lee 9 th Grade – Austin had 2 of 67 players #13   Steven King   4.5 #25   Efren Cruzada   4 10 th Grade – Austin had 3 of 77 players #14   Yi Zhang   4.5 #17   Michael Yaroshevich   4.5   1 st   U1600 12 th Grade – Austin had 1 of 55 players #9   Austen Green   5   9 th Collegiate – Austin had 1 of 28 players #10   Jeff Sneeden   4   10 th

See the official website for complete tables andt results.

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November, 2005

Austin Students Excel at 9th Annual Texas K-12 Grade Championships! …

Austin area scholastic players made a fine showing at the Texas State Grade Championships held in Plano over the weekend of November 19-20. The flyer for the tournament allowed that the top ten individuals and top five teams would be awarded trophies … but medals were awarded to those tying with the 10th place trophy winners …

As a bit of a disclaimer … we did not have a reporter at the event: all the following information was derived from the results posted at the Dallas CC website. It is quite possible that we missed some Austin Area players, having only the team names to use as a filter. Some players did not claim a team, for example, and some school names/locations were not 100% clear as indicators … if we missed anyone, please let us know and we'll fix it ASAP!

In the Kindergarten Section, Advaith Anand's younger sister, Akshara (the only Austin player in the field of 17) made her USCF debut, scoring a wonderful 3 points – she tied equal 7th -11th … and took the 9th place team spot for her school, St. Francis!

In the First Grade Section (37 players) there was a four-way tie for first (5 points) and a seven-way tie for second (4 points) … of this second group, Saavan Nanavati of Laurel Mountain Elementary was awarded 5th : he had beaten one of the top finishers on the way, and lost to “fourth” in the last round. His teammate Dustin Chang scored 3 points, and their combined scores took the third place team trophy! Pouya Mahammadi ( St. Andrews ) also scored 3.

Austin was well represented in the Second Grade Section (55 players): Austin Jiang (Steiner Ranch Elementary – 8th place) scored 4.5 in his 3rd -ever event (his 2nd event was the G30 event the night before!) – he and his brother Alex (3 points) formed the 6th place team … missing the 5th place trophy by a few tie-breaking points, which was taken instead by a 3-kid team from Houston's chess-crazy Village School!

St. Andrews, however, seized the 3rd place team prize: Cole Baker (tied 9th-18th ) led with 4 points, with his sister Katherine, Derek Hsu and Henry Blackstone adding 3 points each to their total. Singletons Keith James (Austin Area Homeschoolers), who took the 9th place individual honors with 4 points, and Brian Tung ( Laurel Mountain ), who scored 3 points in this, his first USCF event, deserve kudos as well!

There were four one-kid teams from Austin in the 3rd Grade Section (55 players): Aakaash Rao (Ace Academy) and Daniel Sweeney (Trinity Episcopal) each scored 4 points, tying 8th -18th, while Sunay Nanavati (Laurel Mountain) and Justin Zhang (Kiker Elementary) scored 3 each.

The Fourth Grade Section (54 players) saw nine Austin participants. No less than three of them, Dylan James (1st ! – Austin Area Homeschoolers), Derek Chang (3rd – Laurel Mountain) and Venkie Dagupati (4th – Spicewood Elementary) tied 1st -6th with 5 points each! Adding Kevin Xie's 3.5 and Andy Wang's 3 to Derek's score earned their school the 3rd place team trophy. The 7th place team spot was gained when Dylan's well deserved victory was combined with teammate Ashley Balkum's result of 2 points … which placed her in a group of players averaging some 300 points above her rating!

Three other ‘singletons' (i.e., besides Venkie) played: Dhurv Garg (Great Oaks Elementary, Round Rock) scored 4 points (tied 8th-16th ), Advaith Anand (St. Francis) finished with 3, and Pooshan Shah (Great Oaks Elementary, Austin) marked up 2 points in his first USCF event. Question … are there two area schools called Great Oaks? I think that Dhurv and Pooshan were actually on a team together, but didn't miss a trophy as such!?]

Austin was also well represented in the Fifth Grade Section (60 players). George Qi (4th ) and Russell Yang (5th – both from Laurel Mountain ) scored 5 points, putting them in a three-way tie for third. Along with teammates Leo Zeng (4 tied 10th-17th ) and Eric Chen (3), they snatched the 1st place team trophy! Jeffrey Wylie (representing the Austin Area Homeschoolers with 4 points – also tied 10th-17th ), Eric Zhang (Spicewood – scoring 3.5), and John Chilleri (Blackland Prarie Elementary, Round Rock) were the singletons.

The Sixth Grade Section (55 player) saw a “one-two” finish by Austinites! Matthew Liu scored the only 5.5, while Serena Zadoo (Kealing) shared her score with only one other … but she took the 2nd place honors on tiebreaks! Matthew, along with teammates Eric Lu (4 tied 9th-16th), Leon Otis (3.5) and Varun Koneru took the 2nd place team trophy back to Canyon Vista Middle School .

One other Austin team played in this section … the Austin Area Homeschoolers sent an all girl team comprised of Stephanie Sutton and Kailynn Balkum. Hill Country MS was represented by Michael Rosenthal (3) and Trinity Episcopal by Thomas Sweeney.

Now, of the 36 players in the Seventh Grade Section, homeschooler Alexander Balkum came in tied 1st-4th with players ranging from 160 to 360 points higher … and he won the 1st place trophy! David Bian (Canyon Vista) was the only other local player in this group … his 2.5 is far better than it looks, as he lost only to players rated from 250-900 points higher, and his draw was with someone rated 650 above him!

In the Eighth Grade Section (35 players), clear first was won by Canyon Vista student Sean Li (5.5)! In the six-way tie for 5th, Sanjna Zadoo (Kealing) took home 7th. Roger Yamada of St. Gabriels Catholic School narrowly missed a 50 percent score (2.5 of 6) …

Austin had no representatives in the Ninth Grade Section …but, in the 27 player Tenth Grade Section (28 players), Yi Zhang (4.5) of Westwood took 2nd in a four-way tie. His compatriot Jimmy Jin scored 3 in the Eleventh Grade Section, going from “unrated” to 1600! Westwood's ‘final' entry, the redoubtable Peter Tu, who volunteers his time and skills so generously to the Laurel Mountain (and Chinese School ) Chess Club, tied 1st -3rd (but placing 3rd on tiebreaks) in the Twelfth Grade Section !

See the official website for complete tables andt results.