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The CCL Chess School

Chess, Community and Learning

 

Chess lessons and more, for players of all strengths and ages.

Rohan Padhye ties for 2nd place at National K-5 Championship

May 15, 2019

Rohan had a great tournament. He finished with 6/7 points and tied for second in K-5 National Elementary Chess Championship being held at Nashville, TN from May 10-12.  175 kids from schools all over the country participated in his section. His only loss came in the 4th round to the eventual winner, Cooper Ho from NY, who finished in clear first place with a score of 6.5/7. This is Rohan’s best performance at the Nationals to date. He played on the top 4 boards for 3 of his 7 games. These games were telecast live over the internet.

Another great result in this section was achieved by Druvin Mutalam,  Druvin tied for 12th place with a 5-2 score and brought his rating from 1272 to 1505.  Druvin has done amazing over the past 6 months, raising his rating 550 points over that time!

Filed Under: News

4 CCL Players Qualify for US Team at the World Youth Championships

April 15, 2019

CCL is proud to announce that the following 4 CCL players have qualified to participate in the 2019 World Youth (U14, U16, U18) Chess Championships, as part of the USA team, to be held in Mumbai, India, from October 1 – 13, 2019.  These students earned this honor by achieving the highest rating in their age and gender categories according to the US Chess April 2019 rating supplement.

Chis Shen – Open U-16

Vincent Baker – Open U-16

Jason Wang – Open U-14

Adeti Mohanselvan – Girls U-14

Filed Under: News

Vincent Baker wins the Ohio HS Championship and Jason Wang wins Ohio MS Championship

April 9, 2019

CCL cleaned the table with clear 1st place finishes in every major Ohio Scholastic event this Spring: Queen City Classic, K-3 Championship, and Elementary School Championship.  Last weekend we won the State HS and MS Championships.  The top CCL results were:

High School

Clear 1st place - Vincent Baker
Tied for  2nd place - Elton Cao
Tied for 4th place - Justin Storn, Aryan Balyan, and Aristo Liu

Middle School

Clear 1st place - Jason Wang
Tied for 2nd - Rohan Padhye and Dae San Kim
Tied for 4th place - Varun Sathyajeeth, Wesley Lai, Matt Wang, Michael Lin, Adeti Mohanselvan

Vincent will be representing Ohio at the Denker tournament, against the HS Champions of the other 49 states.  Jason will be represent Ohio at the Barber tournament, against the MS Champions of the other 49 states.  Complete details on this event can be seen at http://ohioscholasticchess.org/2019hsmsresults.htm .

We also had a weekend camp with IM Atanas Kizov 2 weekends ago.  Below are some the few pictures that I took at these two events.

Filed Under: News

CCL has perfect scores in winning both Ohio Elementary School Championships

April 1, 2019

Edison Lui scored a perfect 5-0 to win the Ohio Elementary School Chess Championship while Siddarth Kunapuli also had a perfect 5-0 score to win the Ohio K-3 Championship.  Top CCL finishes include:

K-6
1st place – Edison Liu
2nd place – Anant Adury
Tied for 3rd – Matt Wang

K-3
1st place – Siddarth Kunapuli
3rd place – Saadhika Bagley
Tied for 4th – Colin Park

Complete details are at http://ohioscholasticchess.org/2019elementaryresults.htm .

Filed Under: News

CCL dominates at Queen City

March 20, 2019

CCL continues to show that there is no program even close to the strength of CCL in the State of Ohio.

Aryan Balyan defeated Justin Storn in the final round with the black pieces to win the Queen City Classic with a clear 1st place score of 4.5.  It was a fascinating game where Justin sacrificed a minor piece for for two pawns and an apparent attack.  However, the attack did not really exist as Aryan's knight dominated the position.  You can see this game at https://cclchess.com/chess/ccl-games/.  The team pretty much had the team championship locked up after 3 rounds, almost doubling the score of the 2nd place team.  CCL trophy winners in the top section where Aryan Balyan, Karthik Kallam, Arjun Krishna, Om Borkar, and Udbhav Raghukanth.

In the 7-9 section both Atharva Sapre and Dhruti Shah came in tied for 2nd place and the team came in 2nd place.

In the 4-6 section, Matt Wang sweep the field with a perfect 5-0 score.  Matt is adding this win to his grade level championship for a coming of age year for Matt.  Druvin Mutalam came in tied for 2nd while both Aditya Mehta and Aniket Shetty coming in tied for 5th.  CCL won the team trophy by almost 3 times the score of 2nd place.

