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2025 SC Championship Results
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This year's state championship, hosted by the Columbia Chess Club, proved the strongest championship tournament in SC history, with the average Elo of the top 10 players being 2200! The tournament was also a hot ticket, with the maximum 74 players registering a week before the tournament began (and any last minute drops being snapped up!). The $6000 prize fund is also the largest awarded in South Carolina history!
Congratulations to IM Alexander Matros for taking the title after staging a remarkable comeback. Entering the final round, he was tied with five others at 3.0, trailing the leader by a full point. Draws on two contending boards led to a thrilling three-way blitz play-off against NM Sam Copeland and WFM Bahar Hallayeva. An intense finish!
The only perfect score of the tournament came from Columbia Chess Club's Kanha Kummari, who had a flawless 5.0/5.0 performance to take the U1600 section.
This year, the top four scores from each club were combined to award the title of State Champion Club in both the Championship and U1600 sections. The Championship team competition was neck-and-neck, with intense competition between the Greenville Chess Club and the Columbia Chess Club tied going into the final round. In the end, the Columbia Chess Club took the title by a score of 14 to Greenville's 13.5 points. The Charleston Chess Club finished in third with 11.5. In the U1600 section, the Columbia Chess Club--fielding a team of 20 players--took the title of state champion, for a clean sweep of this year's club titles!
Our Saturday night blitz tournament also crowned the 2025 State Blitz Champion, going to FM Kelvin Sanchez for his 5/6 in the main event and perfect 3/3 in the tiebreaks.
The Columbia Chess Club thanks all of those who could join us this weekend to make the competition so exhilarating! Thanks too to all the gracious volunteers who make these events happen, and particularly our Chief TD Ian Neack and Chief Assistant Thomas Thorla. |
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Final Results:
Championship Section:
1st-3rd (tie 4.0/5.0): IM Alexander Matros - 2025 State Champion, NM Sam Copeland, WFM Bahar Hallayeva
4th-5th Place (tie 3.5/5.0): Gene Nix, Jacob Stoll, Matthew Rogers, Samuel Paukovitz, Tanay Sanghani, Will Snyder
U1800 Prize, 1st (tie): Adam Schoonveld, Lincoln Boucher
Championship Blitz Tiebreaks: IM Alexander Matros 1.5/2.0, NM Sam Copeland 1.0/2.0, WFM Bahar Hallayeva 0.5/2.0
U1600 Section:
1st (5.0/5.0): Kanha Kummari
2nd-4th (tie 4.0/5.0): Aarush Panda, Jason Cheng, Neil Noronha, Ryan Roberge
U1200 Prize, 1st (tie): Arnold Tamez, Carson Norton, Frank Mueller, Sheldon Sewell |
Championship Club
1st: Columbia Chess Club - 14
2nd: Greenville Chess Club - 13.5
Champion U1600 Club
1st: Columbia Chess Club - 17
2nd: Knights of the Upstate - 9
Blitz Championship:
1st-3rd (tie 5.0/6.0): FM Kelvin Sanchez - 2025 Blitz State Champion, Will Snyder, NM Benjamin Caiello, WFM Bahar Hallayeva
U1600 Prize: Lincoln Boucher
Championship Final Standings
Blitz Final Standings
Championship USCF Rating Report
Blitz USCF Rating Report
Photos
DGT Archive
Chess.com Archive
YouTube Archive: Day 1, Day 2a, Day 2b, Day 3 (uploading) |
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5:15 p.m. Developmental Class (Sign Up)
6:15 p.m. Developmental Class (Sign Up)
Suited for new players and players rated under 1000. |
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4:45 p.m. Kid's Night
Suited for K-12 players who are new or rated under 1000, we offer a rated tournament with a medal to the winner, an unrated tournament for new players with a USCF membership to the winner, and free casual play. |
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| 6:30 p.m.: Quad Night! G/25+10. Quads place you in a group of four players as closely rated to you as possible, with three rounds to determine the winner. $20 Entry fee can win $40 ($45 for a perfect score). You must be registered by 6:20 p.m. to participate, so don't wait until it's too late! |
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| 6:00 p.m.: Adults-Only Class (Sign Up). |
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| 7:00 p.m.: Advanced Class (Sign Up) |
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Main Meeting
- 5 p.m. Free Lessons
- 6 p.m. Blitz I: 4 rounds of 5+0 blitz.
- 7 p.m. October Classical Month Round 2 - one round of G/60+30 each week during the month of October, join any week!
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| Avenge your performance at the State Championship, with this redemption edition of the Tunnelvision series! |
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Thomas Thorla Elected New SCCA President
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| Congratulations to Columbia's own Thomas Thorla for being elected as President of the South Carolina Chess Association. David Grimaud continues on as Vice President, with Cornell White as secretary, and Gene Nix as Treasurer. We look forward to great things from the SCCA! |
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Kid's Night:
We had 19 kids competing in this week’s tournament directed by Coach James, with a full house of students learning the game from Coach Tyler and Coach Sean as they begin their path to chess mastery.
In the B Section, Lydia Nimmich earned the medal with steady play.
In the A Section, Kosti Holtzclaw claimed the medal in dramatic fashion by defeating an opponent rated 420 points higher!
Kid's Night Rating Report
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Thursday Main Meeting: Hand & Brain: We had 10 exciting teams compete in this month’s Hand & Brain Night!
1st Place: NM Kevin Cotreau & NM Mike Sailer – a perfect 4/4, going undefeated. Tied 2nd & 3rd: Tyler Murrah with James Brandmair, and Thomas Kemp Jr. with Liam McCullough – both finishing strong with 3 points.
Monthly Classical (Round 1):
Nineteen players came out to sharpen their skills ahead of this weekend’s South Carolina State Championship:
Oliver Su scored the biggest surprise in the bottom section with a 423-point upset win. Thomas Thorla delivered a 306-point upset in the top section. Thomas Kemp Jr. battled to steal a draw from an opponent rated 236 points higher. Erik Murrah showed resilience, saving a draw against an opponent 217 points higher.
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| Get your icon before you join our event so we have time to add it to our system. The Columbia Chess Club's next generation of streaming setup is live, and you can create your own personal icon to have displayed during our events. Follow the link to submit us your photo. |
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| Join our Discord to be part of our community chat. |
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| Answer at the end of the newsletter . . . |
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| Saturday, October 11, 2025: |
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| Saturday, November 1, 2025: |
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| Friday-Sunday, November 7-9, 2025: |
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| Answer to Larry's puzzle: Kf8. Not Kh8 Nf7+ losing a rook! |
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