This Week at the Charlotte Chess Center: 6/17-6/23/2024

Welcome to This Week at the Charlotte Chess Center, our weekly recap of all tournaments hosted by the Charlotte Chess Center from June 17 to June 23, 2024.

This post will include every weekly tournament at both the North and South location, as well as our Sunday night online blitz arena, the Rated Scholastic at the North location, and our monthly Reverse Angle tournament!

To find a specific tournament recap, navigate using the headings below:

Monday Action Quads (CCC North)

Our Monday Action Quads event takes place every week at the CCC North location. It's a scholastic quads tournament with a time control of g20+10. This week's MAQ had 14 participants, forming two quads as well as a six player "small swiss."

Congratulations to the following players for winning their quads:

Quad A: Zachary Baltazar (3 points)

Quad B: JR Shubert (3 points)

"Small Swiss:" Vibhav Dhulipala (3 points)

All three section winners achieved new peak USCF ratings from their tournament performances, with Zachary Baltazar breaking 1200 USCF for the first time.

Detailed results can be viewed at the USCF crosstables page.

Our next Monday Action Quads will take place at the CCC North location on June 24.

Tuesday Night Action (CCC Main/South)

CCC's Tuesday Night Action tournament is a weekly event at our Main/South location held on Tuesday evenings. Following a lecture by CCC founder and FM Peter Giannatos, players are sorted into one of three sections and paired into one USCF-rated game per week. The top-scoring adult and junior players in a given month each win a $25 gift card to USCF sales

The following players won their games this past Tuesday:

Top: Shawn Bale, Namish Kondabathini, Ian MacNair, Naitik Rathi, Anagha Sinkar, Dhanush Kondabathini, and Kishore Perumal

U1600: Diya Balamurugan, Philip Benke, Chalpati Gundumalla, Steven Libonati, Ashwathama Sathish, Deepak Vellattu, Sidney Petersen, Shlok Kaushik, and Sasmita Mohanty

U1300: Druv Balamurugan, Vivan Ghule, Imhotep Collins, Bryan Muraya, Travis Caskey, Srivatsa Gundumalla, Errol Restelli, Caiden Deadwyler, and Nichol Garrison

Full TNA results can be viewed at the standings page on our website.

The final Tuesday Night Action of June will be held at CCC's Main/South location on June 25.

Wednesday Action Quads (CCC Main/South)

Our Wednesday Action Quads tournament is a g20+10 USCF-rated quads event held weekly on Wednesday evenings at the CCC's Main/South location. The tournament is open to players of all ages and strengths. 50 players participated this week, forming eleven quads and a six player "small swiss" section.

Our quad winners this week were:

Quad A: IM Tianqi Wang, FM Donald Johnson, and Arjun Malik (3 points)

Quad B: Namish Kondabathini (2 points)

Quad C: Enzo Restelli and Raghav Arun (2 points)

Quad D: Ibraheem Naushad (2 points)

Quad E: Ashwathama Sathish (2.5 points)

Quad F: Diya Balamurugan (3 points)

Quad G: Mike Day (2.5 points)

Quad H: William Lobig (3 points)

Quad I: Errol Restelli (3 points)

Quad J: Ryan Brock (3 points)

Quad K: Viaan Bahl (3 points)

"Small Swiss:" Hugh Conwell (3 points)

IM Tianqi Wang's streak of perfect WAQs came to an end this week, as FM Donald Johnson scored an upset victory against him with the white pieces. However, Johnson himself suffered an upset loss to Arjun Malik (whose rating rose to a new peak of 2021 after the event), leading to a three-way tie atop Quad A. Our top gainers this week were perfect scorers Diya Balamurugan, Errol Restelli, Ryan Brock, and Viaan Bahl, who each tacked on at least 100 points!

Full results of the most recent WAQ can be found in the USCF rating report. 

Our next Wednesday Action Quads tournament is scheduled for June 26.

NEW Friday Pizza Quads (CCC North)

Our newest weekly tournament is the Friday Pizza Quads, which hosted its eighth iteration this past week. Just like FAQ, FPQ hosted a total of 19 players this week across four sections. Congratulations to the following quad winners:

Quad A: Arjun Raja (2.5 points)

Quad B: Shrinika Musuluri and Andrew Schneider (2.5 points)

Quad C: Avyaan Prasad and Aaryan Nagolu (2 points)

"Small Swiss:" Shreyas Srinivasan (3 points)

View full rating results of this week's FPQ here. The next Friday Pizza Quads will take place at the CCC North location on June 28.

Friday Action Quads (CCC Main/South)

Friday Action Quads is a weekly scholastic quads event at the CCC's Main/South location. This week's tournament hosted 19 players across four sections, including three quads and a seven player "small swiss." Like our other quads events, FAQ is played at a time control of g20+10 across three rounds.

The following players won their quads at this week's FAQ:

Quad A: Temir Alimov (2.5 points)

Quad B: Vivan Ghule (2 points)

Quad C: Isaac Rubanenko (2.5 points)

"Small Swiss:" Major Collins (3 points)

Temir Alimov's rating jumped to a new peak of 1372 for the 2.5/3 performance in Quad A. Major Collins also gained over 100 points for a perfect score in the small swiss section. The rating report of the most recent FAQ tournament can be viewed here.

