National Grade Champs: Lessons and Highlights from Day 2

1. Know your endgames.

https://twitter.com/USChess/status/810219621034950656 https://twitter.com/USChess/status/810305350708658177

2. For game analysis and good times, stop by one of the booths outside of the tournament hall (such as the ChessKid, Webster, and Texas Tech ones) or the Girls' Club.

https://twitter.com/USChess/status/809873773130317825 https://twitter.com/USChess/status/809875809041321990 https://twitter.com/LeilaDAquin/status/810231392303009792

Anirudh Rajesh analyzing his game with Aaron Grabinsky at the Webster booth

3. There are many ways to aspire towards the higher levels in chess.

https://twitter.com/USChess/status/810181555305988097

Main Event Highlights

Kindergarten

Leader: Inay Vellore (5 points)

Most impressive Upset: Vellore’s 250+ point upset victory against top seed Dhruva Patil.

1st Grade

Leaders: Maya Figelman and Steve Wongso (5 points)

Most impressive Upset: Figelman’s 350+ point upset victory against Aaron Marian (1342)

https://twitter.com/LeilaDAquin/status/810287064017174528

2nd Grade

Jack Yang

Leaders: Jack Yang, Brewington Hardaway, and Royal Bachanan (5 points)

Most Impressive Upset: Royal Buchanan’s nearly 300 point upset victory against top seed Erick Zhao.

3rd Grade

Leaders: Dimitar Mardov, Bach Ngo, and Benjamin Webb (5 points)

Most Impressive Upsets:

Jayden Lee, currently tied for 4^th place with 4.5 points, won a 350+ point upset victory against Brian Huang (1875)
Stuart Konezny’s 400+ point upset victory against Alexander Rubinstein (1429)

https://twitter.com/USChess/status/810315649197244417

4th Grade

Alexander Rutten after drawing against GM Akobian in a simul

Leaders: Alexander Rutten and Jack Levine (5 points)

Most Impressive Upset: Chloe Min’s 385 point victory against Lucas Loerster-Yialamas (1908)

5th Grade

Max Lu is one of the few top seeds in the event still on a perfect score.

Leader: Max Lu (5 points)

Most Impressive Upset: Kenneth Cobbs’ 600+ point victory against Robert Kay (1508)

6th Grade

Leader: Sumit Dhar (5 points)

Most Impressive Upset: Samuel Han’s 750+ upset draw against Andrew Huang

7th Grade

Leader: Peter Peng (5 points)

Most impressive Upset: Peng’s 200+ upset victory against top seed and National Master Alex Costello

8th Grade

Leaders: Jason Daniels and Rick Sun (5 points)

Most Impressive Upset: Joseph Leesean’s nearly 400 point upset victory against Karthik Padmanabhan (2044).

9th Grade

Leaders: Praveen Balakrishnan and Derek Zhang (4.5 points)

Most Impressive Upset: Isaac Lee’s 650+ point upset draw against Derek Zhang

10th Grade

Leader: Howard Zhong (5 points)

Most Impressive Upset: Dave Mohan's nearly 300 point upset victory against top seed, Albert Lu

11th Grade

Leader: Tommy He (5 points)

He defeated top seed Ethan Li and is the only perfect score remaining.

Most Impressive Upset: Daniel Youngblood's 800+ point upset win against Gomory Keiser

12th Grade

Leader: Daniel Ivanov (4.5 points)

Ivanov achieved his second upset of the event overcoming a 250 point rating difference to defeat Joshua Brannon, 2^nd seed. Earlier in the tournament, Ivanov drew with top seed Reddy Obili. He is currently in sole 1^st with 4.5 points.

For complete standings and more information, visit the National Grade K-12 Championship Page. Follow our Twitter coverage or join the conversation using the Official Hashtag: #K12ChessChamps