2026 National Chess Day Wrap-Up

Just counting events with “National Chess Day” in the title on MUIR, affiliates hosted 40 rated tournaments around the country with 1,791 chessplayers competing on Saturday, Oct. 10. This does not include dozens more tournaments held that weekend and even more National Chess Day (NCD) non-rated events, exhibitions, and meet-ups.

Below is a wrap-up of some of the many events, as submitted by organizers. We have also added some information about tournaments held close to NCD by organizers that hosted NCD events.

Feel free to share more information and photos to Click here to show email address, and keep an eye out for updates to this page.

Atlantic Chess Association: Princeton NCD Open and Blue Ridge Open

By Shilpa Vaidya

Princeton National Chess Day Open

Atlantic Chess Association (ACA) organized a large tournament for NCD in Princeton, NJ. 47 players competed across two FIDE-rated sections (final standings) and 72 players competed across six additional sections (final standings). Games from the top boards of the top FIDE section can be viewed on both Chess.com and Lichess. Noreen Harkins was the chief arbiter for this event.

This was the first time ACA conducted a tournament with score-based prizes, where prizes were guaranteed for all players to score a set number of points for any plus score. There are a number of advantages of this approach.

Most importantly, players could receive prizes as soon as their game ended. They didn’t have to wait for other games in their section to finish. There were no lost checks in the mail either.

Secondly, the prizes are not split. So, even if there are multiple players with the same score, everyone gets the full amount. We even had an additional bonus for clear first place. Our experience running an event this way was that there were no quick draws and there was a general sense that games were of higher quality.

The big winner, Ansh Shah, with organizer Shilpa Vaidya. (All photos courtesy of the organizers)

In the Premier section, Ansh Shah came very close to scoring 5/5 and winning $1,600. After four wins, Cael Province held Shah to a draw in the last round. Shah still won $800 for a 4½/5 score plus a $300 bonus for finishing in clear first.

Province and Nivaan Shrivastava each scored 4/5 to win $400 apiece. WFM Lacey Wang, Neil Natarajan, Yegna Jandhyala and Aayansh Pramanik all scored 3½/5 to earn $150 each.

The Under-2100 section (which was also FIDE-rated) had an interesting outcome: Five players tied with 3/5 scores! The co-winners were WCM Charlotte Chang, Avaneesh Nulu, Tyler Wang, Mofei Qu, and Armaan Chainani.

From left: Mofei Qu, Tyler Wang, and Charlotte Chang were three of the five co-winners in the Under-2100 section.

Tyler Wang and Charlotte Chang — From left: Mofei Qu, Tyler Wang, and Charlotte Chang were three of the five co-winners in the Under-2100 section.

In the nine-round FIDE-rated blitz section, Ariv Debmisra was the clear winner with a score of 8/9. Aaryan Mummidi came in second, a full point back, and Akil Kumar Murugan — the only player who managed to beat Debmisra — won the class prize.

Akil Kumar Murugan (L) and Ariv Debmisra with their prizes from the FIDE-rated blitz event.

In the Under-1900 section, Augusto Gutierrez won the first three rounds easily, guaranteeing a payday. Consecutive draws against Atharva Haldankar and Vishnu Guha saw him finish with a 4/5 score, earning $300. With a win against Arav Kumar in the final round, Haldankar also finished with a 4/5 score and $300 prize.

In the Under-1700 section, Srijan Elanchezhian had to leave, taking a zero-point bye in the last round when he already scored 3½/4. Ellison Zhang and Emma Shevelenko both tied Elanchezhian on 3½/5, each winning $100.

In the Under-1500 section, James Kim scored 4/5 and took home $325 (including a $75 bonus for clear first). His last game with Luka Kivich was the most challenging game, and he did not expect to win. He was very happy after he won the game and even more when he found out that he won an extra bonus too!

In the Under-1300 section, Zicheng Zhong and Timothy Wainscott tied for first with 4/5 scores, each winning $125. The Under-1000 section saw Karl Moreton and Avyan Gupta tied with a score of 4 points, each taking home $75. Scholastic winners were: Reyaansh Rana (1st Place), Aayush Washimkar (2nd Place), George Xu (3rd Place) and David Chen (4th Place).

Overall, the implementation of score-based prizes led to a smooth event where players enjoyed playing chess and celebrating National Chess Day!

Blue Ridge Open

Three weeks before NCD, ACA organized the 3rd Annual Blue Ridge Open from September 18-20 in Dulles, VA. Over 100 players attended, coming from Texas to Massachusetts to the Carolinas. As usual, many young players participated and won prizes. Standings are available here for the FIDE-rated sections and here for the remaining sections.

