The US Chess Federation held the National K-12 Grade Championships from December 9 to 12, 2022, in National Harbor, Maryland.
Several Chess Gaja students participated in this prestigious annual national tournament, with 2500 participants from 42 states in the United States, which is a record for this event.
In the 3rd grade section, we had Aryan, who scored 4.5 out of 7 points.
Vijay, Anish, and Shriyan participated in the 5th Grade Championship section.
Vijay finished 4th with a score of 6 out of 7 points, having only two draws and no losses. Vijay went into the tournament’s final round tied for first place, but a draw against Andrew meant he could only finish 4th in the tiebreaks.
Vijay
This is the 2nd consecutive year that Vijay has come close to winning the National Championship. This performance in the tournament increased his rating from 1924 to 1928.
Anish scored 5.5 out of 7 points finishing 16th in the Final Rankings. Shriyan, who had a solid start to the event with a 3/3, faltered in the 2nd half to finish with a score of 4.5 out of 7 rounds.
Rohan competed in the 6th Grade Championship section and scored 3.5 out of 7 points, increasing his rating from 975 to 1014. His highlight performance in the tournament was the draw he made against Erica (rated 1546), which was a big upset performance.
Neil and Mihika both participated in the 7th Grade Championship section. Neil had an amazing tournament as he had 4 consecutive wins in the 2nd half of the event, and 2 of those wins were against Will (rating 2028) and Nikash (rating 1979). Neil ended with a score of 6/7 and increased his rating from 1791 to 1849.
Neil
Mihika scored 4.5 out of 7 points, and on her path to scoring 4.5, she beat Shravan (rated 1813) and drew Adhiraiyan (rated 1850). Her strong performance helped her gain 49 rating points, and Mihika is currently at her career-high USCF rating.
Mihika
In the 8th Grade Championship section, Vaseegaran finished in 4th place. He had a strong performance, winning his first four games. However, he lost his fifth game against Ryan (rated 2072). He then went on to win his last two games, which helped increase his rating from 2154 to 2155. Overall, Vaseegaran had a great showing in the championship.
Adithya competed in the 9th Grade Championship section and scored 4.5 out of 7 points. Despite facing tough competition, Adithya was able to hold his own and earn two draws against higher-rated players Aniket (rated 2117) and Dhruv (rated 2104).
Adithya
Varun competed in the 11th Grade Championship section and scored 3.5 out of 7 points. He lost two of his games against higher-rated players Adhvaith (rated 2142) and Alperen (rated 2225).
Well done to all participants! We wish you the best of luck in your future chess tournaments.
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