MSJE Chess Team Wins Big At State Championships
Over 1,000 Northern California students competed in the Scholastic Chess Championships at the Santa Clara Convention Center the weekend of April 22nd and 23rd. Mission San Jose Elementary School (MSJE) was the big winner in the Elementary School Section. MSJE teams won all of the elementary school championship sections (K, K-3, 4-5, and 4-6). Four MSJE graduates playing for Mission High School won the High School team championship.
The MSJE Kindergarten team was led by Kevin Pan who scored five wins in five games and won a large trophy and the title of Northern CA Kindergarten chess Champion. Stephen He, Vasudeva Rao, Devansh Trivedi, Kevin Xu, and Azlaan Khan also competed for the MSJE kindergarten team and won trophies.
K-3 Championship
The primary school championship is the K-3 Championship division. The MSJE K-3 team won first place by scoring more than twice the score of the second place team. John Chan scored 5.5 points (five wins and one draw) and won a clear first place in this division. He also won a large trophy and the title of Northern CA primary school chess champion. First grader Rishith Susarla won four games and the ninth place trophy. Tommy Koh and Luke Zhao each scored 3.5 points and won trophies. Soorya Kuppam, Mihir Bhuptani, Lucas Sun, and Edison Zhang also competed for our K-3 championship team.
K-3 Junior varsity and other K-3 sections.
The K-3 junior varsity section, the K-3 booster and K-3 rookie sections are for grade 1 to 3 students that do not have the experience (or ratings) to play in the K-3 championship section. Students with rating above 799 can only play in the K-3 championship section. The top eight MSJE grade one to three students (above) played in the K-3 championship section. None of the teams we were competing against in the other K-3 sections had more than two children in the K-3 championship section.
Despite having our top eight players playing in K-3 championship MSJE still won the second highest K-3 section, K-3 junior varsity.
The MSJE K-3 JV team won the first place trophy with 12 points to 10 points for the second place team. Edwin Thomas, Annapoorni Meiyappan, Jeffrey Liu, and Marcus Lee, each scored three points, won trophies, and tied for 14th place in K-3 JV. First graders Amulya Harish (2.5) and Henry Liu (2.0) also competed for our K-3 JV team.
Raymond Qian and Maxwell Yu each scored 4 points in the K-3 Booster section. They each won trophies and tied for fifth place. Jonathan Zhang, Connor Chen, Jack Lee, Trisha Jain, Azlaan Islam Khan, also competed in K-3 Booster section. Alvin Lee, Diya Sen, and Balasura Balamungon competed in K-3 rookie.
K-5 Championship
The top two elementary school sections are the K-5 Championship section and the K-6 Championship section. MSJE won both of these sections by large margins. In K-5 championship Amit Sant scored 4.5 points and tied for third place. Drake Lin scored four points and tied for 6th place. Ian Wong, Kevin Zhu, Anjan Das, Edward Liu, Andy Tong, and Christopher Pan also competed for our K-5 championship team.
K-6 Championship Section
Alvin Kong, Eric Zhu, and Shalin Shah have been stars for the MSJE chess team since they were in kindergarten. Two years ago Sayan Das earned his way onto the chess team and fought his way to the top of the ladder. Suddenly we had four stars in one grade. As has been typical, this group led the MSJE chess team to an overwhelming victory in the K-6 Championship section. Shalin Shah and Sayan Das each scored five points and tied for second place. Alvin Kong and Eric Zhu each scored 4.5 points and tied for third place. Aditya Krishnan, Kavin Kumaravel, and Edward Liu also competed for the MSJE K-6 championship team.
K-6 Junior Varsity and other K-6 sections.
The top 13 MSJE 4-6 graders were playing in the championship sections. None of the schools competing with us in the other K-6 sections had more than two students in championship sections. Our K-6 Junior varsity team still took the second place team trophy. Adrienne Tong scored 4.5 points, won a trophy, and tied for fourth place in the K-6 junior varsity section. Nishant Yadav, Rajveer Oberoi, Parinith Rajkumar, Hiresh Jain, and Siddhar Mukherjee also competed for the MSJE K-6 junior varsity team.
The K-6 booster division is for players rated below 600. In K-6 booster Sashank Rao scored a perfect five out of five won a large trophy and tied for first place. Max Wang, and Jonathan Zhang each scored four points, won trophies, and tied for fourth place. A chess team score is the score of the top four players on the team. In the K-6 booster section our three player team took the first place trophy beating several teams of four or more players.
Aaron Mendoza and Baladithya Balamungon competed for MSJE in the K-6 rookie section.
Congratulations to the chess team for a tremendous victory at the 2012 state championships.
Chess Coaches
Joe Lonsdale Chris Torres Nimish Shah Goutam Das Div Harish
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