Games from the top boards can be viewed on bothChess.com and lichess. FA Peter Craney was the chief arbiter for this event.

Vaibhav Kalpaka took clear first in the Blue Ridge Open ahead of two grandmasters.

In the top section, more than a third of the field were FIDE-titled players, and FM Vaibhav Kalpaka won clear first with a score of 4½/5. His winning streak came to an end only in the last round with a draw against Kevin Wang.

Four players tied for second place: GM Jianchao Zhou, FM Gabriel Petesch, Kevin Wang, and WCM Eliza Tereshchenko. This was Tereshchenko’s first major tournament in the U.S., and she performed very well, defeating some of the best players in the tournament.

The last-round game between GM Jianchao Zhou and GM Mark Paragua was a treat for chess lovers, and Kalpaka has annotated the game in detail.

The “fan favorite” game came on Friday night, when a crowd gathered around Landon Meadors as he delivered a very unusual checkmate with only two knights. Without any pawns, two knights is not enough to deliver mate. Unless the opponent has a pawn, that is!

In the Under-2000 section, Everitt Ross Clark took clear first. In his words, he paid no attention to prizes and just played one game at a time giving his best. I heard a similar sentiment from Kalpaka, who said that his mindset was to take every game individually and play each one for a win.

In the Under-1600 section, unrated player Philip O'Keefe came in first place with a clear 5/5 score. O’Keefe loves to play chess and plays online most of the time. This was his first over- the- board tournament and he enjoyed the experience very much. We can expect to see more of him, and his provisional rating is already 1905!

The Under-1200 section saw a tie between Ryan Su and Catelin Salas for first place with a score of 4/5.

As usual, a nine-round FIDE-rated blitz took place Saturday night. Players love this tradition, and this one was was very special because two grandmasters participated.

Blitz winner Jianchao Zhou (center) and runner-up Mark Paragua.

Of course, Zhou and Paragua ran away with the tournament, scoring 8½/9 and 8/9, respectively. However, the experience of playing a GM in a fast-paced game is thrilling for most young players, even if they lose.

The Blue Ridge Scholastic side event took place on Sunday. Moises Guzman-Robles and Henry Salas tied for first place. Henry played in the Under-1200 section as well as the scholastic, showing how passionate these kids are when it comes to playing as much chess as possible.

24th Holly Heisman Memorial

By Joshua Anderson

The 24th Holly Heisman Memorial was a rocking affair! Literally, a dance party for a one-year-old occurred elsewhere in the hotel during the early afternoon rounds. Despite the raucousness from the party above, not a single person left the tournament, and the players' attitudes were mostly those of cooperation, bemusement, and making the best of a bad situation.

This sort of positivity pervades one of my favorite events of the year, as the community comes together to honor Dan Heisman’s first wife, Holly. As it does every year, the tournament accepts donations from companies, local clubs, and individuals and uses them as prizes. These donors range from internationally known organizations like Chess.com and House of Staunton to local businesses like Main Line Chess and Games, clubs like Tri-Bridges Chess Club, and individuals like Jon Crumiller.

Matt O’Brien, winner of the Open section, had first pick of the prizes and chose Crumiller’s donation, The Horta-Osorio Collection of Antique Chess Sets, Volume 1: India, by Antonio Horta-Osorio and Jonathan Crumiller (2026 winner of the Chess Journalists of America’s Best Self-Published book prize), as the first prize. In clear second was FM Dirk Troltenier, with FM Karl Dehmelt, Tanay Parripati, and Joseph Mucerino just a half-point back.

The Under-1500 section had our only 5/5 score: eight-year-old Hyindhav Murugesh. Only NM Shawn Wang was younger (at age seven) when he won the section in 2012.

At age eight, Hyindhav Murugesh won what might be his last-ever Under-1500 tournament!

Kenneth Murray and Dhanvin Amirishetti followed Murugesh by a point. Justin Migueis won the K-8 Under-900, with Zander Wister and Rannvijay Padhi just a half point back.

Over the past 24 years, this event has raised well over $200,000, and we are already working to make the 25th our biggest year yet!

2026 FEMchess X Fremont Chess Collab for National Chess Day + Empowering Girls In Chess!

By Kavya Meiyappan

Two October tournaments brought together more than 140 young chess players while providing opportunities for girls in chess.

Special thanks to IA Judit Sztaray and Maddie Lejean from Chess.com for providing us the opportunity to give all participants across both events a one-month free ChessKid Gold Membership!

