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Notice: 2019 CSCA Annual Meeting
The 2019 CSCA Annual Meeting will take place from 12-4 P.M. on Sunday October 20, 2019 at the Weston Public Library (56 Norfield Rd, Weston, CT 06883).
The meeting is open to the public and all chess players, parents, organizers and other interested parties are invited to attend. Among other items, the adult CSCA members present will elect two Directors, the Board will elect the Officers and a number of 2019- 2020 State Championship events will be assigned to interested outside organizers.
Read the full notice

10/4
Three scholastic players from Connecticut are representing the US at the 2019 World Youth Chess Championship held October 1-13 in Mumbai, India. IM Hans Niemann is the top seed in the Open 16 category. He started with 2,5 out of 3 and features in an interview here. In the Open 18 category twin brothers George and Jake Wang from Chess Haven are participating. After missing the first three rounds they will start the event in round 4.
Update 10/7: Hans Niemann has taken the clear lead with 6/7; video footage and game analysis by Hans.
Update 10/9: Hans Niemann leads with 7/8 after a spectacular mating attack; see annotated game Soto-Niemann. George and Jake Wang have a score of 2,5/8 in the Under 18 category.
Update 10/10: Hans Niemann lost in round 9 and shares first place with two others; two more rounds to go.
Update 10/11: Hans Niemann also lost in round 10 and is now out of contention for the gold medal. A last-round win should still put him in strong contention for silver or bronze.
Update 10/12: Hans Niemann came very close to the silver medal in the Open 16 but also lost his last-round and finished 9th with a score of 7/11; See annotations to Cardoso Cardoso-Niemann . In the Open 18 Jake Wang took 53rd place with a score of 5/11 (after starting the event with three forfeit losses) while his brother George finished in 74th with a score of 3,5/11.
Report after 10 rounds at US Chess - Report after 7 rounds at US Chess - Report after 4 rounds at US Chess
Tournament website - Final standings Open 16 - Final standings Open 18.

Hans Niemann Jake and George Wang flanking Niemann (photo credit ushess.org/US Consulate Mumbai)

9/29
Joe Bihlmeyer and Michael Uwakwe tied for first at the 2019 Charter Oak Open in Coventry. Crosstable.

9/22
IM Justin Sarkar of NYC took clear first with 4.5-0.5 at the 2019 Hartford Open. Best Connecticut player was H.S. Champion Zachary Tanenbaum who scored 3-2. The U2010 was won outright by Connecticut's K-8 representative Peter Wolfe with a 4.5-0.5 score. Scott Sheff and Justin Trey of NY state tied for first in the U1610, while Connecticut's Michael Boisselle took clear first in the U1210 with a perfect 5-0.
Standings: Major, Under 2010, Under 1610, Under 1210 and Rating Report.

Justin Sarkar (front right) Major & U2010 sections

9/12

Now that summer is over, chess clubs in our state are starting up again.
Here coach Dan Pelletier (left in last row) with some of his players.
Check out the PLAY section of this site for a club or meet near you.

8/25
Chef Mario Guevara at the grill of the 54th NBCC Summer Open, held outdoors in Wickham Park in Manchester:

Mark Bourque won the Open, CCSU student Kyle Triplett the U-1619, and the current CT K-3 State Champion Ethan Shemo from Avon the U- 919. Rating report.

8/25
Connecticut's FM Kapil Chandran achieved an IM norm at the US Masters held in Greenboro, NC. Kapil scored 5 out of 9 and beat GM Dragon (2614) in the process. The top scholastic player from the state, 16-year-old IM Hans Niemann, scored 5.5 out of 9 missing a GM norm on half a point. Hans beat GM Melkumyan (2661) and was in a third-place tie for the U2500 (fide) prize. Final Standings.

