12/18/21
Three Connecticut Schools to Join Fray for Final Four at 2022 Pan-Am Intercollegiate
Connecticut universities—Connecticut College, Sacred Heart University and Yale University--will take part in the 2022 Pan-American Intercollegiate Team Championship, to be held on January 6 to 9, 2022 in Dulles, Virginia. The grand prize of the event is four team spots in the 2022 Final Four College Chess Championship. Connecticut College will be represented by Jordan Groff, Nicolas Holmgren, Miles Griffin and Jaron Bernard. Sacred Heart will be represented by Danny Angermeier, Brent McCreesh, Declan Coleman and Jordan Bauer. Meanwhile, Yale is expected to participate with the team of GM Nicolas Checa, FM Yoon-Young Kim, Dexter Webster and Maxim Yaskolko.

12/10/21
GM Magnus Carlsen Defends World Title for Fourth Time
GM Magnus Carlsen of Norway defeated GM Ian Nepomniachtchi of Russia 7.5-3.5 for his fourth World Champion title defense. See FIDE report and Lichess.org coverage and annotated games. In 2013, Carlsen defeated GM Viswanathan Anand of India to become World Champion. In addition to this latest victory, Carlsen successfully defended his title in 2014 (a rematch with Anand), 2016 (against GM Sergey Karjakin of Russia) and 2018 (against GM Fabiano Caruana of the United States).

12/5/21
Connecticut Scholastic Players Compete in National Grades Championship
From December 3 to 5, ten Connecticut players took part in the National K-12 Grade Championships in Orlando, Florida. Former Connecticut Barber representative, Jack Klein finished 9th of 77 players in 11th Grade section. FM Maximillian Lu finished 15th of 83 in the 10th Grade. Max Ingargiola and Arjan Kochar finished 10th and 42nd of 122 in the 8th Grade. Henry Buczkiewicz and Colin Dean finished 15th and 21st of 114 in the 6th Grade. Sophie Rohrs finished 34th of 126 in the 4th Grade. Younger siblings Charles Buczkiewicz and Andrew Rohrs finished 54th and 62nd of 75 in 1st Grade. Also, Colin Dean and Aaron Krayn finished 38th and 62nd of 84 in the K-6 Blitz competition. Complete results.

12/4/21
Yale's GM Nico Checa wins 2021 Connecticut State Championship; UConn's Jonathan Smucker, Wesleyan's Vibhuv Reddy tie for first in Open Section; Wesleyan CC wins Open Section Collegiate Team Title


Round 2 at 2021 Connecticut State Championships, Wesleyan's Exley Science Center.

December 4, Middletown -- GM Nico Checa scored 3.5/4 to win the State Champion crown outright at 2021 State Championships held at Wesleyan University. In the collegiate team competition, Wesleyan finished first, followed by UConn and Yale. 82 Connecticut players took part in the event. See results, broadcast games, event page, rating report and Photo Collection.

11/30/21
Annual Honors of Connecticut Chess Community CSCA will award 2021 Annual Honors of the Connecticut chess community. Awards will be presented between rounds of the State Championship. Among the honorees are Rob Roy (CSCA/Coventry Chess Center), Christopher Potts (Norwalk Chess Club), Robert Cyr (CSCA/NBCC) and Hamden Chess Club. See complete final list.

11/16/21
News on Connecticut State Championships, December 4: GM Checa, GM Niemann and Live Game Broadcast!
GM Nico Checa, now attending Yale University, will play. Also, GM Hans Niemann will appear live from Dubai to participate in special awards ceremony. Additionally, CSCA is finalizing arrangements to broadcast games live during competition. See event page.

11/10/21
CSCA Opens Registration for 2021 State Championship on December 4 at Wesleyan
The tournament includes GUARANTEED co-sponsored prize fund of $2,625, trophy, book and clock prizes and a collegiate team competition. Visit our tournament page for news, updates and all details. Or register now!
Special thanks to our co-sponsors Wesleyan Chess Club, Russell Enterprizes and DGT North America!

