This Week at the Charlotte Chess Center: 5/6-5/12/2024
Welcome to This Week at the Charlotte Chess Center! This post will recap all of the chess events hosted by CCC in the past week, spanning from Monday, May 6th to Sunday, May 12th, 2024.
This summary will include all the weekly events at both the North and South locations, including our Friday Pizza Quads event that we've recently introduced at the North Center, as well as our scholastic Practice Tournaments and even our Sunday online blitz arena!
To find a specific event, navigate using the headings below:
Monday Action Quads (CCC North)
Monday Action Quads is a scholastic tournament held every week at the CCC's North location, with each participant playing three rounds of G20+10 USCF-rated chess. We had 14 players split into three quads this time around, including a six player Quad C.
Congratulations to the following players for winning their quads:
Quad A: three-way tie between Caleb Kidd, Isaac Kidd, and Arthur Blakely (2 points)
Quad B: Deniz Galitsky (3 points)
Quad C (six players): Kingshuk Mitra (3 points)
We had some big rating gainers this week, with both Arthur Blakely and Deniz Galitsky tacking on well over 100 points. Additionally, MAQ was Kingshuk Mitra's first-ever rated chess tournament! Congratulations to all quad winners.
For detailed results from the May 6 MAQ, click here for the USCF crosstables.
The next Monday Action Quads event is scheduled for May 13.
Tuesday Night Action (CCC Main/South)
Every Tuesday evening, the Charlotte Chess Center hosts our Tuesday Night Action tournament at the Main/South location. The evening starts with a lecture by FM and CCC founder Peter Giannatos, followed by one round of USCF standard-rated chess. Players of any age and strength can participate in TNA.
The following players won this past Tuesday:
Top: Andrew Wu, Alex Kaelin, Kishan Karthigeyan, Naitik Rathi, and Viraj Phadke
U1600: Deepak Vellattu, Raghav Keskar, Sidney Petersen, Shlok Kaushik, Shreyas Karki, Brent Jenkins, Charles Cameron, Srivatsa Gundumalla, Chalpati Gundumalla, and Moses Collins
U1300: Brian Lara, Nilai Gummi, Bhargava Meda, Ritvik Kumar, Akshith Chintalacheruvu, Vivan Ghule, Reyansh Mayank, Sanmay Rathi, Philip Armstrong, Eduardo Palmeira, and Kelly Centrelli
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. View full TNA standings here.
Our next Tuesday Night Action will be held at the Main/South location on May 14.
Wednesday Action Quads (CCC Main/South)
Wednesday Action Quads is a USCF-rated g20+10 quads event held every Wednesday evening, open to players of all ages and strengths. We had 33 players this week, forming eight quads.
Our quad winners this week were:
Quad A: Alex Kaelin and Matthew Khariouk (2 points)
Quad B: Ethan Wyper (2 points)
Quad C: Ivan Manchev (2.5 points)
Quad D: Rishaank Channad (2 points)
Quad E: Brent Jenkins and Zachary Disharoon (2 points)
Quad F: William Lobig and Kody Crouch (2 points)
Quad G: Aadhav Nr (3 points)
Quad H (five players): Ryan Brock (3 points)
Our top gainers this Wednesday included Ivan Manchev (1502 -> 1586), Aadhav Nr (1166 -> 1253), and Ryan Brock (838 -> 886). Additionally, Matthew Khariouk broke 1800 USCF for the first time!
For detailed results, view the USCF rating report.
Our next Wednesday Action Quads tournament will be held at the CCC Main/South location on May 15.
Friday Action Quads (CCC Main/South)
Our Friday Action Quads tournament takes place at the CCC Main/South location every Friday evening. FAQ is a scholastic tournament with a time control of g20+10. This edition had a total of 23 players across five sections.
Congratulations to our quad winners:
Quad A: Samanyu Ammasani (2.5 points)
Quad B: Temir Alimov (2.5 points)
Quad C: three-way tie between Vishaanth Aravindhan, Aadithya Aragonda, and Cameron Chen (2 points)
Quad D: Adhrith Srikrishna (3 points)
Quad E: Varun Somagatta (3 points)
Samanyu Ammasani jumped to a new peak rating of 1496 USCF, while Adhrith Srikrishna gained over 100 points for a perfect 3/3 score in Quad D.
