Sibling chess enthusiasts Vyom and Omya Vidyarthi – grade 6 and grade 3, respectively – have done it again! The pair traveled to Nashville over the weekend to compete at the US Chess National Elementary Championship. Both students were winners in their respective sections, with Vyom taking first in K-6 and Omya placing first in K-3. Approximately 2,000 players traveled to this event from around the US.
Previously, at the Susan Polgar National Open Championship in April, Vyom and Omya had top placements in their groups. Omya won the Under 16-Under 18 girls group, where she was the youngest competitor. Vyom, who competed in the Under 16-Under 18 boys category, tied for second place and placed third overall after a tiebreaker. Notably, he also met the 2200 rating requirement to earn the United States Chess Federation title of “National Master.”
Both students also performed well in Blitz chess events, where Vyom placed second in the Grade 5 and Up category and Omya took second place in the Grade 4 and Under section.
Sibling chess enthusiasts Vyom and Omya Vidyarthi – grade 6 and grade 3, respectively – have done it again! The pair traveled to Nashville over the weekend to compete at the US Chess National Elementary Championship. Both students were winners in their respective sections, with Vyom taking first in K-6 and Omya placing first in K-3. Approximately 2,000 players traveled to this event from around the US.
Previously, at the Susan Polgar National Open Championship in April, Vyom and Omya had top placements in their groups. Omya won the Under 16-Under 18 girls group, where she was the youngest competitor. Vyom, who competed in the Under 16-Under 18 boys category, tied for second place and placed third overall after a tiebreaker. Notably, he also met the 2200 rating requirement to earn the United States Chess Federation title of “National Master.”
Both students also performed well in Blitz chess events, where Vyom placed second in the Grade 5 and Up category and Omya took second place in the Grade 4 and Under section.
Sibling chess enthusiasts Vyom and Omya Vidyarthi – grade 6 and grade 3, respectively – have done it again! The pair traveled to Nashville over the weekend to compete at the US Chess National Elementary Championship. Both students were winners in their respective sections, with Vyom taking first in K-6 and Omya placing first in K-3. Approximately 2,000 players traveled to this event from around the US.
Previously, at the Susan Polgar National Open Championship in April, Vyom and Omya had top placements in their groups. Omya won the Under 16-Under 18 girls group, where she was the youngest competitor. Vyom, who competed in the Under 16-Under 18 boys category, tied for second place and placed third overall after a tiebreaker. Notably, he also met the 2200 rating requirement to earn the United States Chess Federation title of “National Master.”
Both students also performed well in Blitz chess events, where Vyom placed second in the Grade 5 and Up category and Omya took second place in the Grade 4 and Under section.
Congratulations to grade 1 chess enthusiast Rohan Rajaram, who last month won the K-1 championship at the National Elementary Championship in Nashville. It was the latest in a series of strong performances for Rajaram, who also won his section at the Susan Polgar Foundation National Open that same month, and in April placed in the top 15 among K-3 students at the CalChess State Scholastic Championship.
Last weekend, a team of Harker students won the K-12 Championship at the CalChess State Scholastic Championship at the Santa Clara Convention Center. The team – senior Vignesh Panchanatham, junior Michael Wang, sophomore Michael Tang, fifth grader Vyom Vidyarthi, and fourth graders Anika Rajaram and Mihir Kotbagi – scored a total of 16 points to secure victory. In the K-6 Beginner team competition, fifth grader Anderson Chung, fourth graders James Lai and Alejandro Cheline, third grader Ian Cheline and second graders Jacob Chung and Jeffery Xu took first place.
In individual events, Panchanatham won first in the K-12 Championship, where Wang and Tang both placed in the top 10 and Vidyarthi among the top 15 in a 66-person event. Other standout performances were seen from Nathan Yan, grade 1, who finished in the top five in the K-6 Junior Varsity category, K-3 Championship competitors Rohan Rajaram, grade 1, and Omya Vidyarthi, grade 2, who both placed in the top 15, and third grader Lucas Lum, who reached the top 10 in K-3 Junior Varsity.
At the US National Junior Chess Congress in San Jose this past weekend, lower school chess competitors Vyom Vidyarthi, grade 5, and Omya Vidyarthi, grade 2, turned in impressive performances in their respective age groups. Though he qualified to compete in the “under 10” section, Vyom instead opted to compete in the “under 20” group, and took first place by winning all five games in the group, in addition to winning the blitz and tactics problem side events!
Meanwhile, Omya took first place in the “under 8” section, her second tournament win in as many weekends after her victory in the 5-7 age group at the Cal Chess Girls State Championship in Berkeley on March 3. Omya is currently the top-ranked player among girls her age group in the US Chess Federation, and is ranked third overall among players ages 7 and under.
Lower school chess champs Omya and Vyom Vidyarthi (grade 2 and 5, respectively) have done it again! At the 2017 CalChess Grade Level Championship last weekend, Vyom won all six rounds in the fifth grade section to take first place. Meanwhile, Omya placed third in the second grade section.
Vyom had success in November as well, tying for third place at the 2017 California Class Warfare Championship, held Nov. 24-25, where he competed against grand master, international master and national master players. He was also one of 17 top young chess players invited to the US Chess School in Glendale.
Omya and Vyom were also members of a team that included Harker students Anika Rajaram, grade 4, and Rohan Rajaram, grade 1, which won the elementary competition and placed fourth overall in the combined K-12 and K-8 section at the bi-annual Northern California Scholastic Team Championship, held Nov. 11-12.
As a result of his recent performances, Vyom has been named one of the top 10-year-old chess players in the country, and will compete as a representative of the United States next year in Spain at the World Cadets Chess Championships.
Harker chess players had a very successful weekend at the U.S. National Game/30 and Game/60 Championships in Santa Clara. In the main Game/60 event (where games are set for a maximum length of 60 minutes), Omya Vidyarthi, grade 2, claimed first place in the 1200-1399 rating category, winning all four rounds.
Harker students also competed in a scholastic side event held that same weekend, in which Kyle Chang, grade 7, placed first in the Game/60 competition’s 400-599 category, and fourth grader Mihir Kotabgi earned a respectable seventh in the 800-999 category. Together with the points earned by seventh grader Max Pflaging, Harker was the first-place Under 1000 team with a total score of 8.5.
In the Game/30 scholastic event, where games are played with a 30-minute time limit, Kotbagi’s second-place performance in the 800-999 category and the points earned by Saanvi Bhargava, grade 5, in the 400-599 category helped put Harker in a solid fifth place in the school team standing.
Over Labor Day weekend, chess players Saanvi Bhargava, grade 5, Kyle Chang, grade 7, Mihir Kotbagi, grade 4, and third graders Lucas Lum and Ayden Grover, competed in the 2017 Labor Day Kids Championship in Santa Clara. Their combined victories resulted in Harker taking second place overall as a team, with Bhargava and Chang each winning four of the five games they played. Great work!
At the World Chess Federation’s 28th Panamerican Youth Championship, held June 30 to July 7 in Costa Rica, student Omya Vidyarthi, a rising grade 2 student, took first place among girls under age 8. Vidyarthi was one of four gold medalists to represent the United States at the competition, and her win helped make the U.S. the highest-placing country. She also received the title of Woman Candidate Master, which is awarded to female players who have at one point achieved a rating of 2,000, and she placed first in her age group for blitz chess, a variation of speed chess.