11/7/21
Forty Connecticut Players Compete in Northeast Open. The annual tournament was held November 5 to 7 at the Stamford Hotel. The event received 279 entries from all around the United States, including forty from Connecticut. The top Connecticut finish in regular competition came in the U1500, where Elizabeth Smith scored 4/5 and finished tied for third. Lisa also took second in the Mixed Doubles competition, together with NBCC club mate, Joseph Bihlmeyer, who scored 3/5 in the U2100. Meanwhile, Connecticut players GM Sergey Kudrin, FM Maximilian Lu and Zachary Tanenbaum scored 3.5/5 in the Major, finishing 6, 7 and 8, respectively, and falling just short of the prize mark. However, 2021 Connecticut Denker Nominee, Nathaniel Moor, also scored 3.5/5 and finished in a six-way tie for the U2300 prize. Zach and Nate also finished first and second in the Blitz competition. See complete results.

Joseph (Joe) Bihlmeyer and Elizabeth (Lisa) Smith at recent NBCC meeting.

11/6/21
Grade Championships Results. The 2021-22 Grade Championships drew 82 players to the Greenwich Country Day School. The event was organized by the National Scholastic Chess Foundation, Sunil Weeramantry, chief organizer.
Event results were as follows:
12th Grade - not participating
11th Grade - Ethan Pott
10th Grade - not participating
9th Grade - Punyavrat Upadhyay
8th Grade - Max Ingargiola
7th Grade - Jack Aronian
6th Grade - Aaron Krayn
5th Grade - Maceo Regan
4th Grade - Nikolas Rowland
3rd Grade - Leopold Cartellieri
2nd Grade - Kirin Inoue
1st Grade - Andrew Ichiro Rohrs
Kindergarten - Charlotte Li Martin
Rating report.

5th Grade Champion Maceo Regan.

Kindergarten Champion Charlotte Li Martin.

10/26/21
CSCA Tournaments Return November 6! CSCA teams up with the National Scholastic Chess Foundation to kick off the 2021-2022 CSCA tournament cycle. On November 6, NSCF is hosting the CSCA's annual Scholastic Grade Championships at the Greenwich Country Day School. Grade Champions will be determined and individual and team prizes awarded in all grades K through 12. The event features a new prize format. Entries are limited. Please register today! ... See this and other newly posted tournament events here.

8/2/21
Connecticut Players Make Impressive Showing at National Invitationals. The 2021 Connecticut nominees to the National Invitational Tournaments traveled to Cherry Hill, NJ for the annual competition held in concert with the US Open and the US Chess Annual Meeting. The Invitationals were held from July 30 to August 2.
Connecticut scores were as follows:

• Denker (High School, 9-12): Nathaniel Moor: 4/6, tied for fifth
• Barber (Middle School, 6-8): no Connecticut representative participated
• Rockefeller (K-5): Jasmine Su: 4.5/6, tied for fourth
• Haring (Girls): Beatrice Low: 3.5/6, tied for eleventh
• Irwin (50+): Mikhail Koganov: 4/6, tied for fourth and finished undefeated
  

Nathaniel Moor at the Denker Tournament of Champions

7/10/21

New pages on Connecticut chess from the 1970s have been added to the HISTORY section, including pages of the Connecticut Chess Newsletter.

7/5/21
Grandmaster Hans Niemann, the best chess player in the state, has won the 2021 World Open in Philadelphia. He scored 7,5 out of 9 games, which included a win over #31 in the world Jeffery Xiong (2709). 17-year-old Niemann tied for first with 19-year-old fellow American Grandmaster John Burke and each won $11,827.50 for their effort.

6/21/21
U.S. Chess Series on Evolution of Chess Rules: Former U.S. Chess President John McCrary provides this series on the evolution of modern game rules, including en passant, draws, first move, castling and promotion.