We only had two players in the K-3 section, Colin Park and Jashwin Pisini, yet we still manged to come in 3rd place as a team.  Colin came in 3rd place with a 4-1 score.

Complete results are posted at  https://ccpf.proscan.com/programs/queen-city-classic-chess-tournament/final-results/ .  Below are the team pictures of those who were still available when the team trophy was given out, as well as a photo or the Storn-Balyan game.  Team trophies were raffled off at the end of the tournament.

Filed Under: News

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Introduction to Our Community Chess Instructional Program

Welcome to CCL, a community-driven chess instructional initiative designed to bring timeless chess to learners of all ages and skill levels. Whether you’re a beginner taking your first steps on the board or an experienced player seeking to sharpen your strategies, our program offers something for everyone.

Chess is more than just a game—it fosters critical thinking, patience, and problem-solving skills. Our program is built around the belief that chess can unite people, challenge minds, and create opportunities for personal growth and community connection. To supplement the chess side of individual enrichment, we recently opened a prodigious activities wing to CCL, managed by renowned mathematician and prodigy Dr. Harvey Friedman.

Why Join Us?

Our program is driven by a passionate community of chess lovers dedicated to creating an inclusive, supportive, and educational environment. For details on how the community fosters the program, please go to the menu option The Community. By participating, you’ll have the opportunity to:

  • Learn at your own pace with flexible instruction formats.
  • Join a vibrant chess community and make new friends who share your interests.
  • Enhance your cognitive skills, such as strategic thinking and decision-making.
  • Compete in local tournaments and represent our community.
  • Work with renowned mathematician and prodigy Dr. Harvey Friedman in other prodigious activities.

Let’s make chess an engaging and enriching part of our community. Join us today and start your chess journey! Together, we can grow our community and inspire a love for this incredible game.

The Coaches

  • alancasden2
    National Master Alan Casden
  • International Master Atanas Kizov -- CCL Head Coach --
  • Walker
    Life Master Walker Griggs
  • GM VLATKO BOGDANOVSKI
    Grand Master Vlatko Bogdanovski
  • Zoran
    International Master Zoran Arsovic
  • NM Vladimir Kizov
    National Master Vladimir Kizov
    Head of Pre-CCL
  • Jacob Eismann
    Jacob Eismann

The Rest of the Team

  • Jeff
    Jeff Shen
    Business Manager
  • Adai
    Adai Adaikappan
    Community Laison
  • Courtenay
    Courtenay James
    Organizer
  • Shiv
    Shivkumar Kurulekar
    IT System Admin
  • Jagdish Patel
    Jagdish Patel
    Newsletter Editor
  • Harvey
    Dr. Harvey Friedman - Head of Prodigious Activites

Recent Posts

  • CCL Chess Stars Score Big at the Cleveland Open! June 16, 2025
  • CCL Chess Students Shine on the Podium at SuperNationals VIII in Orlando, FL May 12, 2025
  • NEWSLETTER OF THE MOTCF April 15, 2025
  • CCL March Chess Camps February 25, 2025
  • CCL Graduates February 2, 2025
  • Making our 2025 MOTCF Teams January 23, 2025
  • Welcome Jacob ! January 21, 2025
  • Jeff Shen is taking over the lead role at CCL December 26, 2024
  • Simul Stuff December 23, 2024
  • CCL Alumni/Student Chess GetTogether December 13, 2024
  • 2024 State Grade Levels November 27, 2024
  • Life Master Walker Griggs is giving lessons! October 29, 2024
  • Chess Math is here! October 27, 2024
  • An Evening with Atanas October 23, 2024
  • March CCL Chess Camps October 17, 2024
  • Maxwell again! Good Gosh September 16, 2024
  • Louis Zhang becomes the 36th CCL Graduate July 30, 2024
  • Major Changes in CCL June 6, 2024
  • Catch Up Time May 17, 2024
  • Cole Braun wins Ohio Middle School Championship February 27, 2024
  • CCL Chess Camp 4/20-21/2024 February 17, 2024
  • Rohan Padhye win Cardinal Open while CCL finishes very strong January 19, 2024
  • Mehmet is a National Champion December 19, 2023
  • CCL wins most of the grades at the Ohio Grade Levels November 25, 2023
  • Justin Storn wins State Championship while CCL soars September 5, 2023
  • Matt Wang becomes the 35th CCL Graduate May 23, 2023
  • 2023 MOTCF March 29, 2023
  • 2023 Queen City Classic March 29, 2023
  • Kevin Xu February 25, 2023
  • Minghao Gu becomes the 34th CCL Graduate February 6, 2023

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