Grade Nationals: The Experience

Above the Garden Conservatory of the Gaylord Opryland Resort

The National Grade Championships, one of the most popular scholastic events in the country, allows players to fight for recognition as the best of their specific age group. The 2016 edition of this huge competition, spanning from kindergartners all the way to seniors in high school, took place at the Gaylord Opryland Resort in Nashville, one of the largest and most festive hotels in the world. The entire resort was decked out for the holidays, including a Christmas themed ride, the Opryland Express Train, located directly below the tournament hall. Next year, the Gaylord Opryland Resort will also be the site of SuperNationals VI, the biggest scholastic tournament in the U.S, combining the National Elementary, Junior High, and High School Championships into one epic event. In fact, in 2013, SuperNationals V broke the record for the largest rated tournament in history.

Fighting Chess

It's easy to see a last round draw on 1st board and assume that the players agreed to a quick, "grandmaster draw" instead of fighting it out over-the-board to be champion. This was definitely not the case on many of the top boards in this event. On 1st board of the 9th Grade section, Praveen Balakrishnan, the highest ranked player in the entire tournament, needed only a draw to secure 1st place. Despite this, even as the game reached a drawish rook endgame, he continued to fight for a win, offering a two pawn sacrifice and setting a fascinating trap for his opponent, Albert Liang.

[pgn][Event "National Grade K-12 Championships"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "????.??.??"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Balakrishnan, Praveen"]
[Black "Liang, Albert"]
[Result "*"]
[WhiteElo "2516"]
[BlackElo "2516"]
[SetUp "1"]
[FEN "R7/P4kp1/7p/4p2P/r5P1/4K3/8/8 w - - 0 1"]
[PlyCount "3"]1. g5 $5 hxg5 2. h6 {What happens if Black captures the second pawn?} *[/pgn]

Show Solution

[pgn][Event "National Grade K-12 Championships"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "????.??.??"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Balakrishnan, Praveen"]
[Black "Liang, Albert"]
[Result "*"]
[WhiteElo "2516"]
[BlackElo "2516"]
[SetUp "1"]
[FEN "R7/P4kp1/7P/4p1p1/r7/4K3/8/8 b - - 0 2"]
[PlyCount "4"]{If} 2... gxh6 $4 3. Rh8 Rxa7 4. Rh7+ {and White wins.} *[/pgn]

However, Liang was able to find the correct defense. What is Black's only move?

Balakrishnan vs. Liang

Black to move.

Show Solution

[pgn][Event "National Grade K-12 Championships"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "????.??.??"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Balakrishnan, Praveen"]
[Black "Liang, Albert"]
[Result "*"]
[WhiteElo "2516"]
[BlackElo "2516"]
[SetUp "1"]
[FEN "R7/P4kp1/7P/4p1p1/r7/4K3/8/8 b - - 0 2"]
[PlyCount "7"]2... Kg6 $1 {and White can't win. The game continued with} 3. Kf3 Rf4+ ({The
h6-pawn is immune:} 3... gxh6 4. Rg8+ Kh7 5. a8=Q) (3... Kxh6 4. Rh8+) 4. Kg3
Ra4 5. hxg7 Kxg7 {Draw agreed.} *[/pgn]

Max Lu, fighting for a win on the top board during the last round

On the 5th Grade top board, the draw between Max Lu and Gus Huston that led to a nine-way tie for 1st place, was similarly very hard-fought.

[pgn][Event "National Grade K-12 Championships"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "????.??.??"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Huston, Gus"]
[Black "Lu, Max"]
[Result "*"]
[WhiteElo "2049"]
[SetUp "1"]
[FEN "8/8/p1pkpp2/P4P1p/1P1PKRrP/8/8/8 b - - 0 1"]
[PlyCount "23"]
[SourceDate "2016.12.25"]{Lu calculated for several minutes before he played} 1... exf5+ {noticing that
he could queen first in the resulting king and pawn endgame.} 2. Kxf5 Rxf4+ 3.
Kxf4 Kd5 4. Kf5 Kxd4 5. Kxf6 Kc4 6. Kg6 Kxb4 7. Kxh5 c5 8. Kg4 c4 9. h5 c3 10.
h6 c2 11. h7 c1=Q 12. h8=Q {although this position is likely to be drawn,
Black's king is clearly much better placed and White has to be careful of
skewer tactics and well-timed queen trades.} Qg1+ {What's the simplest way for
White to draw?} *[/pgn]

