With 7 CCL players participating in the overlapping World Youth Championships, only two of us made the trip to Orlando for the National Grade Levels.  However, those two did not disappoint.

• Jason Wang swept the field with a perfect 7-0 score, finishing a full point ahead of the rest of the field.  Jason is now the national champion of 2nd grade!

• Aristo had a strong 6-1 finish at the National 5^th grade championship.  He finished just ½ point behind the 1^st place finisher, tying for 2nd place.

Many of our CCL players did not participate in this year’s grade levels but it did not stop us from winning a Grade Level Championship for every grade that we participated in.  That is grades 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 12.  That is a new record for CCL.  The train just never stops and we will try our best not to set any artificial limits on it.  If I had set limits in the past, we would have stopped a while back but without limits we are starting to reach the sky.  You are so amazing, so much more than I could have imagined.

Final results are posted at http://www.ohioscholasticchess.org/2013gradelevelresults.html while ratings can be viewed on our plycount page.

Grade K-1 – no regular CCL players

2^nd grade – “The little one” Emma and Jason Mason from Wang, Ohio are co-champions (4.5).  They had a wild draw in their individual encounter and beat everyone else.  Emma edged out the 1^st place trophy on tie-breaks. Finishing with 4-1 were Viktor M (4^th) place and Alan Z (5^th place).

 

3^rd grade – Lainie (4.5) takes home a two-way share of the crown with a 1^st place finish.  We are starting to see the girls in CCL moving ever so clearly to the front of the line.  I am so proud of how well our girls are doing in this traditionally male dominated activity.  They are crashing down the walls!  They should be exceptionally proud of themselves.  Let no limiting stereotypes be unturned.

Lainie’s pictures are a before and after tournament comparison.

 

4^th grade – Austin swept through the field 5-0 and took home his Grade Level Championship.  Austin was the clear 1^st seed in this section, and he left no doubt why that was the case.  Other CCL trophy winners include Soham (4-1 3^rd) why in the world is this chess talent rated so low?), Rusty (3.5 5^th place), Doc (3.8 8^th place).

5^th place – Arvind SP swept through the 5^th grade ranks for a sole title at 5-0.  It was a race between Arvind and Vincent the whole way.  Arvind won their individual contest, leaving Vincent in clear 2^nd with a 4-1 score.  The rest of the field laid in their wake.  However, finishing in 4^th place with 3.5 points was the exceptionally under rated Aditya.  He like Soham, in grade 4, are going to be soon moving quickly up the ranks.

 

6^th grade – Team mates from the same school Luke and Matthew were the top seeds in their grade level.  They were weeding their way through the field, until they met in the last round.  There was no grandmaster draw here but the final result was the same.  Luke and Matthew are the 6^th grade co-champions, with Luke taking the nod on tiebreaks for the 1^st place trophy.  Following closely in the 4-1 pack were Sujan, Joe, and Kunal. If my memory hold me right, Luke has participated in every grade levels from K-6, earning 1^st place 6 times and 2^nd place once.  This has to be one of the most dominate Grade Level performances in the history of the grade levels and he can still compete 6 more times!  Now onto the World Youth Championships for Luke.

7^th grade – It didn’t seem like Anagh (missing picture) broke out a sweat in his sweep of the 7^th grade field.  He seem to know something, walking around with a confident swagger that I don’t always see in him.  Anagh looks like he might be the next CCL graduate.  With a rating of 1997, he is only 3 points from graduating!  Other CCL trophy winners include Jacob (4-1 4^th place), Nolan (3.5 5^th place), and Jeremy (3.5 6^th place).

8^th grade – Abhi and Vikram were the clear pre-tournament favorites.  Abhi seemed a little more scared than Vikram and in this case, it may have worked the best for Abhi.  Vikram beat himself one round, having just come off of a super King’s Island tournament and being up a pawn and piece against a much lower rated player, Vikram might have turned on auto-pilot too soon and crashed into the side of the mountain.  Abhi methodically seem to take little chances and cranked out 5 wins.  Mark (a surprise to some but not me.  Both Mark and his partner-in-crime Kian have been really coming on of late) came in 2^nd place with a 4-1 score, only losing to Abhi.  Vikram finished in 4^th with his 4-1 score.

9^th – 11^th – No CCL players

12^th place – Our lone CCLian at 12^th grade was Rahul and he did not disappoint, going 4-0 before agreeing to a short last round draw and becoming part of a 2-way co-championship.  Rahul has finished his HS career strongly at the grade levels.  I believe that he has been his grade level champion now for 3 of the last 4 years.

CCL really shined at King’s Island.  I will try to give some of the highlights below.

 

The money winners were:

Open Section:

–        The new John seems to be showing up every time now.  He has established himself as a solid master (2249) and will finish 12^th grade as one of the top adult players in Ohio.  He also got $54.50

–        Coach Hans makes a stand for the old chess coaches of the world, tying for 1-2 U-2300 prize.  Taking home $1,095.50 for his 4-1 score in the open section.

