Madison's Opening Quartet: A Preview

A thrilling quartet opens the festivities in Madison, Wisconsin at the US Open (July 28-August 5th): The Denker Tournament of High School Champions, The Barber Tournament of K-8 Champions and the National Girls Tournament of Champions (NGTOC). For the first time, the National of Senior Tournament of Champions (NSTOC) joins the party. Top seeds at the Denker include three of our top female players, reigning US Junior Girls Champion Carissa Yip, and Emily Nguyen, who tied for second in the US Junior Girls, as well as Maggie Feng (Ohio), the first girl to ever win the National Junior High Championships. Also playing the Denker: David Peng of Illinois and US Juniors runner-up IM Advait Patel of Oklahoma. Find the full Denker participant list here. 40 players have confirmed participation in the 1st ever National Senior Tournament of Champions (NSTOC). Among the participants are many titled players, including four Grandmasters: Enrico Sevillano (South California), Alex Fishbein (New Jersey) and Alonso Zapata (Georgia). GM Michael Rohde, representing New York told US Chess, "When NYSCA invited me to participate in this event, I accepted immediately because it is a privilege to represent New York State, and it is also the first time that I have been an official state representative in a tournament of champions. I appreciate that US Chess has also made it possible to play in one of the quicker US Open schedules after the National Seniors. I also think New York has a great lineup in the varied Tournaments of Champions, with Max Li in the Denker HS Championship, Vincent Tsay in the Barber K-8 Championship, and Martha Samadashvili in the Girls Championship. Go New York!" https://www.instagram.com/p/BltscyGno9b/?taken-by=us_chess Angelica Chin (New Jersey) and Arya Kumar (North Carolina) are also among the top seeds at the National Girls Tournament of Champions. Other frequent top contenders at the NGTOC include Veronika Zilajeva (Oklahoma) and local representative Anupama Rajendra. Both players tied for first at the 2015 event. US Chess Editor Jen Shahade, who lives in Philly, worked with the PA representative, Tiarra Benjamin just before the high-school senior headed out to Madison. Besides aforementioned top seeds, Natassja Matus playing in the Barber. Find the full list here. 

The Madison festivities begin with a simul from Grandmaster and US Junior Champion Awonder Liang. Find out more about that event here.

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