The next Friday Action Quads will be held on June 28.

Rated Scholastic (CCC North)

On Saturday, the CCC North location hosted our Rated Scholastic event, featuring four rounds of g20+10 USCF-rated chess. Our Rated Scholastic tournaments are open to players in grades K-8 who are rated below 1000 USCF. Players finishing in the top five of each section received medals.

Our top overall finisher in the U1000 section was Alex Sedlock, whose rating rose back above 1000 after a 3.5/4 performance. Only Imhotep Collins was able to hold Alex to a draw. Ankush Dey and Magathkannan Udayasankar each scored 3 points, tying for second place, while Imhotep Collins, Shaurya Nannapaneni, and Saketh Mamidipally each scored 2.5/4.

The day's only perfect score came from Kanav Rastogi in the U500 section. The 4/4 performance was even more impressive considering it was Kanav's first-ever rated event! Krish Sakthivel and Rahul Theepan were the other players with a plus score (3/4 each), while Avyaan Prasad, Sanjay Mani, Daniel Mora, and Holden Folsom each scored 2/4.

Our next Rated Scholastic event will take place at the CCC Main/South location this weekend.

Reverse Angle (CCC Main/South)

On Saturday, the Charlotte Chess Center hosted its monthly Reverse Angle tournament at the CCC Main/South location. A total of 55 players gathered across three sections to play three rounds of USCF rated chess, with the two top sections also FIDE-rated.

The big prize went to IM Tianqi Wang, who scored a perfect 3/3 in the top section and took home $200 for clear first place! Second place in the top section was Jacob Stoll, who conceded a first round draw but then won the remaining two games to finish in clear second with 2.5/3. He earned $100 for his efforts. Also finishing in the money were Brian Zhang and Aaron Wang, who won $30 each with 2/3.

Kishore Perumal won all three of his games in the U1900 section, raising his (still provisional!) rating to 1795. Perumal won $160 for clear first, while second place was split between Geoff Charles and Ayaansh Kaistha ($80 each).

Our third and final perfect scorer of the day was Srivatsa Gundumalla, who won all three games in the U1400 section to win the $160 first place prize. Chalpati Gundumalla and Hugh Conwell split the second place prize and each won $80 for their 2.5/3 scores.

Congratulations to all the Reverse Angle prizewinners! Full results of that tournament can be viewed here.

Sunday Afternoon Classical (CCC North)

Sunday Afternoon Classical is a weekly tournament at the CCC North location, open to players of any age or strength. SAC is rated at the end of each month, and the top adult and junior player in each section at the end of the month will win a $25 gift card to USCF sales.

The following players won their games in the most recent SAC:

Top: William Jindal, Jared Crawford, Shawn Bale, and Aaron Wilson

U1300: Sanchit Haripradeep, Jameson Mah, Anjali Clapp, Pranav Pradeepkumar, Michael Bernard, Bhargav Raghavendra, Arjun Raja, and Vihaan Dhulipala, with Hugh Conwell receiving a full-point bye.

Full SAC standings can be viewed at this link. The final SAC of June will take place on June 30 at the CCC North location.

Sunday Action Quads (CCC Main/South)

Our Sunday Action Quads tournament is a weekly scholastic quads event held at the CCC Main/South location every Sunday evening. Like our other quads, it runs at a time control of g20+10 and is USCF-rated. This SAQ hosted 28 players evenly split into 7 quads.

Congratulations to the following players for winning their quads this weekend:

Quad A: Aadhav Nr (2.5 points)

Quad B: Akshith Chintalacheruvu (3 points)

Quad C: Joel Kindy (3 points)

Quad D: Arnav Dronamraju (2.5 points)

Quad E: Three-way tie between James Newton, Gauri Sinkar, and Rana Tipirneni (2 points)

Quad F: Hank Aymer (3 points)

Quad G: Dominic Hotchner (3 points)

Akshith Chintalacheruvu achieved a new peak USCF rating of 1320 with a perfect 3/3 score in Quad B, while Joel Kindy also gained over 50 points of USCF rating. For full rating results, view the USCF crosstables.

Our next SAQ will be held at the CCC Main/South location on June 30.

Online Blitz Arena!

The CCC hosts a weekly online blitz arena every Sunday evening on chess.com. The event was livestreamed this week by WGM Dina Belenkaya on her Twitch channel, with the VOD still available for subscribers. A whopping 110 players participated in the tournament!

Our top finisher this week, by a narrow margin, was HugoOnTilt. Hugo is a CCC regular who actually lost his first game against Dina, before proceeding to go undefeated in his remaining 23 games of the arena:

Hugo has a knack for smooth positional victories, as seen in his games against Magnusillo and ronni77, both reproduced below:

With so many participants, it's no wonder the standings were very tight at the top. Hugo finished with 83 points in the tournament, winning clear first place, while sj200902 and NikolaDubovik tied for second place with 76 points each. 

We hope to see you in our next Sunday Blitz Arena right here on chess.com!

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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 Charlotte Summer Open.

Not a member of the CCC? Join over 1000 members today!

NM Dennis Norman

Chess Coach - Club Journalist