Kapil Chandran (right) analyzing with Arslan Otchiyev (photo credit Al Lawrence/uschess.org)

8/19
The 2019 Continental Open in Sturbridge, Mass. was won by Chinese Grandmaster Jianchao Zhou with a score of 7 out of 9. The Premier section had no less than 12 GM's and 7 IM's participating. Because it was a nine-round event title norms were attainable and Eugene Yanayt of Cali. achieved an IM norm. No players from Connecticut contended in the Premier, but in the U2100 Derek Meredith tied for first, Nathan Chang tied for first in the U1900, Colin Wheeler tied for third in the U1700 and Jack Clayton finished fourth in the U1250.
Final standings and Rating report.

8/11
Connecticut's top player, Grandmaster Robert Hungaski, finished in a tie for 14th with a score of 6.5-2.5 at the 2019 US Open in Orlando, FL. He was in contention for top honors and best American player and qualification to the 2020 US Championship until the last round. Connecticut's 2019 Barber winner Peter Wolfe was in the money with a tie for 3rd and 4th in class B and a gain of more than 100 rating points. Final standings and Rating report.

GM Robert Hungaski (photo credit uschess.org)

8/10
Joe Bihlmeyer took clear first at the 2019 Nutmeg State Open and won the monthly event by Rob Roy in Coventry for the 15th time. Crosstable.

8/6
(Corrected) The 2019 National High School (Denker), K-8 (Barber), Girls (Haring) and Senior Tournaments of Champions took place August 3-5 in Orlando, Florida. Connecticut was represented by four players in these invitational tournaments where each state gets to send one player. In the Denker tournament Zachary Tanenbaum finished in 24th out of 48 with a score of 3-3. In the Barber tournament Peter Wolfe finished 28th out of 50 with a score of 3-3, facing much higher rated opponents in most of his games. In the Haring tournament Beatrice Low finished 27th out of 42 with a score of 2.5-3.5, facing much higher rated opponents in almost all of her games, which included a win over 2nd seed Julia Sevilla in round 1 (see game below). In the Senior Mikhail Koganov finished 5th out of 44 with a score of 4-2; Mikhail faced higher rated opponents in all but one game, did not lose a game and drew with top seed GM Sevillano (see game below) and IM's Burnett and Ginsburg.

Beatrice, Mikhail, Peter and Zachary

Final Standings: Denker, Barber, Haring, Scholastic Team Standings, and Senior
Live games: http://uschess.live/USOpen/
US Chess Twitter coverage: https://twitter.com/USChess
Sevilla-Low with annotations: https://lichess.org/study/CdZa89O6/33K1zVHv.
Sevillano-Koganov with annotations: https://lichess.org/study/CdZa89O6/MQrse89R.

7/28
Grandmasters Yaroslav Zherebukh and Alexander Ivanov have won the 24th Bradley Open. Best Connecticut player in the Major was Robert Newbold who tied for 3rd/1st U2300. The U2100 was won by Morris Clainer from Mass, Joe Bihlmeyer best Connecticut player with a tie for 2nd. Beatrice Low, CT State Girls Champion, tied for 1st with Jaron Bernard (New Jersey) in the U1800. Dennis Wigg (CT) took clear 1st in the U1500, while Punyavrat Upadhyay (CT) won all his games to win the U1200.
Final Standings: Major, U2100, U1800, U1500, U1200 and US Chess rating crosstable.

7/27
Connecticut's Maximillian Lu has won the Gold Medal in the Under 16 section at the 2019 Pan American Youth Championship held July 21- 27 in Guayaquil, Ecuador. In a field of 58 players Max remained undefeated and scored 7,5 out of 9 games. In the Girls Under 12 Serena Evans took 17th place with a score of 5 out of 9. Team USA was represented in Ecuador by 53 players.
Final Standings: Under 16 - Girls Under 12.

