This Week at the Charlotte Chess Center: 7/15-7/21/2024
Welcome to This Week at the Charlotte Chess Center, our weekly newsletter summarizing every tournament the CCC hosted in the past week! This edition will cover events that took place from July 15 to 21, 2024.
This past weekend saw the Charlotte Summer Open, which will be recapped in a separate post. Look for that on our chess.com blog later this week!
In this post, you'll find coverage of all the weekly events the Charlotte Chess Center hosted this past week, including the Rated Scholastic tournament at the CCC North location, as well as our online blitz arena. To find a specific event, navigate using the headings below.
Monday Action Quads (CCC North)
Monday Action Quads takes place on Monday evenings at our CCC North location, open to all scholastic players. Participants are grouped into quads of four and play three rounds of g20+10 USCF-rated chess.
This week's MAQ hosted ten players who were split into two quads, including a six player "Small Swiss" Quad B. All four players with ratings above 1000 played in Quad A, with Rishaank Channad taking clear first with a 2.5/3 score. Also noteworthy was the performance of Atharv Dubey, who scored 1.5/3 against higher-rated opposition, achieving a USCF rating of 1200 for the first time.
In the "Small Swiss" Quad B section, Arthur Blakely scored a perfect 3/3 to take clear first place, raising his rating to a new peak of 973!
The detailed results of this week's MAQ tournament can be found here. Our next Monday Action Quads will take place at the CCC North location on July 22.
Tuesday Night Action (CCC Main/South)
Tuesday Night Action is a weekly event held every Tuesday at the CCC's Main/South location. CCC members play one USCF long time control game per week, following a lecture by Charlotte Chess Center founder and FM Peter Giannatos.
The following players won their games this past Tuesday:
Top: Sheerabdhi Niranjan, Chase Bellamy, Kishan Karthigeyan, Harshil Jagga, Karthikeya Malireddy, Arjun Malik, and Ian MacNair
U1600: Brent Jenkins, Satvick Kumar, Raghav Keskar, Shlok Kaushik, Cedar Cline, Shrehit Dhiman, Cole Putnam, and Chalpati Gundumalla
U1300: Chandrashekar Patil, Shobhan Subramanian, Akshith Chintalacheruvu, Kalp Shah, Viaan Bahl, Karthick Muthuveeran, Pranika Bahl, Henry Yoo, and Anthony Gentile
There are two TNAs left in the month of July, and just like Sunday Afternoon Classical (details on that event further down!) the top-scoring adult and junior player in each section receives a $25 gift card to USCF sales.
There are currently two players with 3/3 points this month in TNA: Sheerabdhi Niranjan in the Top section and Brent Jenkins in the U1600 section. Current standings can be viewed on our website.
The next Tuesday Night Action will be held at CCC's Main/South location on July 23.
Wednesday Action Quads (CCC Main/South)
Our Wednesday Action Quads tournament is a g20+10 USCF-rated quads event held on Wednesday evenings at our Main/South location, open to players of all ages and strengths. This week's WAQ had a massive turnout of 64 total players; this author doesn't remember the last time he saw a quad event necessitating a "Quad P" before!
Our WAQ winners this week were:
Quad A: Chase Bellamy (3 points)
Quad B: Rishi Jasti (3 points)
Quad C: Four-way tie!
Quad D: Andrew Khariouk (2 points)
Quad E: Sri Pallapothu (3 points)
Quad F: Diksha Jaikumar and Andrew Horton (2.5 points)
Quad G: Diya Balamurugan (3 points)
Quad H: Mukund Neema (2 points)
Quad I: Srivatsa Gundumalla (3 points)
Quad J: Cedar Cline (3 points)
Quad K: three-way tie between Benjamin Gamayunov, Chuck Cameron, and Kody Crouch (2 points)
Quad L: Shrehit Dhiman and Daniel Freeman (2 points)
Quad M: Moses Collins (3 points)
Quad N: Mekhai Collins (3 points)
Quad O: Alyssa Cameron (3 points)
Quad P: Viaan Bahl (3 points)
Chase Bellamy's perfect score in Quad A catapulted him back to his peak rating of 2113, achieved earlier this year, while Rishi Jasti also jumped to within ten points of his previous peak with 3/3 in Quad B. Quad C featured the rare four-way tie, with Shravan Dash, Luke Zimmer, Namish Kondabathini, and Smayan Ammasani each scoring 1.5/3!
Some notable top performers included Diya Balamurugan, whose rating jumped to a new peak of 1610, and Srivatsa Gundumalla, who broke 1500 USCF for the first time. Cedar Cline, who hadn't played a USCF-rated game in almost a year, gained over 100 points in Quad J. Alyssa Cameron also achieved a new peak rating, while both Moses and Mekhai Collins gained 100+ points with their 3/3 scores. Congratulations to all quad winners!
For the full results of the most recent Wednesday Action Quads, see the USCF rating report.
Our next Wednesday Action Quads tournament is scheduled for July 24.
