National Champions Crowned at National Harbor

Championship Sunday lived up to the hype in National Harbor, with every section coming down to the final game. Several of the nine individual winners needed only a draw to clinch their outright title in the last round, but nobody said it would be easy.

After leading all weekend, top seed Raghav Venkat from Florida emerged as the sole winner of the twelfth-grade section.

Moor versus Venkat (photo David Llada)

His win against Arya Kumar, from North Carolina, in the sixth round cemented him as the sole leader.

Arya Kumar (photo David Llada)

His 6½/7 score was not without drama, though, as his last-round opponent Nathaniel Moor could claim a share of first with a win in their encounter. Venkat’s Catalan proved too tough to crack, however, and he held a draw with relative ease.

Nathaniel Moor (photo David Llada)

While Moor was unable to win on demand, he can be commended for his bounce-back performance after an upset loss at the hands of Kumar in round five. His sixth-round win was a 25-move miniature in an opening not exactly known for producing such massacres.

Sethuraman versus Clasby (photo David Llada)

FM Sandeep Sethuraman won the eleventh-grade section in similar fashion. Headed into the final day, IM Maximillian Lu had clawed back from a second-round draw and had a chance to overtake the leader. But after castling into Sethuraman’s attack, Lu was unable to recover positionally. Sethuraman punctuated the game with a stylish queen sac, too.

Sandeep Sethuraman (photo David Llada)

In the last round, Derek Clasby would have to defeat the Denker co-champ to open the door for a pack of players trailing Sethuraman by a half-point. Clasby’s energetic sacrifice gave him abstract chances, but he was ultimately unable to earn more than a draw.

After top seeds FM Nico Chasin and IM Eddy Tian quickly drew their round six encounter, Toshinori Underwood emerged as the sole leader after six rounds. Playing for thematic breaks on the white side of the Closed Sicilian, Underwood attacked with fervor and forced his opponent to make too many concessions.

Yehamandram versus Underwood (courtesy David Llada)

Yehamandram versus Underwood (photo David Llada)

While Underwood only needed a draw against Chasin to clinch at least a share of first place, the 448-point rating gap proved difficult to overcome. Chasin won a pawn out of the opening and appeared to be cruising to victory until a careless king move gave back the pawn. From there, Chasin played past the 100th move attempting to win the resulting endgame. While he was successful, unfortunately the transmission cut out before the end.

Tian’s path to the podium was less smooth, as Illinois master Avi Kaplan earned a promising position out of a trendy opening. Unfortunately, a transmission error ends the game under unclear circumstances, but not before Tian had battled back to a slightly preferable position.

Avi Kaplan gave Tian everything he had in their last round encounter (photo David Llada)

Top-rated ninth-graders IM Evan Park and Rohan Padhye drew their round six encounter, putting the Pennsylvanian IM in shared first along with Floridian expert Michael Guan 5½/6. In a well-earned upset, Guan held the draw, to claim shared first.

This opened the door for Padhye to bring a share of the championship back to Ohio, which he did in convincing fashion with a win over Floridian master Marvin Gao.

Gao versus Padhye (photo David Llada)

Barber champion FM Brewington Hardaway took another national title back to New York, winning the eighth-grade section ahead of IM Erick Zhao with a 6½/7 score.

FM Brewington Hardaway (photo David Llada)

Headed into the final day, Hardaway held a half-point lead over Zhao and New York expert Aiden Reiss after the latter held the former to a draw in round five. Hardaway then pulled away from Zhao by defeating Ryan Wang on the black side of a Carlsbad structure where he never let White open the center.

Aiden Reiss (photo David Llada)

While Zhao gave up a second draw, this time to Minnesota’s Vaibhav Kalpaka, Reiss continued his hot streak to remain within striking distance of Hardaway for their final round encounter. Indeed, Reiss had a position that sure looked like it contained tactical chances, but he was unable to find anything concrete and eventually conceded the draw.

Eric Liu won the seventh-grade section in convincing fashion, yielding a draw in the final round after a convincing win over Pennsylvanian expert Gurru Muthukumaran in round six. Liu’s understanding of the amorphous pawn structure on the black side of a Closed Sicilian was impressive, and from there he navigated the position into a winning endgame.

Eric Liu (photo David Llada)

Jiang versus Soni (photo David Llada)

Andrew Jiang emerged as the sole champion of the sixth-grade section after Arjun Soni in a winner-takes-all showdown. On the black side of an Italian Game that resembled an Old Indian Defense by the time the center closed down, Jiang showed great understanding of the position in conducting a fatal kingside attack.

Ji versus Sethuraman (photo David Llada)

Top-seeded Roshan Sethuraman, the only fifth grader rated over 2000, continued his comeback to claim sole first. His final round victory was a positionally adept English Attack against his opponent’s Najdorf, where Sethuraman understood how his queenside majority more than compensated for Black’s kingside assault.

Kyle Dong (photo David Llada)

New Yorker Kyle Dong won the fourth-grade section ahead of top seed Akeras Overlingas. Dong won their head-to-head encounter in round six, withstanding Overlingas’s trademark uncompromising attack and winning the resulting positional duel.

Dong’s final round game came on the white side of an Anglo-English. The New Yorker patiently expanded on the kingside, understanding that even if his opponent could shut down the attack, there was still room for expansion on the opposite flank.

Henke versus Wang (courtesy David Llada)

Henke versus Wang (photo David Llada)

Washington’s Ted Wang and Massachusetts’s Shawn Xu tied for first in the third-grade section. Xu won his final round game to finish with 6½/7, meaning that Wang would have to do what nobody else had managed and go a perfect 7/7 to win the section outright. But playing a hungry opponent, Indian’s Harvey Hanke, Wang ended up much closer to losing than winning, and was happy to shake hands and claim a share of the championship.

Yu versus Shen (photo David Llada)

Second-grader Alice Shen, from New York (of course!), was one of only two players across the thirteen sections to finish with seven wins. One tempo was all she needed to turn the white side of a solid Slav Defense into an attack that could have easily come out of Irving Chernev’s Logical Chess: Move By Move.

Sriansh Katta, a first grader already rated 1425, was the other ‘unblemished’ player from the weekend.

Sriansh Katta (photo David Llada)

Nine sections produced clear winners, with only two two-way ties and the ninth graders the only three-way tie. But Kindergarten told a different story, with five players tying for first on 6/7.

(Left-to-right) Alex Sedlock, Mihai Holcomb, Darren Wu, Jack Zhang, Daniel Zhu (photo David Llada)

With no draws between them, they took turns leapfrogging each other all weekend. Darren Wu, a New Yorker rated 1386, lost in round six to a Charlotte Chess Club regular, Alex Sedlock, in a 642-point upset. Sedlock then took the sole lead into the final round, before losing the game and the tiebreaks to Floridian Mihai Holcomb.