We had our first Seasonal Tournament last weekend on the 10th of March and it was great to have the kids be a part of a multi event tournament that makes it more fun and adds to the excitement of winning trophies across different categories.
Our first event was a USCF rated Blitz tournament with a time control of 10 minutes for the game with no delay or increment. It was great seeing the kids give it their best, and while a few games ended soon enough others went the distance. Our trophy winners for this event were:
#1 Aryan Gupta
#2 Arham Gupta
#3 Archith Manduva
Aryan winning the Blitz event.
In the next event- Chess 960 the kids had random starting positions for the pieces behind the pawns. The rules of castling in random positions of Chess 960 or Fischer Random Chess were explained and the games had a time control of 15 minutes for the game with no delay or increment. The disruption brought out the best natural talent at chess in the kids as they learnt to identify and adapt to the patterns in the starting positions and focus on key opportunities for them on the board. The kids exhibited acute understanding of relating the standard starting position opportunity in the random set up. What startled me was how they zeroed in on identifying the weaknesses around the King to execute a Scholar’s Mate in the Random setup. I witnessed a few games ending quickly as a result. While some kids were quick to get their hands around the ideas others pretty much caught up toward the end of that event and we can count on some close competition next time!
Here are our trophy winners from that event!
#1 Aarav Sinha
#2 Archith Manduva
#3 Vaibhav Subramnanian
Aarav delighted at winning Chess 960 at the Spring Tournament
In the final event of the Tournament the kids got down to some serious business with the time control of 25 minutes for the game with a 5 seconds delay on the clock. This brought some interesting games on different boards with participants taking the time to think and play and best apply what they’ve been learning at class. This format brought out one of our striking rising talents- Mohini Goswami who captured the attention of all the players and the parents present who were watching the games. At 6 years Mohini is incredibly talented and was on the verge of delivering an upset to the tournament leader after two rounds in round three. Arham acknowledged after the game that she did frighten him at various stages.
Here are our winners for the event!
#1 Arham Gupta
#2 Aryan Gupta
#3 Aarav Sinha
Arham was the winner of the last event and the Tournament Champion with a tally of 10 points out of 12 rounds! Here he is receiving the two tiered Tournament Champion Trophy.
Much as we saw the kids have a great time playing chess from different perspectives it sure left me with emotions the kids felt on losing in a close game and at one point being a leader of the event. But well, this is a start and the kids have a long way to go in their development as stronger chess players with regular revision online after their in class coaching. It was great to see all the winners have a great time celebrate their wins everyone had a nice time showing some spirited participation in this event! We’ll be having our Summer event on June 9! So look out for more news on when enrollments open up!
Here are some of our moments from the event below!