National Chess Day - Fremont Chess X FEMchess - October 11, 2026

On October 11, with over 80 kids in attendance, Fremont Chess collaborated with FEMchess to host the Second Annual Fremont Chess Festival for K-12 chessplayers in celebration of NCD! Thanks to Ava Community Energy, this event was free for all participants

With the help of our wonderful panel of volunteers and TDs including Pranavi Pramod, Swagatha Selvam, Jason Liu, Zhipeng Li, and many other volunteers, the event was a success, and it was a pleasure to serve as Chief TD.

View of the playing hall.

Simuls were conducted during the rounds for parents to compete as well with the help of three FMs: Aditya Arutla, Lucas Jiang, and Henry Deng. Together they were able to host a fun and entertaining simul for over 20 parents! Arutla and Jiang in particular are Mission San Jose Elementary’s (MSJE) Chess Club alumni, adding an additional local connection.

In addition to the simul, a raffle was also held at the end of the tournament right before the awards ceremony. We thank Ava Community Energy and Think Zone Learning Center Fremont for providing the prizes for the raffle! The top prize was a $50 electricity bill credit from Ava Community Energy, and while the middle-schooler who won it may have been more excited about his top-three finish in the K-8 Championship section, we’re sure his parents are happy to see him pitching in with the bills!

One of five raffle prize winners.

Concluding the event, the trophy ceremony for all participants was held in which the top five of each section received a trophy!The full results are available here.

From left: Saul Gonzalez, winner of the K-8 Under-1000 Section with TD Pranavi Pramod. Louis Liu, winner of the K-5 Under-800 Section with TD Swagatha Selvam . Xiaoxi Sha, winner of the K-8 Championship Section with TD Kavya Meiyappan. (Photos courtesy Gautham Muthukumar)

2026 All-Girls Scholastic Championship - FEMchess X Fremont Chess - October 18, 2026

The following weekend, on Oct. 18, FEMchess collaborated with Fremont Chess to host another all-girls scholastic tournament! As always, FEMchess continues to empower young women in chess by providing tournaments that are free and accessible to all girls.

Round 1 of the Championship section.

A huge shoutout to our TDs who made this event possible including, Chief Assistant TD Rakshita Dhanasekar, Assistant TD Pranavi Pramod, TD Zhipeng Li, and many more volunteers. Each person pitched in to help make this event successful and many were involved in the planning since months before the event, and, from my perspective as Chief TD, everything went quite smoothly thanks to everyone’s help.

From left: Gautham, Chief Assistant TD, Rakshita Dhanasekar, Vainavi, Arjun, Gokulaa, Rashmi, Assistant TD Pranavi Pramod, Richa, co-founder Kavya Sasikumar, and Chief TD Kavya Meiyappan, and, in the center, co-founder Annapoorni Meiyappan. Right: Chief TD and President of FEMchess - Kavya Meiyappan

This event was also extra special due to the attendance of WFM Annapoorni Meiyappan and Kavya Sasikumar, two of the co-founders of FEMchess! Now as adults, they both still share their love for chess and continue to show support for FEMchess’s goals as advisors on the board.

PHOTO04 Co-founders Annapoorni Meiyappan and Kavya Sasikumar at the trophy ceremony.

Every participant received a medal and the top five girls in each section received a trophy. We were thrilled to announce each and every player’s name to come up and receive an award, regardless of whether they won a trophy or not! The full US Chess crosstable is available here.

During the conclusion of the event, shortly before the trophy ceremony, all participants gathered around to take a photo together to commemorate the event.

Photo courtesy Femchess.

Overall, Fremont Chess and FEMchess are proud to say National Chess Day was a huge success. Kids from all over California came to participate in these events, even a few from out of state!

FEMchess’s goal has always been to bridge the gender gap in chess and we will continue to do so. Thanks to Fremont Chess’s support of that journey, we were able to host yet another tournament in a welcoming environment for girls and together we hope to host more tournaments like these in the future.

In fact, co-founder Annapoorni Meiyappan expresses, “I’m really glad to see that FEMchess is doing what it was made for: Giving girls confidence and a safe environment to play chess against other young girls just like them.”

What are Fremont Chess and FEMchess?

Fremont Chess was established by chess parents and volunteers at Mission San Jose Elementary (MSJE) in 2019, initially to support Coach Joe Lonsdale, while FEMchess was founded by three MSJE alumnae in 2020 to increase girl participation in chess.

