Welcome to This Week at the Charlotte Chess Center, our weekly recap of all the tournaments hosted by the CCC in the week spanning March 31 to April 6, 2024.
Two tournaments that took place this week will be recapped separately in standalone pieces: the Charlotte Spring Open and our CCC Rapid & Blitz tournament. This post will summarize the recurring events held at the Charlotte Chess Center during the first week of April, as well as the monthly Practice Tournaments hosted at each center on Saturday, April 6.
To find a specific event, navigate using the headings below.
Sunday Afternoon Classical (CCC North)
Our Sunday Afternoon Classical event is held at the CCC North location every week. Members play one round of g60 +10 USCF-rated chess each Sunday, with the event being rated at the end of the month. The following players won their games this past week:
Top: Alex Kaelin, Matthew Sedlock, Frenk Johnson, and Aaron Wilson
U1300: Mario Michaels, Mekhai Collins, Gavin Burton, Imhotep Collins, Nichol Garrison, Carlene Pyne, Axiao Yao, Shivin Ashwin, Pranav Pradeepkumar, Salai Dhayabharan, Ishaanvii Ashwin, and Jayanth Premkumar
The top adult and junior player in each section of SAC, across all rounds of the month, will receive a $25 gift certificate from USCF sales. Those four players from March 2024 are Alex Kaelin and Siddharth Senthil in the Top section, and Mario Michaels and Imhotep Collins in the U1300 section. Congratulations to our March SAC winners!
View the rating report of the March 2024 Sunday Afternoon Classical here.
Our next Sunday Afternoon Classical will be held this weekend at the CCC North location on April 7.
Sunday Action Quads (CCC Main/South)
Sunday Action Quads is a weekly event held at the CCC Main/South location, open to all players in grades K-12. Participants are grouped into four-player quads and compete in three rounds of g20+10 USCF-rated chess. Due to the tournament coinciding with the Charlotte Spring Open, this was one of our smaller SAQs, but still attracted 14 players across three quads.
Our first-place finishers this week were:
Quad A: Satvick Kumar and Nandhan Gummi (2 points)
Quad B: Nilai Gummi and Akshith Chintalacheruvu (2 points)
Quad C (six players): Gabriel Williams (3 points)
Congratulations to all quad winners! Any players achieving a perfect score in our scholastic quad events in grades K-8 are qualified for the NEW Tournament of Champions event, which is scheduled for May 4, 2024. Detailed results from March 31 can be viewed here.
The next Sunday Action Quads will take place at the CCC Main/South location this weekend on April 7.
Monday Action Quads (CCC North)
Monday Action Quads event is a weekly quads tournament held at the North location on Monday evenings. All K-12 scholastic players are welcome to participate for three rounds of g20+10 USCF-rated chess. This week's event attracted 24 total players across six quads.
Congratulations to the following players who finished in first place:
Quad A: Grant Jones (2.5 points)
Quad B: Zachary Baltazar (2.5 points)
Quad C: Akhil Dhinakar and Vihaan Arvind (2 points)
Quad D: Sohan Nelapati (3 points)
Quad E: Lavinesh Balamurugan (3 points)
Quad F: Pradnesh Biswal (3 points)
Grant Jones, Zachary Baltazar, Vihaan Arvind, Sohan Nelapati, and Lavinesh Balamurugan all achieved new peak ratings for their performances!
All 3-0 scorers in grades K-8 are qualified for our Tournament of Champions event. For detailed results, click here for the USCF crosstables.
The next Monday Action Quads event is scheduled for April 8.
Tuesday Night Action (CCC Main/South)
Every Tuesday evening, the CCC Main/South location hosts our Tuesday Night Action tournament. Participants are paired into one USCF standard-rated game a week, following a lecture by Fide Master (and Charlotte Chess Center founder) Peter Giannatos.
