Full Report: Champions Crowned in Orlando

If any information is inaccurate, any names are misspelled or standings are incorrect, please email Click here to show email address with corrections or additional photos. All annotations by WGM Sabina Foisor.

4,523 players competed in Orlando for SuperNationals VIII, held May 9-11 in Orlando, Florida at the Orange County Convention Center. Sunday night’s flash report covers the results of the six Championship sections. Coverage of Thursday, Friday, and Saturday can be found here, and all games annotated by WGM Sabina Foisor from Friday and Saturday are in this study.

Today’s report shares more details and photos of the final day of competition, featuring more photos as well as Foisor’s analysis of Sunday’s best games. Foisor’s commentary can also be rewatched on our Twitch channel, and stay tuned to our YouTube channel in the coming weeks for clips and highlights.

Next week, we plan to share more photographs of winners from the Under- and Unrated sections on Chess Life Online, and we plan to share many more photos on our Facebook page as well.

K-12 Championship

Seven players tied for first after a hard-fought final day in the K-12 Championship. There were more Co-Champions in the K-12 than there were Champions or Co-Champions in the five other Championship sections combined!

Joseph Levine, first place on tiebreaks (Photo courtesy of the subject)

Washington’s IM Joseph Levine was one of two seniors to close out their scholastic career with a share of the title, along with New York’s IM Nico Chasin. Levine finished first on tie-breaks, while Chasin was fifth.

Nico Chasin during his sixth-round game (Photo by Photography in Motion)

Chasin’s ninth-grade teammate from Columbia Grammar & Prep School (CGPS), IM-Elect Tanitoluwa “Tani” Adewumi, was one of three high school freshmen — along with Texas’s IM Eric Chang Liu and California’s FM Isaac Wang — to kickstart their high school playing career off with a championship. Liu finished second on tiebreaks, while Wang was fourth and Adewumi was fifth.

Three ninth-graders took home a share of the K-12 Championship. In tie-break order, from left: Eric Chang Liu, Isaac Wang, and Tani Adewumi (Photos by John Hartmann)

Three ninth-graders took home a share of the K-12 Championship. In tie-break order, from left: Eric Chang Liu, Isaac Wang, and Tani Adewumi (Photos by John Hartmann)

Rounding out the list are a pair of New Yorkers: sophomore GM Brewington Hardaway (third on tie-breaks) and junior William Safranek (seventh).

Hardaway entered Sunday as the sole leader, but his sixth-round loss to Levine shook up the standings.

Levine (R)'s critical victory over Hardaway in round six opened the floodgates to a slew of Co-Champions (Photo by Photography in Motion)

The two talents went the distance, pushing each other deep into a rook-knight-and-pawns endgame where each player was under a minute on the clock.

The victory put Levine atop the standings with 5½/6 along with Liu, who delivered a fine victory over Jacorey Bynum:

Virginia’s Kent Slate was the third player to enter the last round with a 5½/6 score, set to face Chasin on board two after Chasin’s sixth-round victory:

Along with Hardaway and Chasin, the other players with 5/6 scores were FM Narayan Venkatesh, Adewumi, Andrew Wu, Kiren Nasta, Wang, Safranek, Haari Muthukumar, and Anjaneya Sripathy Rao.

Kent Slate entered the final round tied for the lead, and he still finished tied for eighth after a last-round loss in a sharp Sicilian to Nico Chasin (Photo by John Hartmann)

Wang and Nasta’s sixth-round wins are included below:

The last-round pairings saw Liu and Levine square off on the top board, with Slate paired against Chasin. Eight other players with 5/6 comprised boards three through six, with the pairings being Venkatesh – Hardaway, Adewumi – Wu, Nasta – Wang, and Safranek – Muthukumar. That left Rao on board seven against IM Bach Ngo, the highest-rated player with 4½/6.

Joseph Levine (L) and Eric Chang Liu's draw on the top board of the last round led to their first- and second-place finishes, respectively, on tie-breaks (Photo by David Llada)

A tense draw on the top board certainly made things more interesting, and Chasin’s victory over Slate confirmed that 6/7 would be good enough for a share of the title.

Hardaway, Adewumi, Wang, and Safranek each won their games on boards three through six, respectively, meaning the quartet joined Liu, Levine, and Chasin atop the standings. Of this batch, Foisor highlighted Adewumi’s positional grind and Hardaway’s endgame perseverance as the stand-outs:

Finally, on board seven, Rao came admirably close to holding a draw against Ngo, but he was not ever in position to fight for a win to become the eighth Co-Champion. Ngo’s win saw him finish eighth on tie-breaks as the top player with 5½/7.

With two Co-Champions among their top four scorers, CGPS’s team victory with a 22/28 score was certainly not a shocker. But they absolutely did not run away with the trophy, as Virginia’s Thomas Jefferson High School (TJHS) was hot on their heels, finishing in clear second with a 21.5/28 score.

CGPS (Photo by Photography in Motion)

TJHS’s strong finish tightened the race, with almost every player finishing with a victory. As a result, the team title came down to Chasin and Slate’s head-to-head match! A draw against Chasin, in other words, would have both put Slate in the group of individual Co-Champions and swung the team title to TJHS. Again, what a tight race!

K-8 Championship

Maryland’s CM Nitesh Cherukuri is the undisputed K-8 Champion, defeating previous leader FM Bryan Enming Lin in the last round to leapfrog Lin in the standings.

