Chess News Provided by The Massachusetts Chess Association

1st Lincoln Sudbury Regional High School (Eric Feng, Brian Yin, Sandeep Shankar, Jesse Sun) 4-0
2nd Commonwealth A (Evan Meyer, Jonah Boardman, Max Sunog, Siddharth Simon) 3-1
3rd-4th Boston Latin School A (Anton Barash, Henry Liu, Luke Randolph, Gavin Randolph),
Newton South High School (Michael Mi, Alan Sikarov, Mark Chudnovsky, Joshua Bornstein) 2.5-1.5
Top Booster Team (U1000/Unr): Malden Catholic H.S. (Zhipeng Chen, Andrew Scacchi, Santiago Marmoleja, Thomas Veeramani) 2-2

Medal: Taisuke Miyamoto (Lexington High School) 3-1

Grades 6-8 Section

1st R.J. Grey Junior High School (Adithya Sharma, Prachi Dayal, Raaga Pulya, Curtis Ying) 4-0
2nd-3rd Bigelow Middle School (Isaac Shaw, Aaron Li, Bingdonghua [Edward] Yang, Haofeng Zheng),
F.A. Day Team #1 (Benjamin Fauman, Duncan Naylor, Dominic Iafrate, Desmond FitzGerald-Lara) 3-1
Top Booster Team (U500): F.A. Day Team #3 (Antonio Feng, Hernan FitzGerald-Lara, Aaditya Aryan, Naveh Gershon),
F.A. Day Team #2 (Max Zuckernik, Evan Morgan, Jack Tsai, Erik Shin) 1-3

Grades K-5 Section

1st Joseph Estabrook Elementary (Shouri Mosaliganti, Jeremy Wang, Aditya Phadnis, Shreyas Pokharna) 3-1
2nd-6th Heights Elementary School (Thomas Ha, Isaac Chen, Sabrina Li, Alex Kuriakose),
    John Bishop Elementary (Y Owen Li, Y Luke Li, Miles Rosenberg, Yasha Vasilyev),
    Mason Rice (Oskar Zoffer, Annabel Kohler, Lucas Keefe, Rowan Smith),
    The Learning Project - Green (Paul Tompros, Sam Parsi, Milan Kapasi, Brynn Bennett),
    Broadmeadow (Daniel Tatar, Sophia Tatar, Daniil Landau, Sofia Ribaudo) 2.5-1.5
Top Booster Team (U500): Wellesley (Kiran Weerapana, Anish Sankar, Henry Brackenbury, Aren Veral) 2-2

Medals: David Shaine (Cottage Street - Sharon), Wahid Liyakath (Luther Conant Crushers), Manas Konthan (Luther Conant Polar Bears) 3-1

Grades K-3 Section

1st Willard School - Concord (Austin Fischl, Elan Davenport, Samuel Keener, Gaku Kopczynski) 3-1
2nd-3rd Lexington Fiske Elementary (Yinghan Liu, Justin Sun, Emilia Shen, Lihan Liu),
JFK Elementary - Canton (Kurt Amber Jr, Benjamin Amber, Shaan Anton, Zachary Bishay, Nirvan Baduamanda, Xander Shea) 2.5-1.5
Top Booster Team (U300): Wellesley (Noah Cho, Caiden Lainer, Oliver Brackenbury, Genevieve D'Amore) 2.5-1.5

Medals: Paul Gopu (Cottage Street School - Sharon) 3.5-0.5,
Haniya Hussain (Cottage Street School - Sharon), Tomas Werning (The Learning Project - Blue) 3-1

Medals for side games: Yan Barash, Nathaniel Levitsky 3-1

Tied teams are listed in tiebreak order.

The tournament was directed by Bob Messenger, Nicholas Sterling, Alonzo Ross, Dmitry Barash, and Steve Frymer.

Bob Messenger
Chief TD

03/23/2019: Final update for 2019 Hurvitz Cup Adv. Entries

Adv. Entry for 2019 Hurvitz Cup as of 03/23/19 10:56AM: http://masschess.org/Events/Advance_Entry/2019-hurvitz-cup-adv-entries.html.

Tiffany Wang
MACA Webmaster

03/21/2019: Adv. Entry for 2019 Hurvitz Cup

Adv. Entry for 2019 Hurvitz Cup as of 03/21/19 08:55PM: http://masschess.org/Events/Advance_Entry/2019-hurvitz-cup-adv-entries.html.

Tiffany Wang
MACA Webmaster

03/19/2019: 2019 MACA Election - Candidate Statements

Oleg Poliannikov, candidate for President:

MACA is a great institution that remains the leading force promoting and organizing chess in Massachusetts. It also serves a lot of chess players from CT, NH, and RI. With such an impact, we must improve the way MACA does business for the benefit of hundreds of players: present and future.

Among the problems that need to be urgently addressed are: the calendar, the website, the future of the Prison Program after Chess Horizons is no longer published, coordination with clubs and independent organizers, and increasing the number of tournaments (run by MACA or independents) for all players from novices to the 2000+ rated scholastic elite.

My immediate goal is to have tournaments scheduled and announced at least 6 months in advance. I will work with existing and potential TDs to have more people certified and available to direct in order to simplify scheduling and running chess tournaments. I will work with Prison Chess to design a new program that fulfills MACA's firm commitment to charity. MACA will have a new website and a much improved online presence.

I ask for your support, feedback, criticism, and participation. Time is of the essence.

Steven Winer, candidate for Vice-President (current MACA board member)

I am looking to help grow Massachusetts chess even further. There has already been much success for players in the state, but there is still more we can do to reach even greater success.

Dmitry Barash, candidate for Director (incumbent):

I’m running for the board for the 6th consecutive time. I worked in Scholastic Committee all these years and help to schedule and run tournaments for kids.

