Upsets Abound, Panda and Stearman Victorious at Annual Carolinas Classic: Full Recap!
The ninth annual edition of the Carolinas Classic, one of the Charlotte Chess Center's flagship events, took place last weekend at the Hilton Charlotte University Place!
The Carolinas Classic wasn't just a standalone chess tournament - it was a whole weekend of chess festivities. Alongside the five-round main event, the CCC also hosted a free $1,000 blitz championship, a K-8 scholastic tournament, and a photo session and signing with chess celebrities GM Judit Polgar, GM Peter Leko, GM Boris Gelfand, and GM Daniel Naroditsky.
A total of over 400 players participated in at least one of the rated events, with $15,000 at stake in the open tournament. The main event included seven USCF-rated sections ranging from Championship to U1100, with the top three also FIDE-rated. Among the many contestants were GMs Cruz, Zapata, and Fishbein, as well as four IMs, six FMs and a collection of other masters and experts. Some members of our Elite Camp (held this past week at the same venue) played in the tournament, in addition to the many dozens of familiar faces from other Charlotte Chess Center events.
Championship
The top section of this year's Carolinas Classic included three GMs: Cristhian Cruz Sanchez, Alexander Fishbein, and Alonso Zapata. All three scored at least 3.5/5 in the tournament (although, surprisingly, none of them finished quite at the top of the standings!).
Instead, it was IM Josiah Stearman stealing the show, with four straight wins to start the event. Stearman's toughest battle was probably his very first game, when he found himself almost completely lost right out of the opening! Nonetheless, benefiting from his opponent's deep time pressure, the talented IM managed to claw his way back into the game and steal victory from the jaws of defeat:
First round scare aside, Stearman was nearly flawless in his next two victories. Facing NM Linden Lee with the black pieces in round three, Stearman sacrificed a piece for long-term compensation against white's weak king.
Of the three GMs, the only one who survived the event undefeated was Cristhian Cruz Sanchez of Peru, who ceded draws in rounds two and five against NM Jonathan Pagan and FM Andrew Jiang respectively and won all three of his other games.
His first game against Beiyang Ni was all about technique, as white won a pawn, then traded into a rook endgame which he converted smoothly into a win.
Several names in the top section should be familiar to you if you've played in or followed CCC events. Those include FM James Chirilov, NM Andrew Wu, experts Namish Kondabathini, Sri Bondalapati, and Chase Bellamy, and CCC coaches NM Alexander Crump and WFM Uthra Pakkiriswamy!
Another name you may recognize from past Charlotte Chess Center events is that of IM Tianqi Wang, who has been playing events in Charlotte for over a decade now. Wang also started the event on a hot streak, winning the first three games, including this victory in the English against NM Ethan Liu:
While Cristhian Cruz Sanchez had a very solid result, the other two GMs in the field each suffered upset losses and finished on 3.5/5! Fourteen-year-old NM Ethan Liu took down GM Alonso Zapata in the third round, gradually generating chances in a complex endgame:
GM Alex Fishbein started on 2.5/3 but suffered a similar fate in the next round against NM Sepehr Golsefidy. From a very tactical position, white emerged with an extra exchange and a passed a-pawn, which he converted into a win in mutual time trouble.
While IM Stearman led the section with a perfect score, another player ascending the standings was NM Vedic Panda, who ceded a first-round draw to Tianxiang Yu before reeling off four straight wins.
Here's his victory against FM Kelvin Sanchez, another returning player from previous CCC opens:
Heading into Sunday, with two rounds to spare, there were five players on a perfect 3/3 score: IMs Stearman and Wang, FMs James Chirilov and Sudarshan Sriniaiyer, and the aforementioned NM Andrew Jiang.
As the lowest-rated perfect scorer, Jiang was paired against GM Cristhian Cruz Sanchez, the highest-rated player in the next score group (2.5/3). Continuing his hot streak, Jiang managed a solid draw to propel himself to 3.5/4. Wang and Sriniaiyer drew their game, while Stearman took down Chirilov in style!
