Disney Ears and Championship Trophies: Results in at K-12

Results are in from the K-12 National Grade Championships, held near Disney World in Orlando. The event attracted over 1800 participants and crowned individual and team Champions in thirteen sections, from Kindergarten to 12th Grade. Check out a breakdown of our newly crowned champions, with photos and key games, and look for more stories and details coming to uschess.org later this week. Kindergarten Championship: (Results link)  The most adored videos from this weekend's #K12ChessChamps twitter takeover by IM Greg Shahade are from the Kindergarten section, including this funny one. https://twitter.com/USChess/status/939319136852770816 Look for a compilation video on that section, as we extend hearty congratulations to champ Jack Judy (FL) and runner-up Aarush Ajith (NJ), on victory, and on friendship. https://twitter.com/USChess/status/939977074990833664 1st Grade Championship (Results link)- Congrats to Andrew Jiang of Georgia, who took clear first in the 1st Grade Championship, who told US Chess, "“I love playing chess, I play all the time on chess.com." 2nd Grade Championship (Results link)- Yuvraj Rudra Chennareddy (IL) and Maya Figelman (MA) tied for first in this section with 6.5/7 each. Maya was rated only 1270 going into the event, and drew top seed Steve Wongso in a key game that paved her way to the top. https://twitter.com/USChess/status/939666947557527552 NY Collegiate School (1st place trophy on tiebreak) and Oak Hall in Gainesville, FL both scored 15.5 to share top team honors. 3rd Grade Championship (Results Link) Ronen Wilson (VA), Erick Zhao (FL) and Spencer Chin (NY) tied for first in this section with 6.5/7 each, while Dalton in NY earned top team honors.  https://twitter.com/USChess/status/940039534674186241 4th Grade Championship (Results Link)- Liam Henry Putnam (NY) earned clear first in this section, a name you may recognize as Liam also tied for first in his SuperNationals section this year, the K-3 Championship. https://twitter.com/USChess/status/939966986037157890 Oak Hall in Gainesville, FL won the Team Championship. 5th Grade Championship (Results Link)  Eddy Tian of New Jersey, our budding chess tactics book author scored victory in the 5th Grade Championship with 6.5/7.  PS 41 in New York, led by Nico Chasin, took top team honors. https://twitter.com/USChess/status/939602178578305025 6th Grade Championship (Results Link): Maximillian Lu (CT), formerly the youngest chess master in US Chess history, took down the 6th Grade Championships with 6.5/7. Dalton School in New York, led by Nathaniel Shuman, won the first place team trophy. 

[pgn]

[Event "?"]
[Site "?"]
[White "Shuman, Nathaniel"]
[Black "Lu, Maximillian"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "A47"]
[PlyCount "82"]
[SourceDate "2017.12.10"]
[SourceVersionDate "2017.12.10"]

1. d4 Nf6 2. Bf4 b6 3. e3 Bb7 4. Nf3 g6 5. Bd3 Bg7 6. h3 d6 7. O-O O-O 8. c3
Nbd7 9. Qe2 Re8 10. Ba6 Qc8 11. Bxb7 Qxb7 12. Nbd2 c5 13. Bh2 Rac8 14. e4 cxd4
15. Nxd4 a6 16. a4 e5 17. N4b3 d5 18. exd5 Nxd5 19. Rfd1 Re6 20. Nf3 h6 21.
Rac1 e4 22. Nfd4 Ree8 23. Nc2 f5 24. Ne3 Nxe3 25. Qxe3 Ne5 26. Bxe5 Rxe5 27.
Rd6 Rc6 28. Rd8+ Kh7 29. Rcd1 Qf7 30. Nd4 f4 31. Qe2 Rc4 32. Nc2 Rg5 33. Ne1 f3
34. R1d7 Qxd7 35. Qxc4 Qxd8 36. Qxe4 Qd1 37. Kh2 Re5 38. Qxf3 Rxe1 39. Qf7 Qd6+
40. f4 Re4 41. Kh1 Rxf4 0-1

[/pgn]

7th Grade Championship (Results Link): Logan Wu (TN) took clear first in the seventh Grade Championship with 6.5/7 while Hunter from New York won the Team Championship. https://twitter.com/USChess/status/939948180124438528

[pgn]

[Event "?"]
[Site "?"]
[White "Wu, Logan"]
[Black "Ni, Winston"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "B01"]
[PlyCount "44"]
[SourceDate "2017.12.10"]
[SourceVersionDate "2017.12.10"]

1. e4 d5 2. exd5 Qxd5 3. Nc3 Qa5 4. d4 Nf6 5. Nf3 c6 6. Bc4 Bf5 7. Bd2 e6 8.
Qe2 Qc7 9. O-O-O Nbd7 10. Ne5 Nxe5 11. dxe5 Nd7 12. g4 Bg6 13. f4 h5 14. f5
exf5 15. e6 Ne5 16. gxf5 Bxf5 17. exf7+ Kd8 18. Bg5+ Kc8 19. Rd8+ Qxd8 20. Bxd8
Nxc4 21. Qe8 b6 22. Qxc6+ Kxd8 1-0 [/pgn]

8th Grade Championship (Results Link): Andy Huang (VA) scored a perfect 7-0 in the 8th Grade Championship, finishing 1.5 points ahead of his nearest rivals. Davis Drive Middle School of North Carolina won the Team Championship. https://twitter.com/USChess/status/940002507023101952 9th Grade Championship (Results Link): Justin Chen of NY won the 9th Grade Championship, while also leading his school, Stuyvesant to a Team Championship. https://twitter.com/USChess/status/939959837168930816

