The USCF tournaments take place every month, allowing students to gain ratings under the United States Chess Federation. Let’s take a look at the winner list and some of the incredible games that were played. 

Open Category

On 27th June, we had the Open Category tournament with Adithiyaa Vasudevan as the champion with an excellent score of 4.5 points. Adithiyaa played his best game against the second runner up, Kinjal Chatterjee, who had a score of 3.5 in the 5th and final round.

The game began with the Philidor’s defence, and Adithiyaa became a pawn up in the opening and brought out his Queen early into the game, followed by blundering his Bishop on the 8th move. Adithiyaa used the Queen to attack Kinjal’s King and used the absence of the f7 pawn. The two players then exchanged their Queens, and Adithiyaa posed a Knight fork on Kinjal’s King and Bishop and won a Bishop.

Adithiyaa then won another Bishop by posing a pin, and the two then exchanged their Rooks. Adithiyaa then converted a passed pawn into a Queen and checkmated Kinjal’s King on the 66th move. In the second place, we had Ishan P with a score of 4 points.

Under 500 Category

In the first place, at the Under 500 tournament, we had Kush Purohit with a perfect score of 5 points, followed by Chaanakya Bowrisetti in second place with a score of 3.5 and Ainesh Dhar in third place with a score of 3.5 as well. In the second round, Kush played an excellent game against the second runner up Ainesh Dhar.

Kush began the game with the Italian Game Opening, and Kush became a pawn up in the opening. Ainesh then blundered three minor pieces, and Kush posed a royal fork using his Knight in the middle game. Kush became a Queen up and checkmated Ainesh’s King on the 28th move. 

Under 1000 Category

The Under 1000 category was held on 18th July, where Aarav Khurana was the winner with a brilliant score of 5 out of 5 points. Aarav played an exceptional game against the runner up Paarth Chowdhary, who had a score of 4 points, in the fourth round. Paarth began the game with the Queen pawn opening, and the two exchanged their Queens early into the game.

Aarav became two pawns up in the middle game, and he then posed a Knight fork on Paarth’s King and Rook. Aarav used his two Rooks to checkmate Paarth’s King on the 33rd move. In third place, we had Vihaan Rajalbandi with a score of 4 points as well. 

Conclusion