US medalists (Max 4th from left) Serena (left)

7/20
Connecticut's top junior, 15-year-old Hans Niemann, finished in a tie for 6th place at the 2019 US Junior Championship held in St. Louis. The field was a ten-player Round Robin including, among others, four Grandmasters, four International Masters and the 2019 Women's Champion. Grandmaster Awonder Liang, 16, of Wisconsin won the event after beating Nicholas Checa from New York in a tiebreak.
Event website and final standings: https://www.uschesschamps.com/2019-us-junior-championships.

7/13
Joe Bihlmeyer took clear first at the 2019 Connecticut Yankee Open. Crosstable.

Joe

7/13
IM Yaacov Norowitz took clear first at the 2019 Fairfield County Masters and Class Championship. Crosstable.

6/22
Joe Bihlmeyer took clear first at the 2019 Coventry Summer Open. Crosstable.

6/9
The 2019 Northeast Open in Stamford was won by Russian Grandmaster Vladimir Belous with a score of 4,5-0,5. Tied for 2nd-4th with a score of 4-1 were GM Alexander Ivanov, IM Alexander Katz, IM Justin Sarkar and Andrew Alito, who also took top U2300. The best players from Connecticut in the Major Section were Maximillian Lu and Joseph Han (tied for 2nd for the U2300 prize).
The U2100 was shared by Shawn Swindell and Frank Prestia, both from New York. Tying for 3rd were Connecticut's Joe Bihlmeyer and scholastic players Preston Deleo and Nathaniel Moor (top U1900). UConn's Isaiah Glessner took clear 1st in the U1800, and Sergei Zakharov from New York in the U1500. Ian Dailis from Connecticut and Phil Lee from Pennsylvania tied for 1st in the U1200, with Shan Kerr (top U1000), Nicholas Chong (top Unrated) and Landau Day (top U600) also winning prizes.
Final Standings: Major, U2100 Section, U1800 Section, U1500 Section, U1200 Section and Rating Report

6/2
Nelson Castaneda edged out Daniel Pascetta on tiebreaks to win the 2019 State Rapid Championship held in New Britain. Norman Burtness and Joe Hricko shared the U2000 prize while Nakul Ramaswamy won the U1700 and the scholastic trophy. Crosstable.

5/18
Rick Bauer, Joe Bihlmeyer and Jonathan Smuckler tied for first at the 2019 Constitution State Open in Coventry. Crosstable.

5/11
A group of 18 players gathered for the Gaetano Bompastore Get Well Quick in Agawam, Mass. Gaetano, who is one of the most active players in the Springfield, Mass/Hartford, Conn area was involved in a serious car accident on his way home from the NBCC Summer Open on August 26, 2018. After a long recovery, players from Massachusetts and Connecticut gathered at his rehab facility to celebrate Gaetano's comeback to rated chess. Suhas Kodali won the event with a score of 4,5-0,5.
Rating Report

Gaetano with Dr. Immad Sadiq, a physician at Hartford Hospital who helped save his life

5/4
Highschooler Yoon-Young Kim is the new 2019 Connecticut State Champion. He scored 3,5-0,5 finishing ahead of 2010 State Champ Nelson Castaneda in 2nd place and Maximillian Lu in 3rd. The U2100 prize was won by Hanon Russell.
In the Under 2000 section Nakul Ramaswamy, the 2019 Middle School State Champion, took first with 4-0. The U1500 prize was won by Lisa Smith while Matthew Chin, Eric Newman and Pablo Ruiz split the U1100 prize.
The event took place at the New Britain Chess Club and drew 32 participants. Additional cash, book and clock prizes were generously donated by Hanon Russell and DGT North America.
Final Standings: Championship Section, U2000 Section, Rating Report and the round three game that decided the Championship Kim-Castaneda.