[pgn]
[White "Sun, Rick"]
[Black "Chen, Justin"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "B74"]
[PlyCount "108"]
[EventDate "2017.??.??"]
[SourceDate "2017.12.10"]
[SourceVersionDate "2017.12.10"]

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 a6 6. a4 g6 7. Be2 Bg7 8. O-O
Nc6 9. Nb3 O-O 10. Be3 Be6 11. f4 Na5 12. f5 Bc4 13. e5 Bxe2 14. Qxe2 dxe5 15.
fxg6 hxg6 16. Rad1 Qc7 17. Nc5 Rad8 18. N5e4 Nxe4 19. Nxe4 Nc4 20. Bc1 Rxd1 21.
Rxd1 Nxb2 22. Bxb2 Qb6+ 23. Qf2 Qxb2 24. Ng5 Bf6 25. Ne4 Qb4 26. Nxf6+ exf6 27.
Qxf6 Qc5+ 28. Qf2 Qxf2+ 29. Kxf2 Rc8 30. Rb1 Rxc2+ 31. Kf3 Rc7 32. Rb6 Kg7 33.
Ke4 Rc2 34. g4 Rc4+ 35. Kxe5 Rxa4 36. Rxb7 Rxg4 37. Rb2 a5 38. Ra2 a4 39. Rb2
Rc4 40. Ra2 Rh4 41. Rc2 Rb4 42. Ra2 f5 43. Rc2 Re4+ 44. Kd5 Kf6 45. Rg2 Rg4 46.
Ra2 Kg5 47. Ke5 Re4+ 48. Kd5 Kh4 49. Ra3 g5 50. Rf3 Rf4 51. Ra3 Rf2 52. h3 Re2
53. Rf3 f4 54. Kd4 Re3 0-1

[/pgn]

10th Grade Championship (Results Link): Max Li of NY swept the 10th Grade Championship, while South Miami Senior High School won the Team Championship. https://twitter.com/USChess/status/940002976273502208 Max Li upset pre-tournament favorite Praveen Balakrishnan in round six on the way to the title.

[pgn]

[Event "?"]
[Site "?"]
[White "Li, Max"]
[Black "Balakrishnan, Praveen"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "C29"]
[PlyCount "135"]
[SourceDate "2017.12.10"]
[SourceVersionDate "2017.12.10"]

1. e4 e5 2. Nc3 Nf6 3. f4 d5 4. fxe5 Nxe4 5. Qf3 Nxc3 6. dxc3 Qh4+ 7. g3 Qe4+
8. Qxe4 dxe4 9. Bg2 Bf5 10. Ne2 Nd7 11. Nd4 Bg6 12. Bf4 Nc5 13. h4 h5 14. Bh3
Be7 15. e6 Bd6 16. Nb5 Ke7 17. Nxd6 cxd6 18. O-O-O Rad8 19. exf7 Ne6 20. Be3
Bxf7 21. c4 Bg6 22. Rd5 Rhf8 23. g4 Nf4 24. Rg5 Nxh3 25. Rxg6 Rf3 26. Rxg7+ Ke6
27. Bd4 hxg4 28. Rxg4 Kf5 29. Rg7 Nf4 30. Rg5+ Ke6 31. Kd2 d5 32. Re5+ Kf7 33.
cxd5 Nxd5 34. c3 Nf6 35. Ke2 Rf4 36. Be3 Rg4 37. Rg5 Ke6 38. Rf1 Rg8 39. Rxg8
Nxg8 40. Rg1 Rxg1 41. Bxg1 a6 42. h5 Kf5 43. Be3 Nf6 44. h6 Nh7 45. c4 Ke5 46.
Kf2 Nf6 47. Kg3 Kf5 48. b4 Kg6 49. a4 Nh5+ 50. Kg4 Nf6+ 51. Kf4 Kf7 52. Ke5 Kg6
53. c5 Kf7 54. Bg5 Nh7 55. Bf4 Nf6 56. b5 axb5 57. axb5 Kg6 58. c6 bxc6 59.
bxc6 Kf7 60. c7 Nd7+ 61. Kxe4 Nb6 62. Kf5 Nc8 63. Be5 Ne7+ 64. Kg5 Kg8 65. Bd6
Nc8 66. Bc5 Kf7 67. Kf5 Ke8 68. h7 1-0

[/pgn]

11th Grade Championship (Results Link): Matthew James Steven captured the 11th Grade title, while Whitney Young High School in Chicago took the Team Championship. https://twitter.com/USChess/status/939963732431638528 Our famous bughouse twins also had a very successful weekend. https://twitter.com/USChess/status/940026136821686277   12th Grade Championship (Results Link): Daniel Josef Cremisi (NC) and John Gabriel Ludwig (FL) tied for top honors in the 12th Grade Championship. The Christian Brothers Academy captured the Team Championship. https://twitter.com/USChess/status/939999240704716800 John Gabriel offered some tips for hopeful champs: "First of all, having a coach is not necessary.  I never had a consistent coach, and I am close to 2500 and an IM.  It is mainly determination and work ethic.  Second, and most importantly, do not see your self-worth tied to chess.  I used to see it this way, but this caused me to be frustrated with myself every time I lost.  Third, never become arrogant with chess.  Be the person that your peers look up to as not only talented, but also an all-around good person." Review our action packed twitter takeover by Greg Shahade from the K-12 Chess Champs, and look for a report from Vanessa Sun on the event, also featuring more photography from Jim Doyle. Browse all results and pairings here, and find top games here.