2026 Labor Day Weekend Wrap-Up

Editor’s note: Since becoming Digital Editor for Chess Life Online, I have dreamt of publishing more regular wrap-ups of the sorts of events that are eligible for our Plan Ahead Calendar (as well as invitational tournaments).

Do you want coverage of your tournament on Chess Life Online for future reporting or wrap-ups?

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For concluded tournaments, please include links to or screenshots of final standings, as well as links to DGT games or attached, transcribed game scores from 1-3 games of winners. Photos of the tournament and of winners is also a plus (cell phone photos are fine for online publication).

CCC Labor Day 2026 Norm Invitational

Games | Results | Event Information | MUIR

Holiday weekends in Charlotte typically involve a major, FIDE-rated open event and some norm invitationals for good measure, and this Labor Day weekend was no exception. In the GM-A section, Texas’s GM Viktor Matviishen won the event with a 6½/9 score and FM Harshin Reddy Jagirapu of New Mexico earned his second IM norm with a 5/9 performance. 

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Harshin Reddy Jagirapu of New Mexico earned his second IM norm over the holiday weekend. (Photo courtesy CCC/Kelly Centrelli)

Jagirapu’s strength was on display all weekend, particularly in this win against highly skilled IM (and sometimes Chess Life Online correspondent) IM Robert Shlyakhtenko:

The GM-B section — won by Moldovan GM Ivan Schitco — did not produce any norms, but norms are only half the battle. While Ethan Sheehan didn’t earn a norm, his even score did allow him to cross 2400 FIDE for the first time, bringing him one step closer to the IM title thanks to another impressive showing in Charlotte. 

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Ethan Sheehan crossed the rating threshold for the IM title last weekend. (Photo courtesy CCC/Kelly Centrelli)

Sheehan’s winning combination of speed and tenacity was even enough to grind down a grandmaster:

GM Vladimir Georgiev won the IM section with a 6½/9 score, a half-point ahead of GM Gabor Nagy and FM Nitesh Cherukuri. 

2026 Fall Southeastern FIDE

Games | Results | Event Information | MUIR

Texas’s GM Julio Sadorra won the open leg of CCC’s Labor Day festivities with a 4½/5 score, a half-point ahead of three players tied for second with 4/5. 

Virginia’s Arav Srivastava didn’t make it easier for the University of Texas at Dallas trainer, however:

116 players competed across three sections, not counting a 73-player blitz tournament won by GM Olexandr Bortnyk. 

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Olexandr Bortnyk (L) during the blitz. (Photo courtesy CCC/Kelly Centrelli)

2026 NY Marshall Labor Day Norm Invitationals

Games | Official Website | MUIR: GM A, IM B, Qualifier

Speaking of norms! Czech GM Vojtech Plat won the GM section with a 6½/9 score, a half-point ahead of FM Bryan Lin. 

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Plat (L) against Kevin George. (Photo courtesy of Alex Ostrovskiy)

Lin was still in contention for a GM norm entering Round 8 and needed 1½/2 to clinch. Not an easy feat, but, in Round 8, he found himself in a winning position (+4) against FM Zachary Tanenbaum. 

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Lin (L) in a key game against Tanenbaum. (Photo courtesy of Alex Ostrovskiy)

With 50 minutes on his clock compared to just one minute for his opponent, everything was going Lin's way. But in a dramatic turnaround, Tanenbaum actually won the game, ending Lin's norm hunt.

In an epic 157-move Round 9 game that lasted five hours, Tanenbaum won on demand against IM Tani Adewumi to clinch an IM norm of his own. 

Organizer IM Alex Ostrovskiy described Tanenbaum's back-to-back wins over 2500s (the first from a lost position) as "probably the most epic norm result in NYCNorms history."

In the IM section, FM Shaaketh Sivakumar started 1/3, then won five straight and found himself in contention for an IM norm if he could make it six in a row. He drew, missing out on the norm, but his 6.5/9 score won the tournament.

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Sivakumar (R) in his pivotal game against Paragua. (Photo courtesy of Alex Ostrovskiy)

A cool thing about these tournaments is the addition of a Qualifier section. The winner of this section gets a slot in the next IM norm tournament. This time, the young Rishith Bhoopathi, who turned 12 last month, won clear first with 4/5 and earned his spot in the next IM norm RR.

The next NYCNorms event will be in mid-January, and the organizers will be hosting a Swiss later this month.

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Tanenbaum (R) with IO Keith Espinosa and his norm certificate. (Photo courtesy of Alex Ostrovskiy)

2026 Harvey Lerman Florida State Championship

Games | Results | Official Website | MUIR

16-year-old FM Brejesh Chakrabarti is Florida’s 2026 state champion! Chakrabarti’s 5½/6 score put him a half-point ahead of 17-year-old Arav Patel, who in turn was a half-point ahead of a group of five players tied for third with 4½/6. Chakrabarti’s critical win over Jacorey Bynum is annotated below:

273 players competed across five sections, and both the Open and Under-2050 sections were FIDE-rated. The presence of an Under-2050 section for a state championship speaks to Florida’s strength as a state, and it’s only getting stronger. Every player in the top seven was a teenager except for CM Yi Sha…who is 12.

92nd Southwest Open

Games | Results | Official Website | MUIR

Colombian GM Joshua Daniel Ruiz Castillo won the San Antonio staple with a 6½/7 score, a half-point ahead of FM Logan Shafer. 

The top two finishers were the only players with national ratings over 2300 and drew their head-to-head game. But Shafer was held to a draw in Round 3 by Oscar Yihang Zhang while Ruiz Castillo ran the tables the rest of the event. Even attempts to trick the grandmaster out of the opening left him unbothered:

172 players competed across three sections, not counting 37 additional players across three scholastic sections.