U-2100

–        Noah Keating-Adams scored 3.5 and ended in a two way tie for 5^th place.  He netted $136.50 for his efforts.  Noah has been consistently playing at expert strength this year.

U-1900

–        Who is that riding his stallion and swinging his sword over his head, it is Srivastava!  Vikram, long overdue, showed how strong of a player he is.  He swept the U-1900 field 5-0 to finish in clear 1^st place and took home $1,823.00.

–        Forest took the trip up from Tennessee to join us for this tournament.  And he stayed in his good form of late, finishing 4-0 which was good for a 6 way tie for 3^rd place and $182.34.

U-1700

–        Shourjya (who has been on a tear of late, but perhaps not satisfied) and Divyesh came into the spotlight.  They both scored 4 points and shared a 3 way tie for 4^th place.  They each got $212.67 for their efforts.

U-1500

–        Coming off a 5-0 sweep at the Clover Challenge, Jeremy played the ‘Swiss Gambit’ to perfection at King’s Island.  He finished with 4.5 and took home $1458 for tying for first with an unrated player!!  Watch out for Jeremy at the grade levels, he is smokin’!

U-1250

–        In this section it was time for ‘the little one’ to have her breakout tournament.  Emma double dipped, taking home $319 for her two way tie for 3^rd with 4 points as well as $182.50 for tying for 1^st place team in the mixed doubles.  Is it legal for a ‘little one’ to win over $500?

–        Akul, just in pre-ccl a few months ago, took home $36.50 for his 3.5 point tied for 5^th finish.  He might be scratching his head asking why Emma got so much money when he beat her in this tournament.

We had a number of other great results that do not show up in the money column because those players chose to play up.  You can see them in our 25 club.

–        25 club

• Emma                   +159      1296
• Vikram                 +127      1976
• Shourjya              +115      1698
• Tim                       +111      1777
• Kunal                    +109      1399
• Ethan                    +94        1297
• Jeremy                 +81        1577
• Phillip                   +77        1816
• Aditya                   +70        1062
• Akul                      +65        1275
• Sanjay                  +64        1010
• Timothy               +63        1437
• Stanley                 +53        1768
• Victor L                +53        1362
• Kevin                    +51        1310
• Ayush                   +50        1320
• Divyesh                +46        1666
• Forest                   +43        1862

• As always we dominated in a scholastic event.  This tournament was designed more for the next generation of super heroes, than the present.  One of the strategies at this tournament was to develop a ‘hit squad’, we picked the 4 people that looked the scariest to walk around the tournament to intimidate our opponents, the 2^nd graders!

The Hit Squad

Alan, Viktor, Emma, and Jason

• 
• Jeremy sweep the field in the Open section, with a 4-0 score.  Stella (3^rd), Josh (5^th), Mark (6^th) and Vincent (7^th) all had 3-1 scores.  CCL was the 1^st place team.

 

• 
• In the U-900 division, Soham finished in clear 2^nd place with a 4-1 score.  Abby, a last round win away from taking clear 1^st place finished in 5^th place with a 3.5 score.  CCL was the 1^st place team.
• All of the pictures from the event can be seen at https://cclchess.com/2013-clover-challenge/

 

–        Cincinnati Scholastic Chess Series

• Lainie won the November league of the Cincinnati Scholastic Chess Series. She tied with Victor L and two others with a 3-1 score but took home the 1^st place trophy on tiebreaks.

For the third year in a row, a CCL student won the title of State of Ohio Chess Champion.  This year it was won by a student who is starting to come into his own as a dangerous player at ANY LEVEL, John Hughes.  There ended up being a 4-way tie with the co-champions being: John Hughes, Calvin Blocker, Bill Wright, and Oliver Koo.

Figure 1 –  l) TD Joe Yun  then co-champions John Hughes and Calvin Blocker

Whenever we go to these major tournaments, you represent CCL well but sometimes you really shine.  At the 2013 Ohio Chess Congress you really shined.  I am a little tired today so I am just going to lay the results down that I have (some details are unknown to me):

 

Open:

John Hughes – State of Ohio Chess Champion  $$$$$

U-2000:

Anagh    – Tied for first     +23        1922      $$$$$ – Anagh put 4 positive tournaments in a row together, driving his rating from 1801 – 1922

U-1700:

Stanley and Arvind SP      2-way tie for 1^st   $494.40 each

Austin tied for 4^th – 5^th   +23          1690

Dakshin – Won upset prize $50, and his opponent was upset!

U-1400:

Won by pseudo-CCL player, Daniel Zhang (Cody Yang’s older brother)

Lainie – Clear 2^nd   $$$$$

Jeremy – Clear 3^rd $$$$$

Viktor – won $50 upset prize and got U-1100 class money $$$$$

 

The kids are taking over the world!