Nitseh Cherukuri's well-rounded style made him a worthy K-8 Champion (Photo by John Hartmann)

Lin finished second on tie-breaks, ahead of Florida’s Oscar Izzy Williams (third) and Texas’s Elbert Fang (fourth), who all finished with 6/7 scores.

Despite a draw being enough to clinch outright first, Lin still elected to stick to his style and play the sharp King’s Indian Defense against Cherukuri. Cherukuri essayed the trendy Makogonov Variation with 5. h3, and Lin was quickly on the back foot.

To get to the top board, Cherukuri had to use every ounce of energy (and the clock) to eke out a victory in round six. Williams’ sixth-round victory is also included below:

Hunter College Campus School (Photo by Photography in Motion)

Lin’s Hunter College Campus School (Hunter) team took clear first in the team standings with an 18½/28 score to finish three-and-a-half points ahead of two other New York schools (Success Academy Midtown West and CGPS) that tied for second.

K-6 Championship

K-6 Champion Tariq Yue (Photo by John Hartmann)

Pennsylvania’s CM Tariq Yue is the K-6 Champion, winning with a 6½/7 score. His last-round win is below:

New York’s Samuel Nemiroff finished in clear second with a 6/7 score, and Pranav Santhosh (TX), CM Ethan Guo (CA), and WCM Stella Xin (IL) finished third through fifth, respectively, on tie-breaks with 5½/7 scores.

Guo’s last-round win was a good example of the kind of endgame cruelty many of us have faced at the end of a grueling event:

While the other 19 players to finish in the top 20 were all sixth-graders, it’s worth noting that Xin managed to tie for third in the K-6 as a third-grader, electing to play up two sections!

Speyer Legacy School (Photo by Photography in Motion)

Nemiroff’s Speyer Legacy School (Speyer) won the team trophy with a 20½/28 score, three-and-a-half points ahead of the nearest competitor.

K-5 Championship

Other than the K-12 Championship, the K-5 Championship section was the only one to finish without a sole victor. New York fourth-grader CM Sasha Milo Schaefer and Floridian fifth-grader Vivan Prakash Mulay finished first and second, respectively, on tie-breaks with 6½/7 scores.

Sasha Milo Schaefer (L) and Vivan Prakash Mulay (Photo by Photography in Motion)

Schaefer entered the final round with a perfect 6/6 score after the following nice victory:

Having given up a draw to North Carolina’s Celine Chen in round 4, Mulay entered the last round trailing Schaefer by a half-point. A victory would not be enough to guarantee a share of the title, but still he did his part:

For most of the final round, it looked like New York’s Lev Shangin was going to hold Schaefer to a draw on the top board. But just when it looked calm, a dramatic turn of events gave Schaefer a chance to go 7/7:

With the draw, Shangin finished third on tie-breaks ahead of Young Cui (CA) and Aakash Jani (FL), who also finished with 6/7 scores. Cui’s endgame brilliancy is below:

It’s only fitting that we also had a tie in the team standings in the K-5 Championship, with P.S. 77 Lower Lab (NY) finishing ahead of Oak Hall (FL) on tie-breaks after each team finished with 20/28 scores.

K-3 Championship

Lukas LeBakken (Photo courtesy of the subject)

Virginia’s Lukas LeBakken ran away with the K-3 Championship, boasting a 7/7 score. It’s impressive seeing a player this young grind out this kind of endgame:

Five players tied for second with 6/7 scores. In tie-break order, these players are: Zhihan Samuel Xu (FL), Abigail Zhou (NY), Samanyu Alluri (MA), Aarav Karthik (MI), and Milo Su (NY). Su’s last-round victory rounds out our highlights below:

Speyer Legacy School (Photo by Bryan Tillis)

Speyer took clear first in the team standings, led by Zhou’s 6/7 performance. The 20/28 score put Speyer three points ahead of the closest team.

K-1 Championship

Mehmet Yilanli (Photo by David Llada)

In the K-1 Championship, Ohio’s Mehmet Yilanli joined LeBakken as the only other player to post a perfect 7/7 score in Orlando.

Trinity School (Photo courtesy of Vignesh Rajendran)

New York’s Trinity School repeated as the victorious K-1 Championship team, with coach Jonathan Corbblah leading an almost entirely new group of players to the top this year, as only Freddie Li returned from the 2024 squad.

Scholar Chess Player Awards

Before Sunday’s morning round, the Scholar-Chessplayer Award recipients were announced in the K-12 playing hall. With Special Guest GM Leinier Dominguez win attendance, IM Nico Chasin accepted his award in person.

SCP — Nico Chasin receiving his Scholar-Chessplayer Award (Photos by Photography in Motion)

SCP — Nico Chasin receiving his Scholar-Chessplayer Award (Photos by Photography in Motion)

Of the seven recipients (including the one Ambassador award), Chasin was the only one competing in Orlando. The full list of recipients was announced online Sunday as well.

And more!

As announced on several social media channels earlier in the week, a special prize for one lucky follower this weekend would be a board signed by over 30 of America’s top players.

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Congratulations to coach Alexis Paredes on winning the giveaway! Paredes is the coach of P.S. 031 Samuel F. Dupont in Brooklyn, NY, which was one of the 12 schools attending SuperNationals VIII on a US Chess Title I Travel Grant.