2026 National High School (K-12) Championship Begins with March Madness

To anybody complaining about the lack of upsets in this year’s March Madness, I suggest they follow the 2026 National High School (K-12) Chess Championships.

empty — The calm before the madness! (Photos by Lian Castellanos)

The first two rounds are in the book at the Sheraton Grand Riverwalk in Chicago, IL, and already some big names are missing from the list of players with 2/2 scores in the K-12 Championship. Of the 358 participants in this section, only 29 made it through Friday unblemished, led by top-seeded 10^th grader IM Eric Chang Liu (TX), who tied for first in last year’s event. But two of Liu’s defending co-champions — IM Tanitoluwa Adewumi (NY) and FM William Safranek (NY) — were held to draws by lower-rated players in what is shaping up to be a very strong Championship section.

The madness! (Photos by Lian Castellanos)

All weekend, WGM Sabina Foisor will be doing commentary on the US Chess Twitch channel (full schedule here), and she took the time to select some of her favorite positions from Friday’s rounds, which will be incorporated into today’s report.

As early as Round 1, it was clear there would be no easy match-ups in March. On Board 12, 11^th grader Gabriel Xiong (OH) scored a 303-point upset on Board 12:

Other boards favored the higher-rated players, but the gap in playing strength was often smaller than the roughly 300-point rating gaps might suggest, as evidenced in the theoretical battle on Board 7:

But some of the top seeds managed to win in style, such as IM Rose Atwell (CA) on Board 5:

You can never be too careful. Check out this surprising queen sac that Sabina shared on stream, from Board 11:

Round 2 was when things really heated up. On Board 2, eighth-grader CM Vihaan Jammalamadaka (WA) held Adewumi to a draw in a spectacular fight:

On the very next board, Ryan Wang (NH) held IM Bach Ngo to a draw, as well:

By my count, nine of the 19 players rated over 2300 were held to draws Friday evening. And the count could have even been higher, considering games such as this fight on Board 6:

With the above win, Lucius Melillo (TX) enters Saturday as the fourth highest-rated player with a 2/2 score, behind Liu, FM Bryan Enming Lin, and Atwell.

Below are two more highlights from Round 2, featuring wins by FM Aditeya Das (NY) and CM Sharath Radhakrishnan (OH):

Radhakrishnan, who is only in 7^th grade, enters as one of seven players with 2/2 scores who is “playing up” grade-wise in the K-12 Championship. Full standings, featuring results, grade level, and state information, can be found here. All games can be reviewed here.

board — Selected photos from Friday. (Photos by Lian Castellanos)

On Thursday, Blitz and Bughouse champions were crowned in Chicago. IM Eric Chang Liu won the K-12 Blitz with an impressive 11½/12 score. CM Logan Shafer (TX) finished in clear second with a 10½/12 score, and a pair New York middle schoolers — FM Bryan Enming Lin and FM Megan Paragua — tied for third with 9½/12. As mentioned, Liu and Lin are still unblemished in the main event, and so is Shafer, while Paragua was one of the aforementioned nine 2300+ players to concede a draw on Friday.

New York’s Stuyvesant High School — led by FM Aditeya Das with a 9/12 score — won the team championship with 24½ points, a half-point ahead of Paragua’s Columbia Grammar & Prep. Das is still perfect in the main event, as well.

In the K-12 Under-1800 Blitz section, Krish Iyer (MO) took clear first with an 11/12 score, a full point ahead of runner-up Yuntao Liu (WA). Both players are only eighth graders, embracing the true K-12 spirit of the tournament. Michigan’s Renaissance High School won the team title with 26 points.

In the K-12 Bughouse Championship, IM Julian Colville (CA) and FM Naveen Paruchuri (NY) connected on a trans-continental partnership to score 10/10 and take home the title. Colville is 2/2 in the K-12 Championship, and Paruchuri enters Saturday with a 1½/2 score.

Friday got off to a bang with guest GM Fidel Corrales’s 30-board simultaneous exhibition, followed by two hours of blitz later in the day. If you didn’t get a chance to play Corrales yet, there are still two more All-Comers Blitz sessions this weekend: today at 3:30 p.m. and tomorrow at 2 p.m., both in Riverwalk.

I’ve had the pleasure (and pain!!) of playing Corrales in a classical game, so I can attest to his excellent tactical wit as well as his love of the game, so this is a can’t-miss opportunity.

Also today, the Friends & Family tournament begins at 10:30 a.m., featuring individual prizes as well as team prizes for parent-and-child duos.

If this is your first national event, but you missed the My First National Tournament seminar Friday morning, the slides from the presentation can be found here.

Plus, be sure to swing by the Girls Club Room, which is open all weekend! Today's events include a lecture with special guests WGM Katerina Nemcova and WFM Yassamin Ehsani at 3:30 p.m. and a human chess game at 4:15 p.m.

And don't forget to check out the merch store!

Finally, the Scholastic Meeting and the Chess in Education Discussion both take place this afternoon in Mississippi, at 2:15 p.m. and 3:30 p.m., respectively. A full schedule of today’s events can be found here.

Round 3 is currently underway as part of today’s grueling triple-round day, with Round 4 beginning at 1:30 p.m. CDT and Round 5 kicking off at 6 p.m.

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