MSJE was the first school from California to win the National K-6 Championship team prize, in April 2009. Since then, our legendary coach Joe Lonsdale brought the team to win the K-6 championship section in the National Elementary School Championships during at each of the 2013, 2015, 2016, and 2018 events. After serving 30 years, Coach Joe retired at the start of the 2020-2021 school year. Both nonprofits, Fremont Chess and FEMchess, continued to support the chess community, post COVID.

Originally, Fremont Chess planned the annual Fremont Chess Festival and FEMchess planned the FEMchess All-Girls tournament on NCD. But, due to venue availability, we decided to collaborate again and had the Fremont Chess Festival on Sunday, October 11th and the All-Girls tournament on Sunday, October 18th.

A fun fact for the main event of Fremont Chess Festival, Fremont Scholastic Championship, Established in 2020, FEMchess is a youth-led 501(c)3 nonprofit organization and UCSF affiliate that aims to bridge the chess gender gap by teaching young females about the game in an empowering and competitive environment. Only about one in ten players are women, and our goal is to change that.

THE $3K FREE! SQUITIRO 2 CHESS CHALLENGE

By FM Jude Acers

Editor’s note: This report comes from the Man in the Red Beret himself, FM Jude Acers. Acers is still an active presence in New Orleans’ French Quarter, helping to promote and organize events such as the one below. In true NOLA fashion, the style is just as important as the substance, so I’m making as few edits as possible and leaving capitalization untouched to preserve the artist's vision.

ALL PHOTOGRAPHS COURTESY OF NATHALIE DAJKO OF NEW ORLEANS AND ABSOLUTELY FREE OF CHARGE FOR JOHN HARTMANN AND JJ LANG OF THE US CHESS FEDERATION CHESS LIFE AND CHESS KIDS WITH FULL PROMO RIGHTS TO THE US CHESS FEDERATION ON WEBSITE ETC…

Oct 11, 2026 $1000 CHESS KID! New Orleans wild child chess youngster JAMES E. KLINGLER of the DOWNRIVER CHESS CLUB wins the $1,000 gold at the $3,000 Free!! Squitiro 2 Chess Challenge against incredible, staggering one-in-100,000 odds ON A NEW ORLEANS SIDEWALK WITH THE PEDESTRIANS STARING AT ALL THOSE STRANGE CHESSPLAYER PEOPLE!

Left: James Klingler with Jude Acers. Right: Joined by Robert "Chess House" Forney. (Photo courtesy Nathalie Djako)

Klingler, Jude, and Robert "Chess House" Forney. (Photo courtesy Nathalie Djako) — Left: James Klingler with Jude Acers. Right: Joined by Robert "Chess House" Forney. (Photo courtesy Nathalie Djako)

STILL SHOCKED CHESS KID JAMES E. KLINGLER OF NEW ORLEANS INCREDIBLY WON THE MONSTER CASH MONEY $1,000 CHESS FIRST PRIZE IN THE US CHESS FEDERATION NATIONALLY RATED $3,000!!! ABSOLUTELY FREE SQUITIRO 2 HISTORIC NEW ORLEANS FRENCH MARKET GAZEBO SIDEWALK CHESS CHALLENGE TOURNAMENT.

Klinger won every single game he played and had to sit out the final round bye ...awaiting his fate.

HIS COMPETITION COULD ONLY WATCH IN PRAYERFUL, FEARFUL, SILENT AWE IN THE FORCED KLINGLER BYE FINAL ROUND AS LEGENDARY JACKSON SQUARE MASTER-LEVEL CHESS KILLER MR. ERNESTO 'BIG CHESS 'LIZARONDO TOOK CARE OF BUSINESS..,PERSONALLY HANDING THE YOUNGSTER ONE THOUSAND DOLLARS BY ELIMINATING BOTH OF KLINGLER’S RIVALS BACK-TO-BACK!

Photo courtesy Nathalie Djako.

BULLETIN ....THIS JUST IN...

WE ARE MOST PLEASED TO REPORT THAT MR. KLINGLER 'THE BIG SPENDER'' BOUGHT HIS MAMA PIZZA DINNER ON THE HOUSE!

It was one hell of an experience to watch globe-trotting Marine veteran Lizarondo mow down 2100 ELO EXPERT player Max I. Boecker, a veteran of his own, playing in over 1,000 rated tournaments.

Downriver Chess club member "MR. AL "BINET' ... PERSONALLY HANDING A STUNNED YOUNG CHESS FIGHTER KLINGLER 1000 DOLLARS FIRST PRIZE COLD CASH AT THE VERY LAST MOMENT.