NYU's Chess Team Attends USATE 2026
Hi Everyone,
Back again with our next blog post, god these things are draining on my mental and physical health, but I promised to continuously post these so yeah.
I have been instructed to write this post quietly, as any loud interruptions could critically disturb the "critical endgame" that is occurring next door to us.
This year due to budget increases acquired by your favorite person, we were able to take not 3 teams to USATE, but 5! (5 teams with an exclamation not 5 factorial, we're not THAT rich).
Alongside bringing 5 teams, we also had the pleasure of being able to form an NYU Alumni team, which comprised of former players on the NYU Chess Team who had graduated!
Below are the Team Compositions, Final Scores of the Teams, and Rating Changes for the Individuals:
Team A: (4/6)
Joseph Han (3.5/6): 2234 -> 2228
Alex Chen (4/6): 2199 -> 2192
Philip Keisler (3.5/6): 2105 -> 2090
Henry Pu (5/6): 2035 -> 2020
Team B: (3/6)
Maddie Weber (3/6): 1963 -> 1967
George Guo (2.5/6): 1861 -> 1851
Sadia Qureshi (2.5/6): 1827 -> 1817
Brian Yin (3.5/6): 1121 -> 1282
Team C: (3.5/6)
Jesse Hoffman (3/6): 1861 -> 1882
Christian Wang (4.5/6): 1806 -> 1904
Andrew Han (3.5/6): 1780 -> 1801
Finn Dhamija (4.5/6): 1672 -> 1751
Team D: (3/6)
Chris Chen (3/6): 1761 -> 1738
Eric Li (3.5/6): 1611 -> 1597
Edwin Ji (2.5/6): 1487 -> 1444
Nihar Ayinala (3/6): 1322 -> 1313
Team E: (2.5/6)
Preston Delgadillo (2.5/6): 1738 -> 1722
Arjun Parimi (2.5/6): 1364 -> 1388
Michael Santos (4.5/6): 1278 -> 1458
Rishi Anumandala (3/6): UNR -> 1002
Alumni Team: (3.5/6)
Ivan Ziabkin (1/6): 1880 -> 1823
Ronan McDermott (4.5/6): 1928 -> 1930
Brandon Sato (4/6): 1764 -> 1755
Joseph Cappadona (4.5/6): 1350 -> 1373
Here are some featured games submitted by players!
While NYU did not win this event, it was a great time, and we had some funny moments, such as:
Stealing cutlery from the hotel to consume the fabled Babka.
Observing the Brutal Endgame in the room next to us.
Mass Consultation from the Holy Bible (Esserman's Book)
The Chess Team named "Deport the Ruy Lopez" not winning best team name after the NJSCF banned the Epstein Related names such as (Release the E Files)
Listening to a 50 y/o white man sing Hamilton Songs in the playing hall... and surprisingly not missing a single note?
Finn deciding to get into a fight with me over if Popeyes was superior to Canes. I have physical proof in the snow, that I won this argument (Popeyes is better, always has been always will be).
Andrew's opponent having a schizophrenic argument with himself over every move.
Someone on our team (who won't be embarrassed here) playing an entirely classical game while their opponent's king and queen were swapped.
Coming up with multiple terrible team names that would get this blog post deleted and my chess.com banned incredibly fast.
Awonder spending less than the amount of time he came to round late (10 minutes) to defeat our top player 
.
Like in all years, organizing an event of this size is a disaster, so I want to thank my eboard, (myself), Maddie, Eric and Michael for making this a little less insufferable.
This photo very nicely summarizes this event in a nutshell.
Next blog post will summarize the event we are hosting next week for our Collegiate Chess Tournament.
Once again if you have any suggestions for a blog post, contact me and if I am particularly bored with life, I'll make it.
Peace out!
