Z to Z at the K-12: Zhao and Zhuge Among New Champions

Results are in at the K-12 Chess Championships and our very first Main Event Champ was Katherine Zhuge of California, first to reach six points in the Kindergarten section. Katherine ended in a tie for first with Nathan Walatka (1st place trophy) of Indiana. Dalton in New York and Oak Hall in Gainesville tied for first in the Team Championships. Kindergarten Championship Final results 1st Grade Championship: Maxwell Yang of Florida and Vihaan Jammalamadaka of Washington tied for first in the 1st Grade Championship and posed for US Chess with their huge trophies while Hunter College in New York won the team Championship. 2nd Grade Championship Imran Champsi of California and Rishabh Chinni,  of Washington tied for first in the second grade Championships. Speyer Legacy school in New York took down the team title. 3rd Grade Championship- Xan Meister of NY took clear first in the 3rd Grade Championship.

[pgn]

[Event "National K-12 Grade Championships"]
[Site "Orlando, Florida"]
[Date "2018.12.16"]
[White "Marian, Aaron"]
[Black "Meister, Xan"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "C11"]
[PlyCount "70"]
[EventDate "2018.??.??"]

1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. Bg5 dxe4 5. Bxf6 Qxf6 6. Nxe4 Qd8 7. Nf3 Nd7 8.
Bd3 Be7 9. Qd2 b6 10. O-O-O Bb7 11. Kb1 O-O 12. Neg5 h6 13. Ne4 Nf6 14. Rhe1
Rc8 15. c3 c5 16. dxc5 Nxe4 17. Qc2 Nf6 18. Bh7+ Nxh7 19. Rxd8 Rfxd8 20. cxb6
axb6 21. Ne5 Nf6 22. f3 Nd5 23. c4 Bb4 24. Nd3 Bxe1 25. Qb3 Ne3 26. a3 Ba6 27.
Qxb6 Bxc4 28. Qxe3 Rxd3 29. Qxe1 Bb3 30. a4 Rd1+ 31. Qxd1 Bxd1 32. a5 Ra8 33.
b4 Rb8 34. a6 Rxb4+ 35. Kc1 Ba4 0-1

[/pgn]

Speyer Legacy school in New York also won top team in this section. 4th Grade Championship- Huge congrats to Erick Zhao, who is ending 2018 on quite a high note, with a perfect score in the 4th Grade Championship, just a month after his silver medal performance in Santiago, Spain. Making the win even sweeter, Erick led his Florida team, Joseph A. Williams to a victory by a half point margin. Watch his smooth final round win, which he ended with the lovely creeping move, 28.Qc6!

[pgn]

[Event "National K-12 Grade Championships"]
[Site "Orlando, Florida"]
[Date "2018.12.16"]
[White "Zhao, Erick"]
[Black "Emir, Doruk"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "C90"]
[PlyCount "55"]
[EventDate "2018.??.??"]

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6 4. Ba4 Nf6 5. O-O Be7 6. d3 b5 7. Bb3 d6 8. c3
O-O 9. Re1 Re8 10. Nbd2 Bf8 11. Nf1 g6 12. h3 Bg7 13. Ng3 Nb8 14. d4 Nbd7 15.
Bd2 Bb7 16. Rc1 exd4 17. cxd4 Nxe4 18. Nxe4 Bxe4 19. Bxf7+ Kxf7 20. Ng5+ Kf8
21. Nxe4 Bf6 22. Bh6+ Kg8 23. Qb3+ Kh8 24. Qd5 Rc8 25. Ng5 Bxg5 26. Bxg5 Rxe1+
27. Rxe1 Qg8 28. Qc6 1-0

[/pgn]

5th Grade Championship- Jed Sloan of NY won clear first in the 5th Grade Championship and the Speyer Legacy School won the Team Championship.

[pgn]

[Event "National K-12 Grade Championships"]
[Site "Orlando, Florida, United State"]
[Date "2018.12.16"]
[Round "5.9"]
[White "Klenoff, Caleb J"]
[Black "Sloan, Jed"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "B40"]
[PlyCount "70"]
[EventDate "2018.??.??"]

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 e6 3. c3 Nf6 4. e5 Nd5 5. Bc4 Nc6 6. O-O Be7 7. d4 cxd4 8. cxd4
d6 9. Re1 O-O 10. Nc3 Nxc3 11. bxc3 dxe5 12. dxe5 Qc7 13. Bb3 Rd8 14. Qe2 b6
15. Ng5 h6 16. Nxf7 Kxf7 17. Qh5+ Kg8 18. Bxh6 Bf8 19. Bg5 Be7 20. Bc2 Bxg5 21.
Bh7+ Kf8 22. Qxg5 Rd5 23. f4 Ba6 24. Re3 Rad8 25. Qh5 Bd3 26. Rxd3 Rxd3 27. Bg6
Ne7 28. Bxd3 Rxd3 29. g4 Qc5+ 30. Kg2 Rd2+ 31. Kh3 Qxc3+ 32. Kh4 Rxh2+ 33. Kg5
Rxh5+ 34. Kxh5 Qh3+ 35. Kg5 Qh6# 0-1

[/pgn]

6th Grade Championship-  Jack Levine of NY, Ronald Hernandez of Florida, Jason Shen of Florida and Ziyang Qiu of North Carolina tied for first in the 6th Grade Championship. Co-champ Hernandez found a stunning tactical sequence in his sixth round game. Can you find it?