Friday Action Quads (CCC Main/South)
On Friday evenings, the Charlotte Chess Center hosts two scholastic quad events, one at each location. Our Friday Action Quads tournament at the Main/South location hosted 19 players this week, split into four quads, with a seven player "Small Swiss" section in Quad D.
Neil Harit scored a perfect 3/3 in Quad A, gaining 75 rating points in the process. Vesanth Thirunavukkurasu took clear first in Quad B with 2.5/3, while Imhotep Collins rocketed from 861 to 1019 USCF for his perfect score in Quad C. In the seven player Quad D, Malhaar Zagade scored 2.5/3, just ahead of a trio of players tying for second with 2/3.
For detailed results of the most recent Friday Action Quads, view the USCF crosstables.
The next Friday Action Quads will be held at the CCC Main/South location on July 26.
Friday Pizza Quads (CCC North)
FPQ is our newest addition to our weekly tournament schedule, with the same format as FAQ and our other scholastic quad tournaments. This week's FPQ hosted thirteen players across three quads, including a five player "Small Swiss" Quad C.
Shreyas Srinivasan and Ishan Ghosh tied for first place with 2/3 in Quad A, with the latter achieving a new peak USCF rating of 837. Shravan Srinivasan scored a perfect 3/3 in Quad B, while Anviya Rakesh also achieved a perfect score in Quad C. Congratulations to all quad winners!
Full results of this past FPQ can be viewed here. The next Friday Action Quads will be held at the CCC North location on July 26.
Rated Scholastic (CCC North)
On Saturday, the CCC North location hosted our monthly Rated Scholastic tournament, open to players in grades K-8 with a rating under 1000 USCF. The top scorers in our Rated Scholastic events are eligible for over 10 trophies and medals!
A total of five players scored at least 3/4 in the U1000 section, but Leo Wang was the only one to notch an extra half point, winning clear first with a 3.5/4 score. Leo actually drew the first game, followed by three consecutive wins in rounds two through four. The four players tying for second place, with 3/4 points, were Sanchit Haripradeep, Saketh Mamidipally, Ayaan Geda, and Julian Warsch.
The top scorer in the U500 section was Ayaan Khare with 3.5/4, drawing in round two against Rahul Theepan and winning all three other rounds. Ruby Willsey, George Willsey, and Daanya Akkim tied for second place with 3/4 each.
View the rating results of Saturday's Rated Scholastic tournament at this link.
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. Just like TNA, the top adult and junior players in each SAC section win a $25 gift card to USCF sales at the end of the month!
The following players won their games this week at SAC: Phaneendra Bulusu, Moses Collins, Michael Bernard, Shivin Ashwin, Henry Yoo, Mekhai Collins, Imhotep Collins, Mohamed Sheik, Gavin Burton, Sanchit Haripradeep, and Haripdradeep Balasubramaniam. The latter was playing his first USCF-rated game ever!
SAC standings for the month of July can be viewed here. The final Sunday Afternoon Classical of July will take place on July 28 at the CCC North location.
Sunday Action Quads (CCC Main/South)
Our Sunday Action Quads tournament takes place every week at the CCC Main/South location. Just like our other scholastic quad events, it runs at a time control of g20+10 and is USCF-rated, with a total of 16 participants this week evenly split into four quads.
Congratulations to the following players for winning their quads this weekend:
Quad A: Akshith Chintalacheruvu (3 points)
Quad B: Vaid Naidu (3 points)
Quad C: Walker Wieland (3 points)
Quad D: Ajay Pinninti (3 points)
Special shoutout to Ajay Pinninti scoring 3/3 in his first ever USCF-rated tournament!
The rating report for this week's SAQ can be found here. The next Sunday Action Quads will be held at the CCC Main/South location on July 28.
Online Blitz Arena!
The CCC hosts an online blitz arena every Sunday evening here on chess.com! This week's arena featured 29 players, with user "evan" (yes, that's the full username!) scoring 62 points and taking clear first place.
Evan won three more games than any other player in the arena, which compensated for a few extra losses compared to the other top finishers. One of my favorite games in the arena was this victory in a tricky Scandinavian variation. Evan's move 6...b5! is theory, and black is a lot better already!
Evan faced fierce competition from CCC regular Celine Atassi, who must have been tired after scoring 3.5/5 in the Summer Open this weekend! Nonetheless, she finished in clear second place with fifteen wins, including this victory against the eventual winner:
This next game shows the importance of controlling the center. Even before black hung checkmate, white had an overwhelming advantage in space and activity.
Rounding out the top five were users Stormy, matthf21, and muk-nee, finishing with 48, 46, and 39 points respectively. Each of the top five finishers in our Sunday Blitz Arenas receive a free one month Diamond membership to this website. Congratulations to our top finishers!
I'll conclude this post with two puzzles from the tournament:
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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 Charlotte Doubles Championship and Charlotte Fall Open.
Not a member of the CCC? Join over 1000 members today!
NM Dennis Norman
Chess Coach - Club Journalist
