Second grader Manalee Chowdhury was recently awarded a bronze medal from the RSM Foundation after competing in the organization’s International Math Contest in March and April. Competing at the grade 3-4 level, Chowdhury answered 13 out of 14 problems correctly in an online 30-minute challenge to qualify for the next round of the competition. The next stage was held in person at various locations around the country, following the format of European Mathematical Olympiads. Bronze medalists represent the top 15 percent of the thousands of participants in the contest, according to the RSM Foundation’s website.
Chowdhury also took second place in the nation in her age group – in which more than 4,000 students participated – as well as in California in the annual Math Kangaroo competition, held in March. More than 29,000 students nationwide took part in this year’s Math Kangaroo, with more than 8,000 hailing from California. Congratulations!
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.
Late last month, junior Tiffany Wong took second place in the youth division at the Korea International Harp Competition in Seoul! Her performances of Gabriel Pierne’s ‘Impromptu Caprice’ and Hugo Reinhold’s ‘Impromptu in C# Minor’ (arranged by Elizabeth Hainen) won her a trophy, certificate and 500,000 South Korean won (equivalent to $470).
Established in 2015 with the goal of finding and promoting exceptional harpists from around the world, the Korean International Harp Competition also hopes to inspire young talents by offering opportunities to perform and congregate. The competition was juried by world-class harpists including Elizabeth Hainen, Florence Sitruk, Naoko Yoshino and Irina Zingg.
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 middle school students gave impressive performances at the First Lego League robotics qualifiers on Nov. 19, held at the NASA Ames Research Center. Grade 6 students Kabir Ramzan, Jordan Labio and Dustin Miao – collectively known as “Alpha Wolves” – placed first overall and received the Champion’s Award for robot performance and design, as well as the project they submitted for the FLL Global Innovation Contest, which uses rainwater and irrigation systems to reduce wasteful water usage. The team earned entry into the Global Innovation contest that will take place in March.
Also in the competition were Ramit Goyal and Joe Li, both grade 6, who were members of team “Savage Ninjas.” Their team took second place in the robot performance category, earning an 175 points in the final round, more than any other team at the event. Their project was to develop a method of controlling the use irrigation water by employing moisture sensors, which would save the use of California irrigation water by up to 40%.
Seventh grader Grant Sims’ video submission to the 2017 Breakthrough Junior Challenge was ranked among the top 5 percent in the competition. Sims’ video, a quick and informative look at stem cells, can be viewed on YouTube. More than 3,000 original videos were submitted for the annual competition, in which students aged 13-18 were tasked with creatively illustrating scientific and mathematical concepts.
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.
The World Chess Federation recently rated Vyom Vidyarthi, a rising fifth grader, the No. 1 under-10 chess player in the United States and the fifth-highest worldwide. Vidyarthi achieved the rating after his performances at the Bay Area Chess Summer Start Championship and the Best of the West Chess Class Championship, held in April and May, respectively. Congrats and best of luck to this talented young chess enthusiast!