News
11 Titled Players Compete in GT February Open, Sheehan & Titus Win Open, Five-Way Tie in U1600 (2/4/24)
On February 4th, We held our largest chess event to date with 85 players! We had our largest prize fund of $860! Players competed in three sections: Open, U1600, and an unrated U1000 section. The time control for the tournament was 45 + 10. The tournament was among the strongest tournaments in Georgia, featuring 11 Titled Players and an Open section with average rating of 2055!
In the open section, top seed NM Ethan Sheehan (2384) and GT's NM Andrew Titus (2350) tied for first with 3.5/4 after a draw against each other in the last round. NM Andrew Jiang (2329) and NM Alexander Rutten tied for third with 3/4 (2267). William Fox (2033) and Kevin Rojas (1930) tied for our U2100 prize with 2.5/4. Sourish Kavale (1881) won our U1900 prize with an impressive 2/4 against 4 NMs!
In the U1600 section, Jairaj Desai, Jashith Dadibattina Jr, Skanda Srinivasan, Srikar Malneni, and Ansel Erol tied for first with 3.5/4! Nathan Deluryea won our U1000 prize with 2.5/4.
In our U1000 unrated section, Shing Chan and Quinn O'Keefe tied for first with 3.5/4 after a draw against each other in the last round! Eashaan Godbole and Nandha Thiruvengadam tied for third with 3/4.
We thank all 85 players for competing, and the results for the rated Open and U1600 sections can be found HERE. We look forward to our March Open with more participants and a larger prize fund! Until then!
53 Players Compete in GT Kickoff Tournament, Bonam Wins Open, Talpa and Yu Win Reserve (9/24)
In place of our regular meeting this week, we held a $100 tournament to kick off the new year. Players chose from two sections: the Open geared towards more experienced players and the Reserve geared towards newer players. The time control for the tournament was 15 minutes per side with a 5 second delay, similar to a Rapid game on chess.com or lichess. The tournament drew 53 players and was one of the strongest tournaments in Georgia since the start of the pandemic with four National Masters and two Candidate Masters participating.
In the Open, second seed NM Saigautam Bonam (2473) cruised to a 4-0 victory, defeating Krish Tibrewala (2156) in the last round. Top seed NM Jonathan Hrach (2490) and CM Diego De Dios Suarez (2060) tied for second with 3.5 points. Hrach entered the tournament with a first round bye, while Suarez drew his round one game. Both finished the tournament with three straight wins.
In the Reserve, Richard Yu (1160) began the tournament with an upset over top seed Thomas Li (1375) and continued to score upsets over the next three games en route to 3.5 points. Stefan Talpa (1375) also accumulated 3.5 points, with both Talpa and Yu drawing in round 3, and then defeating each other's round three opponent.
It is worth mentioning that in these prize events, all players will be able to compete for a prize. There will always be "class" prizes that are only open for players below a certain rating. This week, a handful of players with an even 2 points earned prizes, for example. Once again, we wanted to thank all 53 players for participating. We look forward to holding similar events in the future!
Georgia Tech C wins First Collegiate Chess League Matchup! (9/18)
The Fall 2021 season of the Collegiate Chess League is underway. With $25,000 in total prizes, the league has 9 divisions and over 300 total players participating. Georgia Tech has three teams of 10 players participating. Georgia Tech A (2250 average rating) is in Division 1A and will face chess powerhouses from the University of Missouri and Saint Louis University. Georgia Tech B (1651 average rating) is in Division 6B and enters the league as a favorite in Division 6. Georgia Tech C (1271 average rating) is in Division 8B.
In the first round, Georgia Tech A suffered a 3.5-12.5 route against the University of Missouri, which fielded two GMs, one GM-elect, and one WIM. Thus even though the score was lopsided, it wasn't a bad performance by the A team. NM Andrew Titus led the A team with 2.5 points out of 4 games, including wins against WIM Irina Utyatskaya, GM-elect Harshit Raja, and a draw against blitz specialist GM Grigoriy Oparin. NM Saigautam Bonam scored a small upset over WIM Irina Utyatskaya to round out A team's points. Georgia Tech B suffered a close 7-9 defeat against Carnegie Mellon B. The top 3 boards (Bradley He, Abhigyan Khaund, Rishabh Vuthamaraju) each scored an even 2 points out of 4 games. Despite the loss, expect the B team to rebound in upcoming matches. Georgia Tech C scored a huge 14-2 rout over Northeastern C. More than half of Northeastern's lineup showed up late, leading to several forfeit wins in GT's favor. However, of the games played, the C team had a 6-2 lead, so the match wouldn't have been close anyways.
The next match will take place on October 2nd. Georgia Tech A takes on perhaps the strongest non-scholarship team in the nation of University of California-Berkeley A. Georgia Tech C hopes to build on their strong start against Drexel B, while Georgia Tech B's opponent is still TBD. Matches take place each Saturday, though there is a bye week next week due to the US Collegiate Rapid and Blitz, organized by Texas Tech.
Bonam Wins GT Chess Lichess Arena (9/3/2021)
With no official meeting this Friday, an online arena was held in its place. First-year NM Saigautam Bonam led from start to finish, but NM Andrew Titus stayed close. With 10 minutes to go, Bonam held a 1 point lead over Titus, and the two were paired in an intense battle. While Titus won the individual matchup, the game took longer than 10 minutes and Bonam was able to hold his lead to win the arena.
Titus and Dill on Top at the CCSCATL (8/28/2021)
Six players from Georgia Tech drove down to the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Atlanta for the one-day G/30 d5 action tournament. NM Andrew Titus entered the tournament as the top seed and won the top section with 3.5 points out of 4 games. Titus's last round game against NM Spencer Finegold, son of the infamous GM Ben Finegold, went down to the wire, but Titus prevailed in the time scramble. Both Jesse Dill and Matthew Pleskow entered the U1400 section despite being new to over the board chess. Dill finished in clear first with 3.5 points out of 4 games, beating Pleskow in the second round. Pleskow was the top U1000 player in the section. In the U800 section, Jason Katz cruised to victories in the first 3 games, but an unfortunate blunder meant he had to settle for a tie for second.
First Club Meeting is a Giant Success (8/27/2021)
We had a great turnout at our first meeting of the 2021-2022 year. This week, we held our meeting in the CULC/Price Connector area. Future meetings will be held in a classroom (TBD at this point).
For more updates regarding the club, be sure to join our Discord server (link in IG bio and at Home). No dues and a great opportunity to improve your chess by playing other members of similar skills and learning from some of our club's masters. Additionally, informal meetups in the CULC are organized through our Discord server. Make sure to bring your board (if you have one)!
Panda Steamrolls Friday Night CCSCATL Blitz (8/20/2021)
This week's edition of the Friday Night Blitz at the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Atlanta had an extremely strong turnout with five masters: former GT student NM Deepak Aaron, current GT student NM Andrew Titus, IM Sanjay Ghatti, NM Spencer Finegold, and current GT student NM Vedic Panda. Panda had a great start, knocking off Finegold and top seed Aaron on his way to a 5-0 start. A loss to IM Ghatti in the last round meant the two shared first with 5 points out of 6 games. Titus joined Aaron and Finegold in a tie for third with 4 points, along with Sasha Creighton and Casimir Dudek (who pulled off a huge upset over Titus in round 2).