Yoony Kim vs Nelson Castaneda Max Lu (r) vs Rick Bauer (photo credits Doug Fiske)

4/28
Maximillian Lu of Greenwich tied for 1st at the K-9 National Championship held over the weekend in Grapevine, TX and won the 3rd- place trophy on tiebreaks. Max also took 4th in the K-9 Blitz and won the Bughouse event together with Alexander Costello from California as his team mate. In the K-8 Championships Jack Klein, also of Greenwich, tied for 25th while the 15th-place team trophy in the K-8 Championship section was won by King Philip Middle School from West Hartford; King Philip also took 5th in the K-9 Blitz.
Final Standings and Final Tournament Report.

Max Lu (photo credit uschess.org)

Report and picture from King Philip's coach Alexander Lumelsky:
"On April 25 to 28, 2019, King Philip Middle School (West Hartford) took part in the US Chess Junior High School Nationals (K-9) in Dallas, Texas. On April 25, 2019, the team placed Fifth in the K-9 Blitz Championships. Sixth grader Jake Lumelsky led the team with seven wins, including three upsets. He placed 1st Under 1200, finishing 68th out of 179. ... On April 28, 2019, in the K-8 Championship Section, after three days of grueling Game 120 competition, King Philip finished 15th out of 42 teams. The team scored 11.5 points in the final five rounds, including five upset wins and three upset draws to complete a miraculous comeback, to capture the final placement award. Eighth grader Ethan Striff-Cave led the way with 4.5 points. He placed 1st Under 1300 in the open section, finishing 79th of 298. ... These are the first and second National team titles for King Philip Middle School, and the second and third National team titles for King Philip's coach Alexander Lumelsky."

Samuel, Jake and Alexander Lumelsky, Lucas Kollen and Ethan Striff-Cave

4/21
The 2019 Foxwoods Open took place April 17-21 with many players from Connecticut participating. With 5,5/9 State High School Champion Zachary Tanenbaum was the best performing player from Connecticut in the Open, tying for 1st for the U2250 (FIDE-rating) prize playing higher rated opponents in all his games except one. Also in the money were high school student Daniel Zhou from Storrs, winning $3,000 for a first-place tie in the U2000, David Labriola tying for 10th also in the U2000, Craig Moffitt and Peter Wolfe tying for 6th in the U1800, Joshua Taht tying for 7th in the U1600, Mikhail Bilokin tying for 8th in the U1400, high school student Wyn Veiga from Hamden taking clear 1st and $1,100 in the U1100 and Hans Niemann winning the blitz with a perfect 10-0. 17-year-old John Burke from New Jersey won the Open and $7,650.
Final Standings and US Chess crosstable.

4/14
Results of the CCFC K-12 Scholastic Championships held in Norwalk.

4/13
UConn student Roman Rychkov wins the 2019 Nathan Hale Open in Coventry; crosstable.

4/13
Results of the Brunswick tournament in Greenwich.

4/7
Numerous Connecticut players took top places at the 2019 Eastern Class Championships in Sturbridge, Mass. In the Open GM Sergey Kudrin and FM Yoon-Young Kim tied for 3rd after drawing each other in the last round. UConn student Roman Rychkov tied for 1st in the Expert section; fellow UConn student Benjamin Amar tied for 1st in Class A while Andrew Colwell tied for 3rd; Roger Bessette tied for 2nd in Class B; Terence Mooney tied for 1st in Class C while Shriniket Sivakumar tied for 3rd; Lisa Smith won Class D outright while also taking the Mixed Doubles Team together with NBCC club mate Joe Bilhmeyer; UConn student Matthew Chin took clear first in Class E while Heeja Needham tied for 2nd, also taking 2nd place in the Mixed Doubles with Jonathan Needham.
Full results and US Chess crosstable.

Lisa Smith

3/30
The National Nominations Candidates Tournament took place at the Raymond Library in East Hartford. The Denker/High School section was won by Zachary Tanenbaum of Greenwich, his third win in four years. Peter Wolfe of North Milford was victorious in the Barber/K-8 and Beatrice Low of Westport won the Girls' for the fifth (!) consecutive time. They all scored 3-0 and will be this year's official representatives for Connecticut to the Denker Tournament of High School Champions, the Barber Tournament of K-8 Champions and the National Girls Tournament of Champions to be held August 1-6 in Orlando, FL. For more information: Final Results & Rating Report.

