• All Girls Championship – Maggie sweeps the field and the CCL girls train keeps rolling
  • It is amazing how good Maggie has become and how we can start to take her accomplishments for granted.  When I saw that she won the All-Girls championship with a perfect 5-0 score, my first thought was of course, what else, she had far out rated the rest of the field.  But how great is that, when a 6^th grade girl is so expected to dominate, as she did, the K-12 girls championship of Ohio.  What an amazing young chess player.
  • I was a little afraid that since the CCL Ohio girls train just lost its 2^nd and 3^rd cars (Emily and Meghana) due to moving out of town that the train would slow down.  It actually is acting like it is gaining speed.  The CCL girls finished (without Lainie, Stella, Michelle, and Emma playing):
    • 1^st = Maggie
    • 2^nd = Victoria
      • This was the biggest surprise of the tournament.  Well not to me as I have recently noticed how well Victoria has been playing so this is no fluke.  Victoria beat all of her competition, except for her lose to Maggie, and gained 219 points.
    • 4^th = Ellison
      • Fresh from her win in New Orleans which earned her an invitation to the National Susan Polgar All-Girls
    • 7^th = Lisa
    • 10^th = Lily

https://cclchess.com/3822/

With 4.5/5 Matthew took clear 1^st place in the U-1500 sections of the Cardinal Open, taking home $500 and 100 rating points for his efforts.  He was a point ahead of the field going into the last round, when he yielded his only draw.  Also in that section, Philip tied for 3^rd place with a 3.5 score, taking home $82.50.  Cashing in on some of the U-1500 money was Shourjya, taking home $50 for the upset prize (267 point difference).

Ayush took home $250 and 199 (!) rating points with his 4.5 score in the U-1300 section.  That score was good for a two way tie for 1^st place.  A very impressive performance.

John took home $33 in the Open section with a tie for 3^rd place for the U-2200 prize.

There was a Saturday night blitz tournament where John took 2^nd place in the top section while Anagh took 2^nd place in the other section.  They each earned $25 for their efforts.

Our 25+ point winners at the Cardinal were:

Ayush                   +199      =1254

Matthew             +100      =1565

Ganesh                 +93        =1506

Kunal                    +54        =945

Monish                 +37        =1564

Rohit                    +30        =1510

1/6/2013

Yesterday, Luke Xie went to the Dayton Pawn Storm and took clear first place in the top section, earning his Expert’s title (+46 = 2007) and became the 6^th CCL graduate.

Previous graduates are:

• John Hughes
• Walker Griggs
• Maggie Feng
• Rahul Ramaswamy
• Annorjan Naguleswaran
• and now Luke Xie

What is a CCL graduate?  It is an honorary degree that we give to any CCL player who has worked their way through the ranks while in CCL and has made an experts rating (>= 2000).   It entitles them to lifetime membership in CCL, based on good behavior, without the requirement of taking lessons.  They are allowed to receive email spam from me for the rest of their life!  Although graduates are no longer required to take lessons while in CCL, all of our previous graduates are still active students in CCL.  A big congrats goes out to this national champion 5^th grader for this huge accomplishment, among his many others.

Being one of only four US players to medal at the World Youth Championships, Chris Shen won a Bronze medal in the U-8 open division. A super job. Out of a possible 11 points, Chris scored 8.5, a plus 6 score! Also participating from CCL were Maggie Feng  (G u-12) and Meghana Bhanuprasad (G u-10), both with excellent plus 2 scores of 6.5. This means that CCL was 21.5 – 11.5 at World Youth Championships. A win rate of almost 2-1!!! Amazing, just amazing.

Striving ever higher, we really need to salute the courage of these three players, travelling to Eastern Europe for two weeks to compete against the very best in the world, in one of the world’s strongest chess areas. Also qualifying for the World Youth Championships but unable to make the trip where Emily Hu and Luke Xie.  Everywhere, people are starting to take notice of all of the great talent coming out of CCL.