This Week at the Charlotte Chess Center: 6/3-6/9/2024
Welcome to This Week at the Charlotte Chess Center! Our recap this week will highlight all CCC tournaments hosted at both the North and South locations from June 3 to June 9, 2024.
Over this past weekend, the CCC hosted our annual Carolinas Classic tournament at the Hilton Charlotte University Place. Look for a special feature recapping that event soon, right here on chess.com!
To find a specific tournament recap, navigate using the headings below:
Monday Action Quads (CCC North)
Every Monday evening, the CCC North location hosts our weekly Monday Action Quads tournament, which is a three-round g20+10 event open to scholastic players. This week's MAQ hosted a total of 12 players, split evenly into three quads.
Congratulations to our quad winners this week:
Quad A: Caleb Kidd (3 points)
Quad B: Shaurya Nannapaneni (2.5 points)
Quad C: Soren Nelson and Riyansh Kakarla (2 points)
Complete results from our June 3 MAQ tournament can be found at this link.
The next Monday Action Quads event will be held at the CCC North location on June 10.
Tuesday Night Action (CCC Main/South)
The Charlotte Chess Center's Tuesday Night Action takes place every Tuesday evening at our Main/South location. Following a lecture by CCC founder and Fide Master Peter Giannatos, players are paired into long time control USCF-rated games, with one round per week. TNA is rated at the end of each month, with the top-scoring adult and junior players each winning a $25 gift card to USCF sales.
The following players won their games this past Tuesday:
Top: Patrick Sciacca, Shawn Bale, Lokruth Patil, Namish Kondabathini, Mario Pineda-Bermudez, and Jared Crawford
U1600: Sattwik Dutta, Shreyas Karki, Benjamin Raz, Philip Benke, Ilgin Birsan, Brent Jenkins, Gavin Chen, Diya Balamurugan, Srivatsa Gundumalla, and Chalpati Gundumalla
U1300: Brian Lara, Moses Collins, Vivan Ghule, Mekhai Collins, Douglas Samson, Avery Bradley, Druv Balamurugan, Carlene Pyne, Christian Lake, Vincent Lewis, and Jake Faber
Full TNA results can be viewed at the standings page on our website.
Our next Tuesday Night Action will be held at CCC's Main/South location on June 11.
Wednesday Action Quads (CCC Main/South)
Our Wednesday Action Quads tournament is a g20+10 USCF-rated quads event held every Wednesday at the Main/South location, open to players of all ages and strengths.
Our quad winners this week were:
Quad A: IM Tianqi Wang (3 points)
Quad B: Celine Atassi (3 points)
Quad C: Sri Pallapothu (2.5 points)
Quad D: Thomas Randolph, Sheerabdhi Niranjan, and Tamaghna Roy (2 points)
Quad E: Benjamin Raz (3 points)
Quad F: Sathvik Chatta and Brent Jenkins (2 points)
Quad G: Diya Balamurugan (3 points)
Quad H: Srivatsa Gundumalla (2.5 points)
Quad I: Reyansh Mayank (3 points)
Quad J (six players): Chalpati Gundumalla, B.D. Bailey, and Ryan Brock (2 points)
Quad K: Andrew Quintero and Vincent Lewis (2 points)
IM Tianqi Wang scored a perfect 3/3 in Quad A once again, making it four weeks in a row! Meanwhile, Celine Atassi achieved a new peak USCF rating with a perfect score in Quad B. Other big gainers included Benjamin Raz (1472 -> 1577) and Diya Balamurugan (1343 -> 1459).
For detailed results of this week's WAQ tournament, view the USCF rating report.
Our next Wednesday Action Quads tournament is scheduled for June 12.
Friday Action Quads (CCC Main/South)
On Friday nights, each CCC location hosts a scholastic quads tournament with a time control of g20+10. Our CCC Main/South tournament, called Friday Action Quads, played host to 13 players this week across three quads (including a five-player Quad C).
Congratulations to our FAQ quad winners this week:
Quad A: Aadhav Nr (2.5 points)
Quad B: Vishaanth Aravindhan and Srihan Valluru (2.5 points)
Quad C (five players): Arthur Heroy (3 points)
Full rating results of the June 7 FAQ tournament can be viewed here.
The next Friday Action Quads will be held on June 14.
NEW Friday Pizza Quads (CCC North)
The Charlotte Chess Center has recently inaugurated a new scholastic tournament: the Friday Pizza Quads! FPQ is held every Friday evening at the CCC's North location. After the first round, participants may help themselves to a slice of pizza. We had five quads this week, including a seven-player Quad D:
Quad A: Moses Collins (2.5 points)
Quad B: Landon Orellana (3 points)
Quad C: Imhotep Collins (3 points)
Quad D: Jeremy Ammerman and Karthi Palanichamy (2 points)
View the USCF crosstable of this week's FPQ here. The next Friday Pizza Quads will take place at our North location on June 14.
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. SAC is rated at the end of each month, and like TNA, the top adult and junior player in each section at the end of the month will win a $25 gift card to USCF sales.
Our winners this week were Sanchit Haripradeep, Harsith Haris, Hetansh Gandhi, Vincent Lewis, Hugh Conwell, and Christopher Lee-Marsh.
Full SAC standings can be viewed at this link. Next week's SAC will take place on June 16 at the CCC North location.
Sunday Action Quads (CCC Main/South)
Our Sunday Action Quads event takes place at the CCC Main/South location every Sunday evening. SAQ is a scholastic tournament featuring three rounds of g20+10 USCF-rated chess.
Congratulations to the following players for winning their quads this weekend:
Quad A: Jameson Harrington (2.5 points)
Quad B: Ashwanth Premkumar (3 points)
Quad C: Srihan Valluru (3 points)
Quad D: Annapoorni Palaniappan (3 points)
Quad E (six players): Gauri Sinkar (3 points)
All five quad winners achieved new peak USCF ratings in the process! For detailed results, view the USCF crosstables.
Our next SAQ will be held at the CCC Main/South location on June 16.
Game Submission!
I always like to include member games in these recap posts, which can be sent in at the Game Submission page on our website. Nichol Garrison participated in this weekend's Carolinas Classic and raised her rating to a new (post-provisional) peak of 677! Along the way, she won the following game with the black pieces against a higher-rated opponent. White lost a pawn early but played well and created a great deal of compensation, leading to a very sharp middlegame. Ultimately, Nichol spotted a tactic to win a piece with 22...Rxg4 and found forced mate soon thereafter.
Online Blitz Arena
The CCC hosts an online blitz arena every Sunday evening, right here on chess.com. This week's arena had a total of 30 participants, with user MySkillsAreBad (an outrageous misnomer!) taking clear first place with 20 wins and only a single loss. One thing that stands out from this player's games is a willingness to play unusual openings or gambits in order to take opponents out of theory:
In this game, MySkillsAreBad gambited a pawn directly out of the opening, quickly gaining an initiative and launching a devastating attack against the white king:
Users Ltk007 and PMorphy2024 finished second and third respectively, with the former scoring 18 wins, two draws, and only one loss in the event. The two players faced off early in the tournament, with Ltk007 coming away with the victory:
To wrap things up, here's a puzzle from one of Ltk007's games. Hint: look for ways to open lines against the opponent's king!
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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
