Quads at the CHESS KLUB Ballantyne
Aug 29, 2023 - Venue: Ballantyne CHESS KLUB
The Ballantyne Quads were quite popular in August 2023. Karthik Srinivasan scored more points than any other participant over the course of the month. Jayan Medvin and Karthikeyan Chintalapti each gained over 300 USCF rating points in August.
Every Saturday at 5 pm, the Ballantyne CHESS KLUB holds rated “quads”. During these quads, entrants are ranked by current USCF rating and divided into sections of four players each. The first quad contains the top four rated players, the second quad contains the next four rated players and so on. The quad format is excellent for producing evenly matched contests.
Over the course of each month, scores are tabulated across all of the quads. Trophies are then issued to the player who scores the most game points for the month and the player who gains the most USCF rating points.
The first set of quads were held on August fifth. Harshil Jagga (1553) and Aadeesh Sunkesula (Unrated) scored 3 out of 3 points to win their respective quads. Karthik Srinivasan (679) pulled off an upset win against Saanvi Kasera (926) in a very close match.
August twelfth featured a pair of tightly contested quads. Karthik Srinivasan (880) was the only player to win all three of his games and the top quad. Saanvi Kasera (878) was a close second in that quad. Murali Kongot (625), Ramkumar Nottath (447) and Rishik Binoy (469) all scored 2 points in the second quad.
The quads on August nineteenth drew twelve players. Aman Sreshta (1073) squeaked out the victory in the top quad with 2.5 points. Aadeesh Sunkesula (952) finished second with two points. In the second quad, Karthikeya Chintalapati(672) tore through the competition to score a perfect 3-0. Nishika Dasi (614) also scored two points in this quad. Mihir Sharma (Unrated), Jayan Medvin (569) and Tanuj Ranga (552) all scored two points in the final quad.
Going into the final August twenty-sixth quad, Karthik Srinivasan (891) and Aadeesh Sunkesula (1027) were tied with six points among all previous quads. Noone else had scored more than five points. Unfortunately for Aadeesh, he was not able to score more than half a point in his very difficult quad (he was the lowest rated). Aman Sreshta (1110) scored 2.5 points to win the top quad. Akshay Karthik (1029) scored 2 points. In quad B, Saanvi Kasea (842) showed her class by winning with 2.5 out of 3. Karthik Srinivasan scored 2 points to finish second. The two points Karthik scored made him the high point scorer for the month of August! The third quad was won by the talented Tanuj Ranga (673). Scott Bastian (364) finished second with 2 points despite being the lowest rated entrant.
The quads are great fun, lasting two to three hours with very competitive matches each week. The players compete in three ways; for points in their quad, for points in quads over the length of the month, and to gain the most USCF rating points in the month. This last way is especially good because the winner is seldom the player with the top rating coming into the month. This month, the top USCF rating gains were posted by Jayan Medvin and Karthikeya Chintalapati. Jayan raised his rating from 319 to 632 - a 313 point gain! Karthikeya raised his rating from 672 to 979 - a 307 point gain!
Conclusion
The August quads at the Ballantyne CHESS KLUB is a great opportunity to improve your chess. There are several ways to win, winning an individual quad, scoring the most game points over all quads, or gaining more USCF rating points than anyone else in the month. Karthik Srinivasan was our overall point leader despite only winning 1 quad outright. Jayan Medvin and Karthikeya Chintalapati gained more than 300 USCF rating points each!
September’s quads will begin this Saturday, September 2nd. With five Saturdays in September, the chess action is sure to be even more exciting than ever. Other great chess events can be found at https://chessklub.com/events/.