White to Move and Win 

Show Solution

I.S 318 of Brooklyn and Hunter College of New York tied for first for top sixth grade team. https://twitter.com/IS318Chess/status/1074453455392202752 7th Grade Championship-Gus Huston (NY), Noah Henry Thomforde-Toates (PA), Weijie Li (NY) and Nathaniel Shuman (NY) tied for first with 6/7 in the 7th Grade. Huston and Shuman were both members of the victorious team, Dalton in New York. https://twitter.com/USChess/status/1074447027017342976 8th Grade Championship- Sumit Dhar of New York and Raghav Venkat of Florida tied for first in the 8th Grade. I.S. 318, as featured in Brooklyn Castle, took clear first in the Team competition. https://twitter.com/IS318Chess/status/1074442831996039168 9th Grade Championship- Wesley Wang of NY and Andy Huang of VA tied for first in this section. On twitch.com/US Chess Jennifer Yu and Will Aramil called Wang's round five win over Elton Cao one of the nicest games they saw over the weekend.

[pgn]

[Event "National K-12 Grade Championships"]
[Site "Orlando, Florida, United State"]
[Date "2018.12.16"]
[Round "5.5"]
[White "Cao, Elton"]
[Black "Wang, Wesley"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "A57"]
[BlackElo "2366"]
[PlyCount "70"]
[EventDate "2018.??.??"]

1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 c5 3. d5 b5 4. cxb5 a6 5. e3 g6 6. Nc3 Bg7 7. Nf3 O-O 8. e4
axb5 9. Bxb5 Qa5 10. Nd2 Ne8 11. Qb3 Nd6 12. Be2 Ba6 13. Bxa6 Qxa6 14. Ne2 f5
15. Qe3 fxe4 16. O-O Qd3 17. Nb3 Nc4 18. Qxd3 exd3 19. Nc3 Na6 20. Rd1 Nd6 21.
Bg5 Rfe8 22. Rac1 c4 23. Nd2 Nb4 24. Nde4 Nxa2 25. Nxd6 Nxc1 26. Nxe8 Bxc3 27.
Bxc1 Ra1 28. Rf1 Rxc1 29. Rxc1 Bxb2 30. Rf1 c3 31. d6 Kf7 32. Nc7 e6 33. Na6
Ba3 34. f4 c2 35. Kf2 d2 0-1

[/pgn]

Wesley Wang hoists his first place trophies for 9th grade. He was co/champ individual and his team won second place. He had another quote for us: “The people who say that winning isn’t everything, never won anything.” Andy Huang also led his team, Thomas Jefferson High School in Alexandria, VA to first place victory.  10th Grade Championship- IM Hans Niemann rebounded from a round three loss to Evan Ling to tie for first in the 10th Grade Championship, along with Marcus Miyasaka (first place trophy) and Justin Chen. Justin was top board for Stuyvesant High School, which won the team Championship. All three co-champs are from NY. Niemann's positional queen sacrifice in the penultimate round turned heads all over the World.

[pgn]

[Event "?"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "2018.12.16"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Niemann, Hans"]
[Black "Idnani, Taran"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "E92"]
[PlyCount "80"]
[SourceDate "2018.12.16"]
[SourceVersionDate "2018.12.16"]

1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. Nc3 Bg7 4. e4 d6 5. Be2 O-O 6. Nf3 e5 7. Be3 Nc6 8. d5
Ne7 9. Nd2 Nd7 10. Qc2 a5 11. g4 Nc5 12. Nb3 b6 13. Rg1 Bd7 14. h4 a4 15. Nxc5
bxc5 16. h5 f6 17. hxg6 hxg6 18. Kd2 g5 19. Rab1 Nc8 20. b4 cxb4 21. Rxb4 c5
22. Rb7 Nb6 23. Rb1 Ra6 24. Qb2 a3 25. Qxb6 Rxb6 26. R7xb6 Qc7 27. Rb7 Qc8 28.
f3 Rd8 29. Kd3 Qa8 30. Bd1 Kh7 31. Bd2 Kg6 32. R1b6 Be8 33. Bb3 Bd7 34. Nb5
Bxb5 35. Rxb5 Rh8 36. Rc7 Rh2 37. Bc3 Bf8 38. Ra5 Qb8 39. Raa7 Rf2 40. Ke3 Rf1
1-0[/pgn]

Black resigned in view of devastating threats like Ba4-d7-f5! https://twitter.com/olimpiuurcan/status/1074338045208363009 11th Grade Championship- NM Nithin Kavi of MA was the only clear winner in a high school section. https://twitter.com/USChess/status/1074449435508334595 In the team competition, Phillips Exeter Academy in New Hampshire took the W.   12th Grade Championship-  Nikhil Kalghatgi and Sahil Sinha tied for first in the 12 Grade Championship, while the Whitney Young High School in Chicago won top team honors. Can you find co-champ Sinha's devastating move in this position?

White to Move

Show Solution

Bug and Blitz: As previously reported, IM Hans Niemann won the K-12 Blitz Championship and Nathaniel won the K-6 Blitz.  This makes Hans a triple crown winner as he tied for first in bug and the Main Event, and won clear in the blitz. We also have a corrected tweet on the brother-sister bughouse Championship duo, Jennifer and Carlos Hoyos, as a previous version featured a different Carlos. https://twitter.com/USChess/status/1074047989927346176 Congrats to all the winners and players at the K-12, which you can browse on the standings pages. Review streams on our twitch channel, and relive our twitter feed @USChess or using the hashtag #K12ChessChamps.