This put four players on 3.5 points entering the final round, including NM Panda, with only Stearman on 4/4. Stearman's draw against Sriniaiyer clinched a share of first place while leaving the door open for another player with 3.5 points to win and tie him atop the standings.
It was Vedic Panda who did just that, defeating the young NM Jiang in a Spanish Game. Black got a reasonable position out of the opening but spent over twenty minutes on 21...b4, which may well have been the losing move. It was nonetheless a very strong tournament for Jiang, currently listed as the seventh highest-rated player of his age in the country.
With superior tiebreaks, it was IM Stearman who claimed the first place plaque, but both he and NM Panda took home $1,200 in winnings for their 4.5/5 scores. NM Ethan Liu, whose loss to IM Tianqi Wang is included above, won all his other games to finish tied with Wang, FM Sriniaiyer, GM Cruz Sanchez, and IM Facundo Pierrot for third place, each winning $440, with Liu receiving top U2250 honors as well. The second U2250 finisher, NM Mark Dedona, also netted $200 for his 3.5/5 score.
Full standings from the championship section, including prize results, can be viewed at this link.
Under 2100
Our U2100 champion from this year's Carolinas Classic was expert Kabir Azad, finishing on 4.5/5. Fittingly given the section he won, Azad's post-event rating jumped over 2100 for the first time.
Azad entered the last round knowing that a draw would clinch first, as there were no other players with 4 points, and the only 3.5/4 in the field was his opponent (Musa Naushad). The two made a fairly quick draw in the Grunfeld Defense, securing the $1,000 first place prize for Azad and a share of second place ($250) for Naushad. Also scoring 4/5 and tying for second were Patrick McCartney, Justin He, and Ruben Quintans, the highest-rated 7-and-under player in the nation!
Here's one of Azad's critical wins from the tournament, defeating Leo Le-Tran in a 4. f3 Nimzo:
Detailed results and prize standings from the U2100 section are available here.
Under 1900
Two players tied for first atop the U1900 standings: Brayden Van De Graaff and Aiden Bartlett. The former hails from as far away as Utah(!) but should be a familiar name to those in our online community here on chess.com, having often played in our blitz arenas and occasionally participated in OTB CCC events (such as last year's Carolinas Classic). Included here is his third game, facing Harshil Jagga as black in a very theoretical 3. d4 Petroff, in which Brayden seems to be very well-prepared.
While Van De Graaff's draw came in the final round to clinch a share of first, Aiden Bartlett's draw occurred in the first round against Grace Yang. Bartlett's rating jumped to a new peak of 1889 after beating three 1750+ rated opponents in a row to finish the event. Both of the top performers received $600, while Vincent Gao, Aaryav Saha, and Jared Crawford split for third place and earned $167 apiece (view the U1900 standings here).
Under 1700
Unlike the Championship and the U1900, the Under 1700 section saw a clear winner in Daniel Toedt, who took down three higher-rated players en route to a 4.5/5 performance.
Perhaps his biggest scare came in the third round against one of the CCC's coaches, Geoffrey Charles, who built up an excellent position with white using a KIA-style setup. While black's position was passive for many moves, it was difficult for white to break through, and eventually Toedt found ways to complicate the situation and win the resulting queenless middlegame:
Behind Toedt (whose 4.5/5 score earned him $800) were Johann Jayabarath, John Hanna, Kai Ali Modaresi-Beal, and Kritarth Mishra, each finishing on 4/5 and winning $225 for split second place in the final standings.
Under 1500
The U1500, U1300, and U1100 sections were all topped by a perfect scorer, and in the Under 1500 that was Alexander Woodfin, playing in only his fifth standard-rated tournament ever! Woodfin's rating, still provisional, climbed to 1512 following the tournament, which included wins over two of the three players who finished on four points. Here's his win against one of those players, Connor Crosby, who himself had a great tournament to push his rating over 1500:
Woodfin took home $800, while Crosby split the second place prize with Ryan Roberge and Sartak Emandi ($300 each). The full standings of the U1500 section can be found here.