Show Solution

[pgn][Event "National Grade K-12 Championships"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "????.??.??"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Huston, Gus"]
[Black "Lu, Max"]
[Result "1/2-1/2"]
[WhiteElo "2049"]
[SetUp "1"]
[FEN "7Q/8/p7/P7/1k4K1/8/8/6q1 w - - 0 13"]
[PlyCount "19"]13. Kf3 {Heading towards the queenside: "If the defender's king stands in
front of the pawn, the draw is usually an easy matter." -Dvoretsky's Endgame
Manual, "Queen and Pawn vs. Queen"} Qd1+ 14. Ke3 Qc1+ 15. Kd3 Qb1+ 16. Kd2 Qa2+
17. Kd3 Qd5+ 18. Kc2 Kxa5 19. Qa1+ Kb5 20. Qf1+ Qc4+ 21. Qxc4+ {Now that
White's king is close to the passed pawn, queen exchanges are nothing to fear.}
Kxc4 22. Kb2 {Draw.} 1/2-1/2[/pgn]

The Champions

Kindergarten

National Kindergarten Co-Champion, Dhruva Patil, and his last round opponent, Elijah Gerson

The Kindergarten Championship ended with a 3-way tie between top seed Dhruva Patil, 2nd seed Inay Vellore, and underdog winner Hudson Lutfiyya, who began the tournament over 400 points lower than the other two co-champions. Lutfiyya won a must-win game over the tournament leader, Vellore, in the last round to secure a tie for 1st place. His impressive performance gained him nearly 200 rating points.

1st Grade

The National 1st Grade Champion, Steve Wongso

Top seed Steve Wongso won the 1st Grade Championship with a perfect 7-0 score. What's amazing about this very talented young player is that he only began playing in tournaments this year, rising from his starting US Chess rating of 547 to his current 1770 rating in only 11 months. Wongso is currently ranked 3rd in the country for 7-year-olds.

2nd Grade

National 2nd Grade Champion, Jack Yang

Jack Yang, the National 2nd Grade Champion, greatly exceeded expectations. He began the event ranked 11th. Yet, he went undefeated and managed upset victories against several players 100+ points higher and a draw against 2nd seed Varun Gadi, who was nearly 250 points above him. Yang's tournament victory gave him his first 1600+ US Chess rating.

3rd Grade

Jonathan Chen, 3rd place, and National 3rd Grade Co-Champion, Dimitar Mardov

Top seed Dimitar Mardov and Luke Ye tied for 1st place, each going undefeated with 6.5 points. Mardov and Ye are 4th and 5th in the country for 8-year-olds.

4th Grade

Jack Levine, the National 4th Grade Champion. Photo credit: Jeff Levine

Jack Levine achieved one of the few perfect scores of the event, clinching the National 4th Grade Championship. Levine is in the top 20 for players his age and has competed in every grade nationals since he started playing. This year's victory improves on last year's result when he finished at the top (by tiebreaks) of a 10-player tie for 2nd.

5th Grade

Max Lu, National 5th Grade Co-Champion, 1st by tiebreaks

The 5th Grade Championship had more Co-Champions than any other section by far---with nine players tied for 1st place:

Max Lu

Nathaniel Shuman

Gus Huston

Antony Gospodinov

Henry Burton

Hersh Singh

Vincent Stone

Gauri Menon

Sameeth Sheshappa

National Master Max Lu was the top seed and defending 5th Grade Champion. He is currently 2nd in the U.S. for 11-year-olds.

Nathaniel Shuman, National 5th Grade Co-Champion, 2nd by tiebreaks

Nathaniel Shuman, 5th Grade Co-Champion, 2nd by tiebreaks

Gus Huston, National 5th Grade Co-Champion, 3rd by tiebreaks

Gus Huston, 5th Grade Co-Champion, 3rd by tiebreaks

The greatest underdog was Sameeth Sheshappa, who entered the tournament rated 1155, over 1000 points lower rated than his fellow Co-Champion, Lu, the top seed. Sheshappa gained over 300 rating points.

6th Grade

National 6th Grade Champion, Sumit Dhar

Sumit Dhar was the oldest player to achieve a perfect score, winning the National Championship for his grade for the 2nd year in a row.