Zachary Tanenbaum (photo credit uschess.org)

3/30
The first Connecticut State Scholastic Speed Championship was attended by 64 players and took place at the Raymond Library in East Hartford. Alongside an open event, many scholastic state titles were at stake. The winners:

Elementary Quick Champion: Jack Clayton & Roaring Brook School (Avon)
Elementary Blitz Champion: Vedanta Bhargava & Roaring Brook School (Avon)
Elementary Bullet Champion: Vedanta Bhargava & West Woods School (Hamden)
Elementary Overall Speed Champion: Vedanta Bhargava & West Woods Brook School (Hamden)
Middle Quick Champion: Carter Clayton & King Philip Middle School (West Hartford)
Middle Blitz Champion: Carter Clayton & King Philip Middle School (West Hartford)
Middle Bullet Champion: Carter Clayton & King Philip Middle School (West Hartford)
Middle Overall Speed Champion: Carter Clayton & King Philip Middle School (West Hartford)
High Quick Champion: Christoper Beaulieu & Manchester High School
High Blitz Champion: Christoper Beaulieu & Manchester High School
High Bullet Champion: Mitchell Bouchard & Manchester High School
High Overall Speed Champion: Christoper Beaulieu & Manchester High School

The Overall Open Speed Champion was UConn student Roman Rychkov of New Jersey.
Final standings: Elementary Bullet , Blitz, Quick, High & Middle, Open and US Chess Quick & Blitz scholastic crosstable and Open crosstable.

State Scholastic Speed Championships

3/24
Crosstable of the 47th NECA in Stamford.

3/23
Crosstable of the Spring Fatima 2019 in Wilton.

Group picture

3/17
Several players from Connecticut participated and two players placed in the 2019 National High School Championship in Schaumburg, Illinois. Kim Yoon-Young finished in 13th place after losing a critical game in the penultimate round. 2019 State High School Champion Zachary Tanenbaum finished in 25th place started with 4-0 including a spectacular win over a higher rated opponent.
Article with Tanenbaum's game and picure (scroll down): https://new.uschess.org/news/saturday-night-in-schaumburg/
Results: http://www.uschess.org/results/2019/hs/

3/16
Peter Wolfe of North Milford wins Leg 3 of the National Nominations Grand Prix and clinches the top qualifying spot to the Barber NNCT to be held on March 30 in East Hartford. Unrated Gabriel Raffa of Massachusetts scores 5-0 to win the K-12 U1200. Daniel Zhou wins top qualifying spot for the Denker NNCT and Beatrice Low for the Girls' NNCT. Final results of the K-12 Open and K-12 U1000; rating report and Final Standings of the 2018-19 NNGP.

Open winners with Peter Wolfe (center) U1200 winner Gabriel Raffa

3/16
Joe Bihlmeyer wins the 2019 Greater Hartford Open in Coventry; crosstable.

3/10
Following a tie for first in the CT State Senior Open a week earlier, on Sunday March 10, Mikhail Koganov and Derek Meredith were hosted by the Chess Club of Fairfield County in Norwalk for a G/75 playoff to decide the winner and state representative to the 2019 National Senior Tournament of Champions August 1-6 in Orlando, FL. After both players each won one game, Derek could not continue the playoff with blitz games due to personal reasons. It was decided that Mikhail and Derek are the 2019 CT State Senior Open Co-Champions and that Mikhail will be the representative to the Nationals and Derek will be the alternate.

3/2
On Saturday March 2, the New Britain Chess Club hosted the 1st CT Senior Open Championship. The 3-SS G/75;d5 tournament was open to players age 50 and older. Thirteen players plus a house player competed for the title. Derek Meredith and Mikhail Koganov tied for 1st with 3 points each. They will have at least a 2-game (G/75;d5) playoff next weekend to determine the champion. Norman Burtness won the U2000 prize. The complete crosstable of results can be found here, USCF Crosstable - 2019 CT Senior Open. The tournament was directed by NBCC President and CSCA director Norman Burtness.