6/14/21

New pages on Connecticut chess between 1932 and 1954 are now available in the HISTORY section, including an excerpt on the 1935 State Championship from the Daily Hartford Courant, June 9, 1935.

6/12/21

Chess outdoors: New Britain Chess Club players, including CSCA Secretary NM Suhas Kodali (shown lecturing above), led an outdoor instruction and simultaneous play event at the Weston Public Library. The event was organized by DIG USA and also featured Connecticut's own NM Derek Meredith and FM Richard Bauer.

6/3/21
Notice of Special Meeting of CSCA Board of Directors
A Special Meeting of the CSCA Board is scheduled for June 5, 2021 at 3 P.M. over Zoom. As part of the meeting, amendments to CSCA Bylaws will be proposed. Current CSCA members may attend to observe, only. Members interested in attending must request the meeting link via email to CtStateChessAssociation@gmail.com by 2 P.M. on June 5, 2021.

5/29/21
Connecticut Grandmaster Robert Hungaski qualified to the 2021 FIDE World Cup after winning his group stage at the American World Cup Qualification Stage. The World Cup will take place with 208 players from July 11 through August 6 in Sochi, Russia. The Cup winner qualifies for the 2022 Candidates Tournament, an eight player tournament which will determine the challenger for the 2023 World Chess Championship.

5/4/21
At the 2021 National Tournaments of Champions scheduled to take place July 31-August 3 at the Crown Plaza Philadelphia-Cherry Hill the state of Connecticut will be represented by the following players: GM Sergey Kudrin in the Irwin (Senior), NM Nathaniel Moor in the Denker (High School), Max Ingargiola in the Barber (Junior High), Jasmine Su in the Rockefeller (Elementary School) and Beatrice Low in the Haring (Girls).

5/1/21
10-year-old Tani Adewumi of New York won the CCFC Club Championship with a perfect 4-0, crossing the 2200 rating barrier and become the youngest National Master in the country. More about Tani successes on the CCFC website and US Chess website.

4/10/21
The first open in person chess tournament of 2021 was won by 16-year-old Nathaniel Moor. With this result Nathaniel also crossed the 2200 rating barrier earning the Master title. Tied for second place were GM Sergey Kudrin and FM Yoon-Young Kim. The U1800 section was won by Mitchell Krasnerman while Kushagra Bhargava took first place in the K-12 section. This event at the Omni Hotel in New Haven and was organized by Matthew Shirvell attended by 30 players from Connecticut and New York.
Rating reports of the Open, U1800 and K-12 sections.

1st Annual American Robin Open in New Haven

1/15/21
The CSCA has received news that Grandmaster Gildardo Garcia has passed away in Medellin, Colombia, due to complications arising from Covid-19. Mr. Garcia founded the Alpha Chess Academy in Fairfield in 2002 and was very active in the Connecticut chess community throughout the 2000s. He is survived by his wife and two daughters.
Eulogy by CSCA and NBCC Historian Bob Cyr.

GM Gildardo Garcia (1954-2021)

1/5/21
The 2020 CSCA Annual Meeting will take place on Sunday January 24 from 10 A.M. until 1 P.M. on Zoom. The meeting is open to the public. Anyone who would like to attend should send an email to CtStateChessAssociation@gmail.com to receive the Zoom link for the meeting.
Only adult CSCA members will be allowed to vote for two Director seats up for election. Note that voting rights of each Member do not take effect until ten days after acquiring membership. This rule does not apply to parents of scholastic members who have acquired membership through tournament play outside of this period and renewals of current memberships.
In order to be nominated for the Board of for Office, a nominee must indicate his or her willingness to serve in writing or in person.
Current list of CSCA members -- Join the CSCA/Renew your membership -- Online Meeting Format 2020 CSCA Annual Meeting -- Current CSCA Officers & Board
Agenda 2020 CSCA Annual Meeting.