2026 Illinois Open State Championship

Games | Results | Event Information | MUIR (Scholastic)

Held alongside the 2026 U.S. Cadet Championship in Lisle, IL, 301 players competed across six sections of the Illinois Open, not counting an additional 123 scholastic participants! 

Cuban IM Liordis Quesada Vera and Mongolian FM Lkhagvajamts Ochirbat, who both currently reside in Illinois, shared top honors with 7/9 scores in the Championship section. 

Against Quesada Vera, Ochirbat survived a rare tactical sideline in the Queen’s Gambit Declined, punishing the Cuban’s only inaccuracy and following it up with flawless play.

This event saw some of the best in the Midwest come out to compete, and Quesada Vera got to experience how difficult it is to defeat the talented youngster WFM Irene Fei of Iowa, even when things seem to be going well:

2026 Colorado Open State Championship

Games | Results | Event Information | MUIR

FM Sullivan McConnell warmed up for the 3^rd FIDE Olympiad for People with Disabilities by tying for first in his home state’s championship, joined by Orgil Batsaikhan on 4½/5. 

Batsaikhan’s back-and-forth French in the final round pushed him to the limit and proved him a worthy co-champion.

187 players competed across four sections.

2026 Michigan Open

Results | Event Information | MUIR

161 players competed across three sections in the Michigan Open, and IM Joshua Posthuma won the state championship title on the third tiebreak over Jesse Ren.

Ren actually defeated Posthuma in Round 6, taking a half-point lead into the final round. But Ren yielded a second draw while Posthuma won his sixth game, leaving the pair tied at 6/7. Posthuma also won Saturday’s Michigan Speed Championship. 

The Reserve Under-1800 section had a clear winner in Ariz Abbas. In the shorter two-day Booster Under-1200 section, Ishaan Varunjikar took first place on tiebreaks over Cornelius Ray. 

85th New England Open

Results | Event Information | MUIR

FM Danila Poliannikov won the 85^th New England Open with a 5/6 score. 208 players competed across five sections, including 41 in the ultra-competitive top section. 

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Danila Poliannikov is the 2026 New England Open Champion. (Photo courtesy of the organizers)

IM Denys Shmelov entered the fifth round a half-point behind Poliannikov and held him to a draw to stay in the chase. Poliannikov indeed drew again in Round 6 — against GM Alexander Ivanov — but Shmelov was held to a third draw, this time by FM Adarsh Jayakumar, giving Poliannikov the outright title by a half-point. 

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Adarsh Jayakumar (center) and Denys Shmelov (right) discuss their hard-fought final round draw with Alexander Ivanov. This result left Danila Poliannikov alone in first place. (Photo courtesy of the organizers)

Shmelov and Jayakumar were joined by Sho Glashausser and Noah Van Vugt in a tie for second.

For more on this event, check out Chess Chat! George Mirijanian has hosted the hour-long weekly program on local cable access channel on FATV since 2006, and Monday's episode features games from the tournament.

There were at least six more tournaments with competitive top sections and at least 100 players, all detailed below. If you think your event should be added to this list, or if you have photos or annotated games from any of the events below, please email Click here to show email address and I’ll update this report. 

148th Annual NY State Championship

Results | Event Information | MUIR

IM Josiah Stearman is the New York state championship after going 5½/6, yielding only a draw to Deepak Aaron, finishing a half-point ahead of Connor Junda Wang. 88 players competed in the top section with an additional 249 competing across four more sections (including an impressive Under-2100 section, a testament to New York’s strength).

2026 Virginia Closed Chess Championships

Results | Official Website | MUIR

Locals only! FMs Jason Morefield and Kyle Zhuang tied for first with 5/6 scores at the only state championship last weekend limited only to in-state residents. 45 players competed in the top section and were joined by 76 players from two more sections. 

2026 CALCHESS STATE OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP

Results | Event Information | MUIR

IM Eric Li delivered a dominant performance in Milpitas, going 6½/7 to claim the title by a full point, ahead of GM Enrico Silvillano, no less! 58 players competed in the 2000-plus top section, with 159 more between 1600-1999 and 1000-1599 sections.

NJ Open 2026

Official Website | MUIR (Scholastic)

GMs Joel Benjamin and MacKenzie Molner were joined by Mark Kernighan atop the New Jersey Open. Benjamin and Molner each conceded draws in Round 4 — to Roman Rychkov and Austin Zhao, respectively — and a winner in their last-round head-to-head encounter would claim clear first. But their draw allowed Kernighan, rated roughly 300 points below the grandmasters, to catch the leaders with a fourth straight victory. 91 players competed in the top section, along with 249 more players between the Under-2000 and Under-1400 sections. That’s not even counting an additional 170 players from the scholastic sections! 

76^th Oregon Open

Results | Event Information | MUIR (Junior)

GM Aryan Tari won the Oregon Open with a 5½/6 score. His only draw was against Austin Tang, who finished in outright second place a half-point back. WGM Zoey Tang, FM Nick Raptis, and Jason Cigan tied for third with 4½/6 scores in the 46-player top section. 181 players across four more sections joined the field, not counting an additional 102 scholastic challengers!

12th Annual Phoenix Open

Results | Event Information | MUIR

Stephen Adams won the Phoenix Open with a 5½/6 score, a half-point ahead of GM Ehsan Ghaem Maghami after the pair drew their fifth-round match-up. Maghmai also conceded a draw to Aayansh Guntaka, who turned 11 years old earlier this year. A total of 189 players competed across four sections.

Making plans for your next holiday weekend? Many of these events are listed on our Plan Ahead Calendar page, including several around Thanksgiving. And if you have a major event (US Chess National Tournament or an event with a guaranteed prize fund of at least $5000), let us know as soon as possible by emailing Click here to show email address.