3/2
160 players compete at State K-12 Scholastic Championships
The CSCA and Manchester High School were the hosts of the 2019 CT State High, Middle, Elementary and Primary School Championships. Due to the early morning snow storm the tournament was delayed by two hours. The High School section was won with a perfect 5-0 by Zachary Tanenbaum from Greenwich High School. This was Zachary's third H.S. state title and with his victory he qualified for the National Nominations Candidates' Tournament Denker section on March 30 in East Hartford. Simsbury High School won their third state title.
The Middle School section was won with a perfect 5-0 by Nakul Ramaswamy from Henry James Middle School in Simsbury. Henry James also won the state title, their fifth! With his win Nakul qualified for the NNCT Barber.

Simsbury High & Henry James with Nakul Ramaswamy in the center

Erik Nebylovich of Westover Magnet Elementary School in Stamford, 2018 Primary State Champion, edged out Jack Clayton on tiebreaks to clinch the Elementary title. Westwoods Upper Elementary from Farmington won the state title. Erik also qualified to the NNCT Barber on March 30.
The Primary section was with a perfect 5-0 by Ethan Shemo, leading his team Roaring Brook from Avon to the state title.

Shawn Parker vs Zachary Tanenbaum Play took place in the MHS gym

Final standings: High School, Middle School, Elementary School and Primary -- US Chess Rating Report -- Article in the Greenwich Time.

3/1
15-year-old Hans Niemann of Weston made it into the March 2019 Top 100 Juniors of the World. Hans is ranked #88 with a FIDE rating of 2477; this makes him the 9th ranked Junior player (born in 1999 or later) in the country.

2/24
Results of the Weston DIG Scholastic Tournament held at the Weston Public Library.

Team winners Our Lady of Fatima School (Wilton) with DIG organizers

2/24
Results of the CCFC K-12 Scholastic Championships held in Norwalk.

2/24
Results of the Greenwich Country Day Scholastic.

2/23
UConn student Roman Rychkov and Yelfry Torres of Enfield win the 2019 Eastern Connecticut Open in Coventry; crosstable.

2/18
The 75th Annual US Amateur Team East took place with 1,346 players in Parsippany, NJ over President's Day Weekend. As usual many teams and players from Connecticut participated. Top Connecticut Team was "Conneticuts Finest" with Arslan Otchiyev, Ian Harris, Joe Bihlmeyer and William Torres (see picture).

In the last round they played for first place on the top board, but lost to eventual tournament winners Princeton Orange (featuring Connecticut's Kapil Chandran on board 1). Hopkins School Grey won the U1000 and Hopkins School Maroon was the Top High School Team. NBCC's "Prawn Sacrifice" won the prize for Top Gimmick. Rating report.

Top Gimmick: "Prawn Sacrifice" "Princeton Orange" with Kapil Chandran (grey shirt)"

2/14
Manchester High School beat Simsbury High School 6-5 in a home game (more information here).

2/10
Roman Rychkov of New Jersey and Benjamin Amar of Maine, both students at UConn, tie for first at the Hartmayer Memorial. Daniel Zhou of EO Smith in Mansfield wins Leg 2 of the National Nominations Grand Prix and Jordan Lefkowitz, also from Mansfield, wins the K-12 U1000. Final results of the Open, K-12 Open and K-12 U1000; rating report and NNGP standings after Leg 2.

U1000 winners Mansfield Middle U1000 2nd place King Philip Middle

2/2
Results of the 46th NECA scholastic held in Stamford.

1/27
Results of the Nutmeg DIG Scholastic Tournament held at the Weston Public Library.

1/27
Results of the Greenwich City Scholastic Championship.

