The first round began alongside the “A Star is Born” and “Express Challenge” sections. Winners in round 1 included top seed Shravan Dash, Aman Sreshta, Samarth Gujanatti. Purakk Vardhan, Harini Ramesh and Namish Kondabathini.

The other sections of the tournament ran ahead of schedule allowing the Deep Thinker to proceed alone. Round 2 winners were Shravan Dash, Namish Kondabathini, Aman Sreshta, Landon Gareau, Zakhar Archakov and Sreejan Rajasekaran.

Round 3 pitted the tournament’s two top seeds, Shravan Dash and Namish Kondabathini. At first, Namish appeared to be making headway with the white pieces as his queen invaded Shravan’s kingside. Soon, however, Shravan organized and threatened even to trap the white queen. Still, Namish could have gained a sizable advantage if he had played pawn to c4 on the twenty-sixth move. Missing that chance, he found himself forced to sacrifice a knight just to extract his queen. After that, Shravan smoothly converted his advantage. The other two round winner, Aman Shreshta was unable to defeat the also undefeated Landon Gareau. Other round three winners included Samarth Gujanatti, Harini Ramesh, Devansh Pamecha, Saanvi Kasera and Suhas Veerapalli.

The final round pitted Shravan Dash with 3 points versus Aman Shreshta with 2.5. After an initial phase of subtle maneuvering, Shravan’s King’s Indian Attack formation swarmed over his opponent’s position for the win. Other winners in round 4 included Namish Kondabathini, Landon Gareau, Harini Ramesh, Zakhar Archakov, Purakk Vardhan and Vikas Amoolya.

With the Championship decided, three players remained tied for the second to fourth positions. A five minute tie-break round robin was organized to resolve the ties. Namish Kondabathini secured the second place by defeating both Harini Ramesh and Landon Gareau in some tense matches. Landon then defeated Harini to lock up third place.

Conclusion

Shravan Dash finished first in the Deep Thinker section of the CHESS KLUB Ballantyne’s Scholastic Championship. Namish Kondabathini was second. Landon Gareau was third. Harini Ramesh was fourth.

Although sixteen young combatants took up the “Express Challenge”, only two were able to complete the three round schedule unscathed. Rising Charlotte seventh-grader Akshay Karthik and South Carolinian 10 year old Dhruvan Buddannagari accomplished the difficult feat of winning all three of their games. Several players scored 2 wins, including Nishika Dasi, Nikhil Haresamudhra, Karthik Srinivasan, Daniel Yan and Vivan Ghule.

Conclusion

Akshay Karthik and Dhruvan Buddannagari won all three of their games in the “Express Challenge” section of the Ballantyne CHESS KLUB’s July 30 Scholastic Championship.

The action was fast and furious in the “A Star is Born” section of the Ballantyne CHESS KLUB’s Scholastic Tournament held July 30. After two rounds, the championship came down to a one- on-one showdown between Sanmay Sarkar and Tanuj Ranga. In the end, Tanuj emerged victorious. Second and Third place was then decided in a playoff between Sanmay (second place winner) and Shashank Kasera. All three received Star shaped trophies and a year long membership to the United States Chess Federation.

Conclusion

Tanuj Ranga, Sanmay Sarkar and Shashank Kasera finished first, second and third respectively at the “A Star is Born” section of the Ballantyne CHESS KLUB’s July 30 Scholastic Championship.