Here is one of Dhar's best games from earlier this year, which was chosen by Grandmaster Mark Paragua as the "Chess NYC Game of the Week":

[pgn][Event "?"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "????.??.??"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Dhar, Sumit"]
[Black "Xue, Steven"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "D25"]
[PlyCount "49"]
[SourceDate "2016.12.25"]1. d4 d5 2. c4 dxc4 3. Nf3 Nf6 4. e3 Bg4 5. Bxc4 e6 6. h3 Bh5 7. Nc3 Nc6 8. Bb5
Bd6 9. e4 Bb4 10. Qa4 Bxf3 11. Bxc6+ bxc6 12. Qxc6+ Ke7 13. gxf3 Qxd4 14. Be3
Qd6 15. Qc4 Rhd8 16. e5 $1 Qxe5 17. Qxb4+ Ke8 18. Qb5+ Nd7 19. Rd1 Qf6 20. Bg5
Qxf3 21. Bxd8 Rxd8 (21... Qxh1+ 22. Ke2) 22. Rg1 Qxh3 23. Rxg7 Kf8 24. Qg5 Nf6
25. Rxd8+ 1-0[/pgn]

7th Grade

National 7th Grade Co-Champion, Wesley Wang

The 7th Grade Co-Champions are Wesley Wang and Evelyn Zhu. Wesley Wang was the defending champion from last year's 6th Grade Nationals. In addition, this victory makes Wang a double National Champion for 2016. Earlier this year, he tied for 1st in the K-8 section of the Junior High Championships. He was also a member of the winning team at the 2016 World Amateur Team Championship. Wang is the 3rd highest in the country for players age 13.

7th Grade Co-Champion, Evelyn Zhu

Evelyn Zhu is 2nd in the U.S. for girls age 12. Watch Zhu’s upset blitz victory against Arthur Guo at the US Chess School:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hOCa_VAe0ts

8th Grade

Rick Sun from Arizona entered the tournament as the 2nd seed and went undefeated, earning 6.5 points, to become the National 8th Grade Champion. His victory gives his a new peak rating, 2192, just 8 points away from the National Master title.

9th Grade

National 9th Grade Champion, Praveen Balakrishnan

Entering the event at 2516, Fide Master Praveen Balakrishnan was not only the top seed of the 9th Grade Championship---but the entire tournament. He won clear 1st with 6 points and is the 3rd ranked 14-year-old in the world.

10th Grade

Californian Life Master Albert Lu won the 10th Grade Championship. Although he was the top seed, Lu had to recover from an early upset loss and defeat his closest rival in the last round to gain clear 1st.

11th Grade

Fide Master Tommy He is the National 11th Grade Champion, finishing with 6.5 points and defeating top seed Ethan Li along the way.

12th Grade

National 12th Grade Champion, Abhishek Reddy Obili

The 12th Grade Championship featured numerous lead changes and a struggle to take over the top board. In the end, top seed Abhishek Obili recovered from two early upset draws to knock out the tournament leaders and claim sole victory.

The Experience

Although becoming a national champion is a monumental achievement, there is much more to gain than the prizes. Less than 1% of the over 1500 players can take home 1st place trophies. For most, what really counts is the experience. https://twitter.com/USChess/status/810584364581081088 https://twitter.com/USChess/status/810585541787971584 https://twitter.com/USChess/status/809884497344921600 https://twitter.com/IM_Rosen/status/810172385609613312 https://twitter.com/LeilaDAquin/status/810287064017174528 https://twitter.com/rbartlett14/status/809884207816261632 https://twitter.com/icnnyc/status/810201258866905088 https://twitter.com/USChess/status/810219621034950656 https://twitter.com/USChess/status/809830425346588672 https://twitter.com/USChess/status/809875809041321990 https://twitter.com/USChess/status/810547339727372292 https://twitter.com/USChess/status/810305350708658177 https://twitter.com/USChess/status/810315649197244417 https://twitter.com/rbartlett14/status/810894973650554881 https://twitter.com/USChess/status/809936736616849408

Best Thinking Caps of the Tournament

Share your favorite moments of the event with the Official hashtag: #K12ChessChamps . For a complete list of results, view the National Grade K-12 Championships Standings.