A total of 56 players participated this week. Our winners this Tuesday were:
Top: NM Anthony Parker, Patrick McCartney, Kishan Karthigeyan, Lokruth Patil, Harshil Jagga, and Ashwathama Sathish
U1750: Deepak Vellattu, Frank Johnson, Spencer Singleton, Arsh Sharda, Srivatsa Gundumalla, Jared Crawford, Chalpati Gundumalla, Nandhan Gummi, and Charles Cameron
U1300: Anthony Gentile, Brian Lara, Nilai Gummi, Akshith Chintalacheruvu, Namish Mayank, Avery Bradley, Philip Benke, Jeevith Reddy, Carlene Pyne, Eduardo Palmeira, and Henry Yoo
TNA is rated at the end of the month, with a $25 USCF sales gift card awarded to the top scoring adult and junior player in each section. Current TNA standings can be viewed here.
Our next Tuesday Night Action will be held at the Main/South location April 9.
Wednesday Action Quads (CCC Main/South)
Wednesday Action Quads is a weekly tournament held at the CCC's Main/South location every Wednesday, open to both adult and youth players. A total of 42 players participated in WAQ this week, forming ten sections including a six player Quad J.
Here are the top finishers from each quad:
Quad A: NM Anthony Parker (2.5 points)
Quad B: Kishan Karthigeyan (2.5 points)
Quad C: Musa Naushad (2.5 points)
Quad D: Ibraheem Naushad (2 points)
Quad E: Nishita Jaikumar (2 points)
Quad F: Benjamin Raz and Murari Raghavan (2 points)
Quad G: Arjun Joshi (3 points)
Quad H: Satvick Kumar (3 points)
Quad I: Yurii Fryziuk (3 points)
Quad J (six players): Daniel Freeman (3 points)
The full results of the April 3 WAQ can be viewed here. Our next Wednesday Action Quads is scheduled for April 10.
Friday Action Quads (CCC Main/South)
Our Friday Action Quads tournament is a weekly g20+10 quads event hosted at the CCC Main/South location, open to all players in grades K-12. 22 players participated this week, forming five quads.
The following players finished in first place:
Quad A: Shlok Kaushik (3 points)
Quad B: Steven Hook (3 points)
Quad C: Bryan Muraya (2.5 points)
Quad D: Three-way tie between Srihan Valluru, Zahar Shuvalov, and Major Collins (2 points)
Quad E (six players): Daniel Eni (3 points)
Daniel Eni has posted a perfect score in two consecutive FAQs. Meanwhile, Shlok Kaushik broke past USCF 1500 for the first time, and Bryan Muraya achieved a new peak USCF rating as well. Congratulations to all quad winners!
All players who score 3/3 at FAQ are qualified for the Tournament of Champions scheduled for May 4, 2024. Full results of the tournament can be viewed here.
The next Friday Action Quads will be held on April 12.
Scholastic Practice Tournaments!
The Charlotte Chess Center hosted two unrated practice tournaments for scholastic players on April 6, 2024, one at the CCC Main/South location and another at the CCC North location. Our scholastic practice tournaments are designed to get young players used to the conditions of tournament chess play. Each participant scoring at least 2.5 points received a gold medal!
The following players won gold medals at the CCC Main/South location:
Grades K-2: Ethan Cai, Bennett Cordero, Pranav Arun, Baxter Seguin
Grades 3-8: Davis Deadwyler and Kanav Rastogi
The following players won gold medals at the CCC North location:
Grades K-2: Hudson Shaffer and Elon Correia
Grades 3-8: Mithran Balachander
Each gold medalist also qualifies to play in our NEW Tournament of Champions event! The Champions Tournament is scheduled for May 4, 2024 and will feature four rounds, with 35+ trophies awarded as well as Grandmaster-led activities.
Our next practice tournaments will be held on May 11, with one event each at the North and South location. Congratulations to all medalists!
Submitted Games
Two participants in Sunday Afternoon Classical sent in games this week. The first one was Aaron Wilson, who submitted his game with the white pieces against Charles Manolakis. Aaron even added clock times to his game submission, for extra detail of course!
In the game itself, white created attacking chances in a Rossolimo Sicilian, provoking his opponent to sacrifice a piece. Ultimately, black did not receive enough compensation:
Our other submitted game comes from Nichol Garrison, who sent in her game against Raghavendra Rajan. It was white's first-ever rated chess game! All the annotations are from Nichol:
Thanks to both Aaron and Nichol for sending in their games!
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 ALTO tournament.
Not a member of the CCC? Join over 800 members today!
NM Dennis Norman
Chess Coach - Club Journalist
Charlotte Chess Center