This Week at the Charlotte Chess Center: 7/22-7/28/2024
Welcome to This Week at the Charlotte Chess Center, the CCC's recap of all rated tournaments we hosted within the past week! This edition will cover events that took place from July 22 to 28, 2024.
Over International Chess Day weekend, the CCC hosted our annual Charlotte Summer Open at the Hilton Garden Inn. Click here for a full recap of that tournament in our blog!
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 Main/South location and 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.
We had two quads at this week's MAQ, with Shaurya Nannapaneni and Hari Suram tying for first in Quad A with 2/3, and Viaan Modugavalasa scoring a perfect 3/3 and winning Quad B. Congratulations to our quad winners!
Full results of this week's MAQ tournament can be found here. Our next Monday Action Quads will take place tonight at the CCC North location.
Tuesday Night Action (CCC Main/South)
Every Tuesday evening, the CCC's Main/South location plays host to our Tuesday Night Action tournament. This event is rated at the end of the month, with members playing one USCF-rated long time control game per week. This week's TNA winners were:
Top section: Kishan Karthigeyan, Anagha Sinkar, Tianqi Wang, Smayan Ammasani, Trishona Kumar, Patrick McCartney, Gary Branton, and Vihaan Purohit
U1600: Brent Jenkins, Sampath Kumar, Sidney Petersen, Cedar Cline, Chalpati Gundumalla, Sheerabdhi Niranjan, Kasimir Baumstark, Addison Baumstark, Jason Bailey, and Moses Collins
U1300: Shobhan Subramanian, Cole Putnam, Kalp Shah, Avery Bradley, Michael Bernard, Caiden Deadwyler, Ritvik Kumar, Renato Aristongo, and Philip Armstrong
There is only one TNA left in the month of July! The top adult and junior player in each section at the end of the month will receive a $25 gift card to USCF sales. Current standings can be viewed on our website.
The next Tuesday Night Action will be held at CCC's Main/South location on July 30.
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. WAQ this week played host to a grand total of 54 players, sorted into thirteen quads with a six player Quad M.
Congratulations to this week's quad winners:
Quad A: IM Tianqi Wang (2.5 points)
Quad B: Christopher Williams (2.5 points)
Quad C: Anagha Sinkar (2 points)
Quad D: Mario Pineda-Bermudez (3 points)
Quad E: Andrew Khariouk (2 points)
Quad F: Tamaghna Roy and Kasimir Baumstark (2 points)
Quad G: Neil Harit and Addison Baumstark (2 points)
Quad H: William Lobig (2.5 points)
Quad I: Kody Crouch (2.5 points)
Quad J: Chalpatii Gundumalla (2.5 points)
Quad K: Druv Balamurugan (3 points)
Quad L: Jack Cassidy (3 points)
Quad M: Major Collins (3 points)
Quad winners who achieved new peak ratings included William Lobig (breaking 1500 USCF for the first time!), Kody Crouch, Major Collins, and Druv Balamurugan. The latter two were our biggest gainers, with Major adding 198 points to his rating, and Druv gaining well over 100 as well. For the complate results of the most recent Wednesday Action Quads, see the USCF rating report.
Our next Wednesday Action Quads is scheduled for July 31.
Friday Action Quads (CCC Main/South)
Friday Action Quads is a weekly scholastic quads tournament held at the Main/South location on Friday evenings. It runs at the same time as Friday Pizza Quads at the CCC North location and has the same format: three rounds of g20+10 USCF-rated chess!
Our quad winners this week were:
Quad A: Kasimir Baumstark (3 points)
Quad B: Jason Marshal (2.5 points)
Quad C: Shanmukhi Malireddy, Mekhai Collins, and Steven Hook (2 points)
Quad D: Bryan Muraya (2.5 points)
Quad E: Arnav Watwe and Leo Van Ryn
Quad F: Imhotep Collins (3 points)
Quad G: Advikk Rastogi and Sreyash Maitra (2 points)
Quad H: Maya Naik and Adrian Paez (2.5 points)
Many of our quad winners achieved new peak ratings in the process. Kasimir Baumstark, who attended the Master Tour Camp this week at the CCC North location, gained 110 points to reach a new peak of 1657. Other top performers included Mekhai Collins (1307 -> 1362), Arnav Watwe (1067 -> 1137), Imhotep Collins (1006 -> 1077), Sreyash Maitra (475 -> 573), and Maya Naik (436 -> 531).
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 August 2.
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. Between rounds one and two, hungry participants may help themselves to a splice of pizza! We had 30 total players at this week's Pizza Quads, with seven quads including a "Small Swiss" Quad G.