Under 1300
The Under 1300 section came down to the last-round matchup between the two 4/4s: Kenny Campbell and Emerson Lee. While white had some chances early, black managed to nab the b2-pawn safely and head into a pawn-up endgame with the bishop pair.
Despite the loss, Campbell's rating shot from 1224 all the way to 1336, while Emerson Lee's rating catapulted up to 1414! Four of Lee's five opponents were higher-rated heading into the tournament, making him perhaps the most impressive performer of all at the 2025 Carolinas Classic.
Just like the U1500, the prize split was $800-$300-$300-$300, as there were three 4/5 scorers behind Lee (Campbell, Ehsanali Gar, and Ibrahim Riyaz). Detailed results can be viewed at this link.
Under 1100
In a 57-player section, there weren't quite enough rounds to determine a clear champion in the U1100, as two players scored a perfect 5/5 to split the $550 first place prize. Those were Magnus Kanagala (great chess name!) and the unrated Dillon Barker, whose win against CCC master class student Charan Sunkara is included here:
Kanagala also entered the event with very little experience in rated chess, having only played ten games prior to last weekend. Additionally, the Carolinas Classic was his first tournament since 2023, when he won clear first place in a Rated Scholastic tournament at the CCC's Main/South location. We hope to see young Magnus more often at the chess center!
Barker, having won all five of the OTB rated games he has ever played, now has a shiny provisional rating of 1651. A whopping seven players scored 4/5 and won $42.86 each for shared third place in the final standings.
K-8 U700 Scholastic
In addition to the main tournament, the CCC also hosted a scholastic competition for players in grades K-8. Many of our beloved students, from both our school programs and academy classes, participated in the five-round g20 tournament.
Luke Johnson, in his first rated event, scored a perfect 5/5 and achieved a provisional USCF rating of 1150. Incredibly, on the path to winning first place, Luke defeated four of the next six players in the standings, including 4/5 scorers Mohammed Hussain, Quinten McNear, Sachin Ravi, and Neil Lalgudi. The only players near the top he avoided facing were second place Nirvaan Tati (4.5/5) and the other 4/5 scorer Harlan Moss.
Click here for the full standings of the K-8 scholastic side event at the 2025 Carolinas Classic.
$1,000 Blitz Tournament & Other Festivities!
Players in the Carolinas Classic also received free entry into Saturday evening's blitz tournament, with a guaranteed prize fund of $1,000. Although no one posted a perfect score, two players finished on 5.5: IM Aaron Mendes and GM Daniel Naroditsky!
Mendes' only draw came in the third round against FM Andrew Jiang, while Danya drew IM Tianqi Wang in the final round after entering with a perfect score. Each player earned $225, while GM Alexander Fishbein and IM Wang split the third place prize ($50) and Steve Alapatt also won $50 as the top player under 2200 (view the blitz championship standings here, including the whopping eleven players who split the U2000 prize!).
Four players tied for first in the U1700 blitz, one being main event star Alexander Woodfin. The others, each earning $80, were Arnav Singh, Rengenath Sadayappan, and John Paolo, all scoring 5.5/6.
Many players, friends, and family stopped by the signing area to get an autograph or a photo with a chess celebrity, as GMs Judit Polgar, Peter Leko, and Boris Gelfand were all in town as part of the Elite Camp this past week (as well as the aforementioned GM Daniel Naroditsky).
Complete tournament standings, including rating changes from the main event, the scholastic, and the blitz, can all be found at the tournament’s USCF crosstable page.
Thank you to all who participated in this year's edition of the Carolinas Classic, as well as founder Peter Giannatos, communications manager Kelly Centrelli (who provided all the photos in this recap!), and the tournament directors who helped make this event happen. We hope to see you all again soon at the Charlotte Chess Center!
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NM Dennis Norman
Chess Coach - Club Journalist