The full rating report of the May 10 FAQ tournament can be viewed here. The next Friday Action Quads will be held on May 17.
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!
This week, the quads were combined into one small swiss section, where Shivin Ashwin scored 2.5/3 to win clear first place. Shaurya Nannapaneni, Shrinika Musuluri, and Bhargav Raghavendra each scored 2/3 and tied for second place.
View detailed results of FPQ here. Our next Friday Pizza Quads will be held on May 17.
Scholastic Practice Tournaments!
This past Saturday, the CCC hosted two unrated Practice Tournaments for scholastic players, one at each location. These tournaments are intended to help kids gain more experience and confidence playing in tournament-style conditions. Our practice tournaments are open to players in grades K-8 who are either unrated or who have a USCF rating below 300.
At the CCC North location, Henry Anderson scored a perfect 3/3, while Gehrig Rowlands and Sri Saanvi each scored 2.5/3 to earn gold medals as well.
Our CCC Main/South location practice tournament featured four perfect scorers: Daniel Kravtsov, Hari Suram, Nolan Symons, and Stowe Wright. Axel Hilpert and Jay Parmar also received gold medals with 2.5/3 each.
Congratulations to all medalists! Our next Practice Tournaments, at both the CCC North and CCC Main/South locations, will be held on June 15.
Sunday Afternoon Classical (CCC North)
Sunday Afternoon Classical is a tournament held every week at our North location, open to players of all ages and strengths. Members of the CCC are paired into one round of standard USCF-rated chess per week, with a time control of g60+10.
This week's SAC was the second of May, with the following players victorious:
Top: Sujan Maddipati, Shawn Bale, Mario Michaels, and Charlie Manolakis
U1300: Alex Sedlock, Nischay Peela, Kenny Campbell, Ishaanvii Ashwin, Shivin Ashwin, and Axiao Yao
In each section of SAC, the top scoring adult and junior player across a given month receives a $25 gift card to USCF sales. There is currently a seven-way tie for first place in the Top section, while Kenny Campbell has sole possession of first place in the U1300 through two weeks in May. Current SAC standings for May can be viewed at this link.
Our next Sunday Afternoon Classical will be held at the CCC North location on May 19.
Sunday Action Quads (CCC Main/South)
Our Sunday Action Quads tournament is a USCF-rated quads event held every Sunday evening at the Main/South location, open to all players in grades K-12. We had a total of six quads this week and 24 players!
The following players took first place in their respective quads this week:
Quad A: Neil Harit (3 points)
Quad B: William Jindal (2.5 points)
Quad C: Joel Kindy (2 points)
Quad D: Gabriel Williams (3 points)
Quad E: Jordan Augustine (2 points)
Quad F: Mark Arkhipov (3 points)
Neil Harit jumped to a new peak rating of 1549 USCF with 3/3 in Quad A, while fellow perfect scorer Gabriel Williams gained 143 points! Full results from May 12 can be viewed here.
Our next Sunday Action Quads tournament will be held on May 19 at the Main/South Center.
Online Blitz Arena!
The CCC hosted our second Sunday Blitz Arena here on chess.com on Sunday evening. A total of 34 players participated, including many CCC regulars.
Our clear first place finisher was Celine Atassi, who scored 59 points! Celine is one of our top junior players with a current USCF rating of 1741. Here's one of her best wins from the tournament, an upset victory against user 25eleven:
Celine's final record in the tournament was 17 wins, no draws, and two losses.
Two players tied for second place with 51 points: archmage81 and Mathematics_Guy. Archmage81 was one of the two players to defeat Celine during the event, while Mathematics_Guy scored several impressive wins of his own.
Users chessbishop21 and 25eleven rounded out the top five with 38 and 37 points respectively.
I'd like to finish things off with a couple puzzles from the tournament! Our first puzzle is all about avoiding disaster, as black's knight is on the verge of getting trapped. How can black avoid losing material and retain a significant advantage in this position?
Finally, here's a puzzle involving a fork/double attack in the center. The solution certainly has a few similarities to the previous puzzle! Black to play:
Thanks for reading. We hope to see you this week at the Charlotte Chess Center!
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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 CCC Club Championship and the Carolinas Classic.
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NM Dennis Norman
Chess Coach - Club Journalist
