National Blitz, Bughouse, and Puzzle Champions Crowned in Orlando

Editor’s note: This report will be updated with more results and photos later this weekend after the awards ceremonies. Please note that the awards ceremonies for the National Puzzle Championship take place Friday, May 9, at 5:50 p.m. EDT in Halls WA1 (Grades 7-12) and WA4 (Grades K-6). The awards ceremonies for the National Blitz Championship will be Saturday, May 10, at 8:50 a.m. in Halls WA1 (K-12) and WA4 (K-6 & K-3), and at 8:45 a.m. in Hall WA2 (K-8). The awards ceremonies for the National Bughouse Championship will be Saturday, May 10 at 12:50 p.m. in Halls WA1 (K-12), WA2 (K-8), and WA4 (K-6). A full schedule of events can be found here.

The biggest four days in scholastic chess began Thursday, May 8, at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Florida with three national scholastic championships officially kicking off SuperNationalsVIII.

Avi Kaplan and his Bughouse teammate — An assortment of photos in and around the Bughouse Championship on Thursday (Photos by David Llada)

Photo of Bughouse teammates — An assortment of photos in and around the Bughouse Championship on Thursday (Photos by David Llada)

Winners were crowned in the Bughouse, Blitz, and new Puzzle Solving (presented in partnership with ChessKid) championships, with hundreds of chess players from kindergarten through 12th grade beating the rush before the main tournament begins today.

Bughouse Championship

In the Bughouse, IM Nico Chasin and Ian Avery Singh claimed first in the K-12 Bughouse Championship with an 8½/10 score. The New York duo embraced the spirit of SuperNationals by combining the forces of Chasin (the second-highest-rated player in the K-12 Championship) and Singh, who enters the K-3 Championship as the seventh seed (rated 1888).

Nico Chasin and Ian Avery Singh are the K-12 Bughouse Champions (Photo by John Hartmann)

In the K-8 Bughouse Championship, Californians Suyuan Gui and CM Ethan Guo swept the field with a 10/10 score. Gui, an eighth-grader rated 2135, enters the K-8 Championship as the 15th seed, while Guo enters the K-6 Championship as the highest-rated player.

Players descend on the pairings board at the Bughouse Championship Thursday

The rush of Bughouse players as pairings are announced (Photo by David Llada)

In the K-6 Bughouse Championship, Aakash Jani and CM Tariq Yue won with a 9/10 score. Yue, from Pennsylvania, trails only Guo in rating entering the K-6 Championship. Only in fourth grade, Florida’s Jani is nevertheless the 10th seed in the K-5 Championship.

Blitz Championship

In the K-12 Blitz, Chasin took a second title, this time with an 11/12 score to finish a full point ahead of FM Bryan Enming Lin. FM-Elect Megan Paragua finished third with 9½/12, making it a podium sweep for New York. Despite being in 6th grade, Paragua is competing in the K-12 Championship this weekend alongside Chasin.

IM Nico Chasin won the K-12 Blitz on Thursday (Photo by John Hartmann)

Lin, who is only in 7th grade himself, enters the K-8 Championship as the highest-rated player. Results for the K-12 Under-1800 Blitz Championship are not yet available at the time of this report, but can be found here in the future.

In a victory for the home state, Oscar Izzy Williams won the K-8 Blitz with an 11/12 score, a full-point ahead of fellow Floridian Diego Jimenz Leyva. The K-8 Championship section is strong this weekend, with 31 players rated over 2000, including Leyva (2031).

K-8 Blitz Champion Oscar Izzy Williams (Photo by John Hartmann)

(Updated) In the K-6 Blitz, Yue became the second "double-champion," tying for first with Florida's Vivan Prakash Mulay on an 11/12 score. Rated 2058, Mulay enters the K-5 Championship as one of nine players over 2000 and as the fourth-highest-rated player.

In the K-3 Blitz, Ian Avery Singh joined his bughouse teammate Chasin as a two-time champion yesterday, winning the tournament with a 11½/12 score to finish one-and-a-half points ahead of the eight-way logjam for second place.

Seeing several New Yorkers and Floridians win championships on Thursday was a fitting start to the weekend, as these two states together make up over half of the field with 1,092 Floridians and 1,410 New Yorkers representing the field. Overall, 4,610 players are competing in the main tournament sections this weekend, representing 45 states (plus Washington, D.C. and 73 foreign players).

Two kids playing chess, one tossing a piece in the air

Photo by David Llada

Puzzle Championship

The first-of-its-kind National Puzzle Championship, presented in partnership with ChessKid, boasted almost 300 participants yesterday, with fun-master of ceremonies FM Mike Klein of ChessKid leading the way.

The first @USChess @ChessKidcom US national puzzle championship is underway! pic.twitter.com/38yHLVld3P
— US Chess (@USChess) May 8, 2025

(Updated) Congratulations to CM Rohan Rajaram and Elliot Goodrich on winning the Upper and Lower sections, respectively. Both Rajaram and second-place Upper finisher CM Jashith Karthi (a fellow Californian) are competing in the K-8 Championship this weekend, and they finished ahead of several high schoolers (including third place finisher FM Avi Kaplan).

Goodrich, who attends the formidable Dalton School from New York, enters the K-6 Championship as the third-highest-rated player in the section. The final standings for the top 15 finishers are available here (Grades 7-12) and here (Grades K-6).

Puzzle Championship — Photos by David Llada

And More

US Chess's Marketing and Communications Manager Bryan Tillis led a simultaneous exhibition of his own on Thursday, as well. When not creating videos and promoting chess for US Chess, Tillis is also a national master and a state champion of three different states. This reporter can attest firsthand that Tillis was taking this "simul" seriously, refreshing his openings and staying tactically sharp.

Tillis making a serious face during his simul — Bryan Tillis, a serious man (Photos by David Llada)

Tillis smiling between boards at his simul — Bryan Tillis, a serious man (Photos by David Llada)

When I asked him, jokingly, what he would do if Dewain Barber made a "fake" ceremonial first move such as 1. b4 on any of Tillis's boards, Tillis's expression got more serious than I've ever seen as he said, matter-of-factly, that he would absolutely take the move back.

The "Dean of Scholastic Chess" himself, Dewain Barber, was on site to make the ceremonial first moves in Tillis's simul (Photo by David Llada)

Today's Agenda

Today, after a tandem simultaneous exhibition by several of our guest grandmasters and other special events, the first round begins at 1:00 p.m. EDT for all sections (except for K-1, which begins a half-hour later).

Coverage with WGM Sabina Foisor on our Twitch channel begins at 12:30 p.m. today, and the full streaming schedule is available here. Sponsored by Precision Tune AutoCare, our live streaming coverage will cover all rounds of the event for the first time. This allows us to feature a larger number of games and a wider array of players. For those whose games are not on display boards, they are invited to submit their games for live analysis via the instructions here.

Quick Links:

Official SuperNationals VIII website

New SuperNationals VIIII landing page

Broadcast of the top boards on uschess.live

SuperNationals VIII results & pairings

Official US Chess stream with WGM Sabina Foisor

All SuperNationalsVIII coverage on Chess Life Online

Follow #SuperNationalsVIII and @USChess on X for more coverage