1/26
Beatrice Low of Greenwich Academy has won the 4th annual 2019 State Girls' Championships. This was the second time Beatrice won the title after claiming victory in the 1st annual Championships in 2016 and with her win Beatrice is the first qualifier to the 2019 National Nominations Candidates' Tournament to be held on March 30th. Jithu Saveejan of Bristol Central High School won leg 1 of the National Nominations Grand Prix. Both events took place at the Raymond Library in East Hartford and were organized by Connecticut Chess Organization. For more information see: results and rating report of the CT Girls', results and rating report of NNGP leg 1 and standings NNGP after Leg 1.

Beatrice Low (center) playing Serena Evans Girls & NNGP leg 1

1/19
Landau Vincent Day (K), Nathan Mezheritskiy (1st), Anthony Low (2nd), Henry Buczkiewicz (3rd), Sahil Vora (4th), Max Ingargiola (5th), Carter Clayton (6th), Evan Dokko Stein (7th), Ethan Striff-Cave (8th), Daniel Zhou (9th), Dhanush Kalangi (10th), Jithu Saveejan (11th) and Benjamin Foxman (12th) are the 2019 Connecticut Grade Champions. For more information see: Full results, US Chess rating report and many more photos.
A record breaking 145 players found their way to Hopkins School in New Haven for the 2nd annual State Grade Championship. After the conclusion of the event Chess Haven brothers and tournament organizers George and Jake Wang each gave a simul.

Playing hall Simul by George and Jake Wang

1/13
Report and photos of the CCFC K-12 Scholastic Championship can be found at the CCFC website.

1/12
Derek Meredith, Joe Bihlmeyer and Daniel Smith win the 2019 Coventry Open. Look for the 887 rating points upset by Gabe Watson.

1/6
Connecticut players placed in four out of six sections at the 2019 Boston Chess Congress. Maximillian Lu tied for first in the Premier, Sharvil Trifale tied for second in the Under 2100, Peter Josiah Wolfe took clear first in the Under 1500 and Shawn Parker tied for first in the Under 1250.

Shawn Parker in his last round game Dan Starbuck Pelletier, David Brown,
Derek Meredith, Gabriel Watson and Shawn Parker

1/4
In the January 2019 issue of US Chess Life Magazine there is a portrait of Glenn Budzinski from Newtown. Glenn is the founder of the non-profit Connecticut Kids Play Chess, Inc. whose mission it is to provide high quality after-school chess lessons to elementary and secondary school students in Connecticut. Used with permission of US Chess.

1/2
The Connecticut State Blitz Championship was won by Ted McHugh III from Simsbury with a score of 8-0. This is the 10th time Ted has won this event. Suhas Kodali finished in 2nd place on tie-breaks over Nelson Castaneda. Evan Patchen won the U2000 Trophy on tiebreaks ahead of Michael Smith. The event was held at the New Britain Chess Club.

Ted McHugh III (blue hat) vs Rick Bauer in the background, Joe Mansigian vs Immad Sadiq in front.

1/1
Best wishes for 2019 from the CSCA!
With a great show of support from the chess community, the Connecticut State Chess Association held its annual meeting at the Meriden Library on November 3, 2018. The assembly of about fifty voted to elect a whole new Board of Directors. The Directors were given a term length based on number of votes received: Alex Palvinski and Suhas Kodali for a five-year term, Erin Striff and Jennifer Hogrefe for four years, Alexander Lumelsky and Rick Cheung for three years, Fred Townsend and Norman Burtness for two years, and Rick Bauer for one year. There was a three-way tie among Aashish Chopra, Derek Mansfield, and Derek Meredith for the tenth Board seat. The Board was consequently expanded to twelve seats and all three were elected to serve one-year terms. The newly elected Board is comprised of a diverse group of individuals, including chess players of different generations and scholastic chess parents, representing much of the Connecticut chess community. Read on