News

3/22
Team DIG USA held their first online tournament, hosted on chess.com. Punyavrat Upadhyay won the Advanced section and Griffin Kingsley won the Beginner section. More than 20 scholastic players competed.
More pictures at this DIG Facebook post.

Punyavrat playing from home in Farmington.
Griffin playing from home in Weston.

3/7
A total of 128 players participated in the 2020 Connecticut State K-12 Scholastic Championships held at Manchester High School. With perfect scores across the board, Preston DeLeo is the new State High School Champion, Peter Wolfe is the new State Middle School Champion, his brother Miles Wolfe is the new State Elementary School Champion and Chehan Sethi is the new State Primary School Champion. Team Championship titles were won by Simsbury High School (4th title in 7 years), Henry James Memorial School, also from Simsbury (6th title in 9 years!) and the Elementary and Primary School titles were won by Riverfield School from Fairfield.
Final Standings: High (9-12) - Middle (6-8) - Elementary (K-5) - Primary (K-3) - Rating Crosstable

Play took place in the Manchester HS gym.
High School section with Champion Preston DeLeo (left) vs Jithu Sajeevan on board 1.
Middle School section with Punyavrat Upadhyay (left) vs Champion Peter Wolfe on board 1.
Elementary School section with Anthony Low (left) vs Champion Miles Wolfe on board 1.
Elementary School section with Champion Chehan Sethi (left) vs Max Wang on board 1.

3/1
A total of 84 young players participated in the first Fairfield Regional Scholastic Championship held at Riverfield School in collaboration with the CSCA. Final standings of the Junior High, Elementary & Primary Open, Elementary Novice, and Primary Novice & First Grade - USCF rating crosstable.

2/29
Grandmaster Sergey Kudrin has won the 2020 Connecticut Senior Championship with a score of 3-0 and will be the official state representative to the 3rd Annual National Tournament of Senior State Champions held August 8-11 in St. Charles, MO. In the last round he beat second seed FM Nelson Castaneda. Derek Meredith finished in second place and has qualified to the Championship section of the 2020 Connecticut State Championship on May 16 as Kudrin is already eligible as one of the top 12 players in the state. Top U2000 was won by Mario Guevera-Rodriguez.
The first Connecticut Women's Championship was won by 9-year-old Jasmine Su who scored a perfect 3-0. Liz Smith finished in second place.
Crosstable CT Senior - Crosstable CT Women's.

Jasmine Su (left), one of the top 9-year-old players in the US won the first CT Women's Open.


Mario Guevara-Rodriguez vs Nelson Castaneda in front & Hanon Russell vs Sergey Kudrin behind.

2/24
Simsbury High School won their match at Hall High School in West Hartford 20 - 5.

some heated analysis afterwards...

2/22
Joe Bihlmeyer scored 3-0 for his 17th tournament victory at the monthly swiss in Coventry which Rob Roy has run an impressive 40+ times. Crosstable.

2/17
The annual 2020 USA Amateur Team East took place in Parsipanny, NJ with 329 teams and 1,383 players participating. There were 13 teams made up mostly of Connecticut players attending. "Connecticut Finest", fielding Arslan Otchiyev, Ian Harris, Joe Bihlmeyer and Jithu Sajeevan, scored 5-1 and won the award for best Connecticut team. "Hopkins Gray" with Terence Mooney, Evan Stein, Sharvin Bhagwagar and Noa Benson-Tilsen won the prize for best team U1200. Crosstable - Prize list.

2/8
Roosevelt School in Bridgeport and Team DIG USA hosted the 2020 Connecticut State Grade Championships. A total of 91 players participated. 2020 State Grade Champions are: Kindergarten - Landau Day, 1st - Krithik Sriramulu, 2nd - Kushagra Bhargava, 3rd - Chehan Sethi, 4th - Ethan Shemo, 5th - Sarah Maya, 6th - Ayush Singh, 7th - Vedanta Bhargava, 8th - Aditya Mital, 9th - Ethan Striff-Cave, 10th - Daniel Zhou, 11th - Nathan Chang, 12th - David Brown. Riverfield School from Fairfield won in 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th grades, while Roger Ludlowe Middle School from Fairfield won 6th and 8th grade. Robbins Middle School took the 7th-grade title.
Final Standings: K through 3rd grades - 4th & 5th grades - 6th through 12th grades - K-4 & 5-12 Unrated sections - Rating Crosstable.

Clash between titans: Nathan Chang vs Daniel Zhou.

Mayor Joseph Ganim of Bridgeport dropped by for a game.

Riverfield players celebrate their 5th-Grade Championship

DIG's Coach Dan with his Roosevelt School team who won the K-4 Unrated section.

2/2
The West Hartford Chess Camp & Tournament was attended by 25 players of different ages and playing ability. Joe Bihlmeyer and Suhas Kodali provided instruction in the morning. In the afternoon the Scholastic section was won by Sarvin Bhagarwar and the Adult/Over-1100 was won by Punyavrat Upadhyay. Crosstable.

2/2
A total of 86 scholastic players attended the 51st NECA in Stamford. Crosstable.

1/26
The Southern Leg of the NNGP and Greenwhich City Scholastic Championships attracted 130 players to Greenwich Academy this weekend. Nathaniel Moor continued his winning streak from the day before and won the High School section, qualifying to the Denker NNCT, Peter Wolfe won the Middle School section, qualifying to the Barber NNCT and Annie Ulmer won the Elementary School section, qualifying to the Rockefeller NNCT. Greenwhich City Grade Championship winners were: Landau Vincent Day - Kindergarten, James Lindstrom - 1st grade, Lucas Lazlo - 2nd grade, Jack Karanikolaidis - 3rd grade, Satya Daftuar - 4th grade, Oliver Servedio - 5th grade and Henry Graham - Middle School.
Report - Final Results - Rating report.

1/25
Nathaniel Moor has won the CCFC Club Championship with a score of 4-0; crosstable.

1/19
With a score of 5-0 Beatrice Low has won the Connecitcut State Girls' Championship for the fourth time in five years. Shesh Budhabhatti (winner of 2018) and Haneesha Atkuri tied for second, Shesh clinching the qualification spot to the NNCT on tiebreakers. Irving A. Robbins Middle School from Farmington won the team trophy. Final standings - Crosstable.

CT Girls' Championship at the Play More Chess Academy in Hamden.

1/18
Jordan Groff won the Greater Hartford Open in Coventry with a score of 3-0. Crosstable.

1/11

GM Aleksandr Lenderman gave a simul at NBCC. He won all 21 games.

2020
Happy New Year and Best Wishes for 2020 from the CSCA!

News about Connecticut events in 2020 will be posted here as soon as the pieces start moving again. Last year's news can be found here: 2019.

There are several CSCA events coming up:

1. 2020 CT Girls' Championship will take place on Sunday January 19 at the Play More Chess Academy in Hamden.
2. 2020 Greenwich City Scholastic Championship & CSCA NNGP Southern Leg will take place on Sunday January 26 at the Greenwich Academy.
3. 2020 CT Grade Championship will take place on Saturday February 8 at the Roosevelt School in Bridgeport.
4. CSCA Regional Scholastic Chess Tournament in southern Connecticut on February 29 or March 1 (more details will be announced soon).
5. CT K-12 State Championship will take place on March 7 at Manchester High School (more details will be announced soon).