News

8/29
The 2020 55th NBCC Summer Open was won on tie-breaker by Gaetano Bompastore.

Gaetano on the left, on the right Norman Burtness the TD of the event.
More results are here.

8/2
The 2020 National State Invitations for Middle and Elementary School took place on chess.com over the weekend. The Senior Championship was concluded as well. GM Sergey Kudrin tied for 2nd and took 4th on tiebreaks with a score of 4.5-1.5. In the Middle School section FM Max Lu recovered from a bad start and tied for 4th, 6th on tiebreaks, also with a score of 4.5-1.5. In the Elementary School section Jasmine Su finished in a tie for 6th with a score of 4-2.

Final standings: Senior, Barber (Middle School) and Rockefeller (Elementary School).

7/26
The 2020 National State Invitationals for High School students and Girls took place on chess.com over the weekend. Connecticut was represented by Nathaniel Moor who finished in 14th place (out of 44 states) with a score of 3.5-2.5. In the Girls championship Serena Evans ended in 28th place (out of 42 states) with a score of 2.5-3.5.

Final standings: Denker (High School) and Haring (Girls).

6/28
The 2020 National Nominations Candidates' Tournament to determine the official Connecticut representatives to the National Tournaments of Champions took place over two days in the CSCA Club on chess.com.
Pending game verification by chess.com the Connecticut representatives to the National Tournaments of Champions are Nate Moor (Denker, High School), FM Max Lu (Barber, Middle School), Jasmine Su (Rockefeller, Elementary School), Serena Evans (Haring, Girls) and GM Sergey Kudrin (Senior).

Final Standings Rockefeller:
1. 2.5/3 Jasmine Su
2. 1.5/3 Miles Wolfe
3. 1/3 Erik Nebylovych, Annie Ulmer

Final Standings Haring:
1. 2.5/3 Serena Evans
2. 2/3 Helena Servin-DeMarrais
3. 1.5/3 Beatrice Low
4. 0/3 Shesh Budhabhatti

6/27
The Chess Club of Fairfield County resumed their weekly over-the-board tournaments with G/45 Quads on June 27. The CCFC has published a list of Corona virus precautions. A total of 16 players participated: Crosstables.
The CSCA does not advise players and organizers for or against in-person events. Each organizer and player has to make their own determination in organizing of and participating in over-the-board chess events. For the latest guidance by the State of Connecticut safe practices please visit the Connecticut COVID-19 Response website.

Pandemic pose by Joe Bihlmeyer (l) and Jithu Sajeevan

6/20
The 2020 National Nominations Candidates' Tournament to determine the official Connecticut representatives to the National Tournaments of Champions took place over two days in the CSCA Club on chess.com. On Saturday June 20 the High and Middle School candidates played a single Round-Robin. On Sunday June 28 the K-5 and Girls' candidates played their event.

Final Standings Denker:
1. 2/3 Nate Moor (after blitz playoff)
2. 2/3 Preston DeLeo (after blitz playoff)
3. 2/3 Jake Wang
4. 0/3 Ethan Stiff-Cave

Final standings Barber:
1. 3/3 Max Lu
2. 2/3 Peter Wolfe
3. 1/3 Punyavrat Upadhyay
4. 0/3 Jake Lumelsky

5/24
The Chess Club of Fairfield County beat the New Britain Chess Club in an 8-board online match. The two premier chess clubs in the state fielded 2 Masters, Experts, Class A and Class B players for the 2-game G/25+5 match.
CCFC vs NBCC 9.5-6.5
1. 1.5-0.5 NM Arslan Otchiyev (2400) vs FM Nelson Castaneda (2358)
2. 1.5-0.5 NM Daniel Lowinger (2245) vs NM Ted McHugh (2297)
3. 2.0-0.0 Ethan Gu (2167) vs Suhas Kodali (2169)
4. 0.0-2.0 NM Ryan Young (2166) vs NM Derek Meredith (2110)
5. 1.5-0.5 Gabriel Andreescu (1996) vs Mario Guevara-Rodriguez (1962)
6. 0.0-2.0 Jack Klein (1951) vs Nakul Ramaswamy (1828)
7. 1.0-1.0 Rohan Krishna (1786) vs Dennis Himes (1740)
8. 2.0-0.0 Gabriel Borges (1765) vs Bob Wooster (1625)
Video of the match with commentary by FM Rick Bauer and NM Ian Harris.

5/19
The CCFC has been holding a series of weekly online matches between notable players with connection to the CCFC and Connecticut chess with live commentary from NM Ian Harris and a guest commentator:

Main Event I: Daniel Lowinger vs Mikhail Koganov 8-6
Main Event II: Alex Eydelman vs Andrew Dexter 9-8
Main Event III: Kapil Chandran vs Yoon-Young Kim 9.5-2.5
Main Event IV: Cayden Yang vs Nathaniel Moor 13.5-6.5
Main Event V: Max Lu vs Vincent Tsay 12-1
Main Event VI: Bryan Weisz vs Jack Grills 3 P.M. on 5/31

4/16
Melvin Patrick, proprietor of the Chess Club of Fairfield County (CCFC) in Norwalk, is portrayed in the April 2020 issue of US Chess Life.

Source: US Chess Life, April 2020.

4/2
Dan Starbuck Pelletier of Team DIG USA interviewed by News 12 Connecticut.

Dan Starbuck Pelletier.

3/31
The NBCC's 2nd online rated blitz tournament was won by David Herscovici with a 6-1 score; 15 players participated. Crosstable.

3/27
The NBCC's 1st online rated blitz tourmanent was won by FM Nelson Castaneda with a 4-0 score; 15 players participated. Crosstable.

3/22
Team DIG USA held their 1st online scholastic 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).