This Week at the Charlotte Chess Center: 5/20-5/26/2024
Welcome to This Week at the Charlotte Chess Center! This is our weekly recap for all chess tournaments hosted by the CCC in the past week, spanning from Monday, May 20th to Sunday, May 26th, 2024.
Our recap this week will include all the weekly events at both the North and South locations, as well as our Sunday online blitz arena! This post will not include the ongoing CCC Club Championships, which will be featured in a standalone piece in the official CCC blog here on chess.com.
To find a specific event, navigate using the headings below:
Monday Action Quads (CCC North)
Our Monday Action Quads event is a scholastic tournament held at the CCC North location every week, where players are placed into quads of four and play three rounds of g20+10 USCF-rated chess. We had 22 players this time around!
Congratulations to the following players for winning their quads this week:
Quad A: Caleb Kidd (3 points)
Quad B: Ishaanvii Ashwin (3 points)
Quad C: Bhargav Raghavendra and Deniz Galitsky (2 points)
Quad D: Pradnesh Biswal (3 points)
Quad E (six players): Riyansh Kakarla (3 points)
Our biggest gainer this week was Pradnesh Biswal, whose rating soared from 496 to 633! For detailed results from the May 20 MAQ tournament, click here for the USCF crosstables.
The next Monday Action Quads event is scheduled for June 2.
Tuesday Night Action (CCC Main/South)
Tuesday Night Action is a rated chess tournament held every Tuesday evening at the Main/South location. Following a lecture by FM and CCC founder Peter Giannatos, participants are paired into one game of USCF standard-rated chess per week.
The following players won this past Tuesday:
Top: Namish Kondabathini, Rohit Jagga, Brian Zhang, and Celine Atassi
U1600: Charles Cameron, Raghav Keskar, Spencer Singleton, Namish Mayank, Arsh Sharda, Charlie Manolakis, and Anthony Gentile
U1300: Avery Bradley, Bhargava Meda, Bryan Muraya, Joshua Rubanenko, Aadhav Nr, Zachary Grossman, Keith Becker, Nichol Garrison, and Robert Isner
The top scoring adult and junior player in each section at the end of the month will receive a $25 gift card to USCF sales. Three players currently have two points this month in the Top section: Kishan Karthigeyan, Namish Kondabathini, and Rohit Jagga. Charles Cameron has a clear lead in the U1600 section with 3/3, while Avery Bradley is on 2.5/3 and in sole possession of first place in the U1300. View full TNA standings here.
Our final Tuesday Night Action of May will be held at the Main/South location on May 28.
Wednesday Action Quads (CCC Main/South)
Wednesday Action Quads is a g20+10 USCF-rated quads tournament held every Wednesday evening at the CCC's Main/South location. This tournament is open to players of all ages and strengths!
We had 26 players in this week's WAQ, forming six quads. Our quad winners this week were:
Quad A: IM Tianqi Wang (3 points)
Quad B: Brian Zhang (3 points)
Quad C: Andrew Khariouk (2.5 points)
Quad D: Samuel Paukovitz and Vihaan Purohit (2 points)
Quad E: Mukund Neema (2.5 points)
Quad F (six players): William Lobig (3 points)
IM Tianqi Wang has won Quad A with a perfect score in each of the past two weeks! Meanwhile, Brian Zhang gained 71 points of USCF rating, while Mukund Neema gained 54 points in Quad E.
For full results, view the USCF rating report.
Our next Wednesday Action Quads tournament will be held at the CCC Main/South location on May 29.
Friday Action Quads (CCC Main/South)
On Friday nights, the CCC hosts two scholastic quad events, one at each center. Friday Action Quads is held each Friday night at the Main/South location, and this week's event attracted 36 (!) players across nine quads.
Congratulations to the following players for winning their quads:
Quad A: Shlok Kaushik (3 points)
Quad B: Nilai Gummi and Moses Collins (2 points)
Quad C: John Smith (2.5 points)
Quad D: Imhotep Collins and Patrick Young-Grady (2 points)
Quad E: Benjamin Xu, Harish Chandramohan, and Isaac Tone (2 points)
Quad F: Jaden Kang (3 points)
Quad G: Sreyash Maitra (3 points)
Quad H: Quinten McNear and Owen Carstens (2 points)
Quad I: Jaxsen Lee (3 points)
Each of the clear first finishers (Shlok Kaushik, John Smith, Jaden Kang, Sreyash Maitra, and Jaxsen Lee) each gained well over 50 points. Detailed results of the May 24 FAQ tournament can be viewed here.
The next Friday Action Quads will be held on May 31.
NEW Friday Pizza Quads (CCC North)
The Charlotte Chess Center has recently inaugurated a new scholastic tournament: the Friday Pizza Quads! This tournament is held at the CCC North location every Sunday evening, open to scholastic chess players. After the first round, participants may help themselves to a slice of pizza!
We had two sections this week, with Sai Saravanan scoring 3/3 and taking clear first place in Quad A, while Bhargav Raghavendra also posted a perfect 3/3 score in Quad B. Sai Saravanan's rating catapulted nearly 200 points to a new peak of 1053 in the process!
View the full results of this week's FPQ here. Our next Friday Pizza Quads will be held on May 31.
Sunday Afternoon Classical (CCC North)
Sunday Afternoon Classical is a weekly tournament at the CCC North location open to players of all ages and strengths. There was no SAC this past Sunday during the holiday weekend/CCC Club Championship, but the following players received prizes for their performances in the month of May:
Adult (Top Section): Matthew Sedlock
Junior (Top Section): Naitik Rathi
Adult (U1300 Section): Kenny Campbell
Junior (U1300 Section): Alex Sedlock
Congratulations to our prize winners!
The final May SAC standings (with prize results) are viewable at this link, while rating changes can be viewed via the USCF rating report. Our next SAC will be held on June 2.
Online Blitz Arena!
The CCC hosts an online blitz arena here on chess.com every Sunday, and this week's edition saw one of the most dominant performances yet! Steve Alapatt, playing 27 games, posted a perfect score while racking up a whopping 105 points, finishing comfortably in first place. Here's Steve's quick win over the third place finisher, Luke Zimmer:
And here's his victory over runner-up Eshwar Kothapalli:
The race for second was a lot closer than the race for first, as Eshwar Kothapalli and Luke Zimmer finished within three points of each other, thanks in small part to this nice win by Eshwar against Brayden Van De Graaff:
We hope all 41 participants had a fun time in our online arena! The final standings can be viewed here, and our next arena will take place at 7:30 next Sunday.
Member Game Submissions!
Two members sent in games this week for inclusion in this report! Both were played at Tuesday Night Action on May 21. First, Nichol Garrison sent in her game vs Henry Yoo, in which she blasted open the lines in front of her opponent's king to deliver a devastating attack:
Finally, here's Celine Atassi's win from TNA, with emphasis on the spectacular 13. Nb5!! which gave white a winning position:
I'd like to thank both Nichol and Celine for sending in their games this week!
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For upcoming tournaments, bookmark our Events Schedule. The CCC hosts nearly 8 events a week at our facilities in North and South Charlotte, along with bi-monthly major events such as the upcoming Carolinas Classic.
Not a member of the CCC? Join over 1000 members today!
NM Dennis Norman
Chess Coach - Club Journalist