Congratulations to our FPQ winners this week:
Quad A: Pranay Boyapati (2 points)
Quad B: Shishir Tummalacheruvu (2.5 points)
Quad C: Shrinika Musuluri and Deniz Galitsky (2 points)
Quad D: Devansh Behera (3 points)
Quad E: Avyaan Prasad (3 points)
Quad F: Kayal Senthil (2.5 points)
Quad G (six players): Lokesh Chiliveri (3 points)
Avyaan Prasad gained 134 points, reaching a new peak rating of 630! Other players achieving new peak ratings included Deniz Galitsky, Pranay Boyapati, and Shishir Tummalacheruvu. Full results of this past FPQ can be viewed here.
The next Friday Action Quads will be held at the CCC North location on August 2.
Rated Scholastic (CCC Main/South)
This past Saturday, the CCC Main/South location played host to our monthly Rated Scholastic tournament (the CCC North's Rated Scholastic for the month of July was held the previous week and is covered in that week's newsletter). The tournament had three sections and played host to 42 total players, with a time control of g20+10.
In the U1500 section, Pranay Boyapati scored a perfect 4/4, gaining a whopping 226 points of USCF rating. When also including the previous evening's Friday Pizza Quads tournament, Pranay's rating went up by nearly 300 points in two days! It was also a successful tournament for Moses Collins, who scored 3/4 with his only loss coming to Pranay in the second round. Other players finishing on a plus score were Mekhai Collins, Jayan Medvin, and Harsith Haris on 2.5/4.
Our U1000 section champion was Shaurya Nannapaneni, gaining 127 points and reaching a new peak rating of 1030! He scored a perfect 4/4 while five players tied for second-through-sixth place with 3/4: Sai Saravanan Jr, Aadithya Aragonda, Harish Chandramohan, Anvay Mishra, and Advikk Rastogi.
The U500 section saw a four-way tie between Stewart Davis, Rahul Theepan, Arthur Heroy, and Nicholas Muraya. Congratulations to all top finishers!
The detailed results of Saturday's Rated Scholastic can be found at this link.
Sunday Afternoon Classical (CCC North)
Our Sunday Afternoon Classical tournament is held every Sunday at the CCC North location, with a similar format to TNA. Each week, players are paired into one USCF standard-rated game, with the tournament rated at the end of the month. The top scoring adult and junior player in each section receives a $25 gift card to USCF sales!
This week's winners were:
Top: Shawn Bale, Kishan Karthigeyan, Charlie Manolakis, Chalpati Gundumalla, and Jason Bailey
U1300: Phaneendra Bulusu, Imhotep Collins, Nischay Peela, Justin Purvis, Santhosh Manikandan, Sanchit Haripradeep, Josh Alex, Paul Ward, Pradeeksha Bhaskar, and Josh Campbell
Congratulations to Phaneendra Bulusu for winning all four games this month at SAC! Full standings for the month of July, complete with rating results, can be found here. Next SAC will be held on Sunday, August 4 at the North location.
Sunday Action Quads (CCC Main/South)
Sunday Action Quads is a weekly tournament at the Main/South location with a similar format to our other scholastic quad events. This week's SAC played host to 21 players in five quads, with the following players taking first place:
Quad A: Rishaank Channad and Yurii Fryziuk (2 points)
Quad B: Akshith Chintalacheruvu (2 points)
Quad C: Joel Kindy and Yisen Dong (2 points)
Quad D: Anirudh Prasanna (3 points)
Quad E: Three-way tie between Malhaar Zagade, Kevin Nolan, and Dominic Hotchner (2 points)
Congratulations to Yurii Fryziuk for breaking USCF 1400 for the first time! The rating report for this week's SAQ can be found here, with the next Sunday Action Quads set to take place at the Main/South location on August 4.
Online Blitz Arena!
The CCC hosts a weekly online blitz arena every Sunday evening, right here on chess.com! This week's tournament hosted 35 players, with Epic_Zero finishing in clear first place. He scored 18 wins and only three losses to finish with 64 points, well ahead of second place Steve Alappatt. Here's his victory against another top finisher, MissyChampion:
When the two top finishers faced off, black was losing out of the opening until the sequence with 14...Qxd4 and 15...f5 turned the game around:
Full standings of the weekly blitz arena can be found here. Remember that top five finishers win a free one-month Diamond membership to this website. We'll see you in next week's tournament!
BONUS: Camp Tournament
To wrap up this newsletter, I thought to add an item pertinent to this past week. The CCC hosts summer camps for scholastic players, with a half-day Junior Master camp for those newer to chess and our full-day Master Tour camp for tournament-level players. Our Master Tour camps feature a tournament in which students play one USCF-rated game a day, and the most recent Master Tour camp tournament results can be viewed here! For further info about CCC camp offerings, check out the "camps" page on our website.
We hope to see you all next 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 Charlotte Doubles Championship and Charlotte Fall Open.
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NM Dennis Norman
Chess Coach - Club Journalist