In the last 5 years overall tournament attendance (including scholastic) went up.

The main MA Championship Spiegel Cup becomes stronger by rating each year.

Many kids successfully represent MA in National events.

Though we have room for improvement by running more tournaments for unrated kids, and for elite players too. We can also automate adding preregistered list of players online.

You can find scholastic related data on my pages:

https://sites.google.com/site/scholasticchessinma/

Jeffrey Caruso, candidate for Director (incumbent):

Service, fairness, transparency. As Elections Commissioner and MACA board member I have delivered these for you. Please vote for me again so that I can continue to serve you.

Our candidates include a strong field of volunteers. I support the current board members who are running again, as well as Oleg Poliannikov, who was an active board member from January 2017 to July 2018, and newcomers Stewart, Yuvarajan and Wang, who are all active promoters of chess in Massachusetts.

Steve Frymer, candidate for Director (incumbent):

50+ years as a MACA prez, vp, treasurer, clerk and director.

Currently Living Memorial Chess Fund coordinator, Prison Chess

coordinator, and Scholastic Committee member.

Robert E. King, candidate for Director

My history of MACA service, my past service as director and president make me uniquely qualified to be beneficial for MACA. I have had a great history of promoting my hobbies, and I know a lot more needs to be done in the future as I am continuing with my plans. I am working on a couple of books, including a chess book. I have been taking on the on-line chess world and those games are being compiled for the book. I have been teaching chess in Plymouth, and my friend Eric has played in two USCF rated adult tournaments.

Robb Stewart, candidate for Director

My interest in joining MACA's Board of Directors will serve three goals:

To leverage my overall experience and connections as a lifelong Massachusetts resident and chess player with 30+ years playing experience;

To bring insights to the Board from my roles as chess tutor and coach, school program director, and scholastic and club tournament director, and parent;

To share my qualifications as a business professional with strong communication skills, leadership qualities, financial acumen and superior organizational skills.

I ask all voting members their consideration of my skills and qualifications when evaluating the options.

Prathiba Yuvarajan, candidate for Director

As a coach, International Woman Master and mother I want to promote chess in all aspects for all age groups. I will do my best to promote chess in schools with curriculum classes, after school programs, tournaments and camps. As I mastered in Cognitive Science I understand how chess helps kids in learning and improving scores at schools and other activities. My main goal is to encourage all kids to learn the game and provide more opportunities at professional level. Currently I am the owner and coach of ChessEmpireKids (www.chessempirekids.com). I teach kids at various schools in MA and NH.

* * * * * * * * * *

Tiffany Wang
MACA Webmaster

03/10/2019: Prize winners at the Barry S. Spiegel Cup

Prize winners at the Barry S. Spiegel Cup Massachusetts scholastic championship, held March 10th at the Boylston Chess Club in Cambridge, Mass.

High School Section

1st Evan Meyer 4-0

2nd-3rd Kevin Hass, Nithin Kavi 2.5-1.5

Age 14 & Under Section

1st Danila Poliannikov 3.5-0.5

2nd Dustin Liang 3-1

3rd-4th Alan Song, Mark Chudnovsky 2.5-1.5

Age 11 & Under Section

1st Raymond Xu 3.5-0.5

2nd Brandon Ni 3-1

3rd Thomas Ha 2.5-1.5

Age 8 & Under Section

1st Y Luke Ji 3.5-0.5

2nd Ryan Sun 3-1

3rd-5th Kurt Amber Jr, Siddharth Kurup, Shouri Mosaliganti 2.5-1.5

Tied players are listed in tiebreak order.

The tournament was directed by Nicholas Sterling, Oleg Poliannikov, Nathan Smolensky, and Steve Frymer.

Bob Messenger
MACA Board Member

03/3/2019: Prize winners at the 4th Spiegel Cup Qualifier

Prize winners at the 4th Spiegel Cup Qualifier, held March 3rd in Westford, Mass.

Age 14 & Under Section

1st Bernie Xu 4-0

2nd Kelsey Liu 3-1

3rd-5th Skyler Zhou, Rafael Pashkov, Raymond Xu 2.5-1.5

Age 11 & Under Section

1st-3rd Y Owen Ji (playoff winner), Kevin Li, Henry He 3.5-0.5

Medals: Ansh Yadawad, Tianna Wang, Eric Li, Leonard Sweeney-Barrett 3-1

Age 8 & Under Section

1st Aidan Tan 4-0

2nd-4th Andrew Liu, Daniel Tatar, Vihaan Jain 3-1

Booster Under 1200 Section

1st Jacob Wu 3.5-0.5

2nd Michelle Chudnovsky 3-1

3rd-5th Yinghan Liu, Amit Piryatinsky, Anand Chintapalli 2.5-1.5

Booster Under 800 Section

1st Kiran Weerapana 4-0

2nd-5th Andrey Kalashnikov, Daniil Landau, Mark Piryatinsky, Edmund Flanagan 3-1

Booster Under 400 Section

1st Leo Marzoratti 4-0

2nd-6th Evan Chang, Aidin Narynbekov, Milan Kapasi, Noreen Flanagan, Lev Strougov 3-1

Tied players are listed in tiebreak order except as noted.

The tournament was directed by Bob Messenger, Nicholas Sterling, Dmitry Barash, and Steve Frymer.

Bob Messenger
Chief TD

03/2/2019: Q4 Adv. Entry Final Update

Adv. Entry List for Q4 as of 03/02/19 09:49AM: http://masschess.org/…/Advance…/2019-q4-advance-entries.HTML

Tiffany Wang
MACA Webmaster

03/1/2019: Q4 Adv. Entry Updated

Adv. Entry List for Q4 as of 03/01/19 05:35PM: http://masschess.org/…/Advance…/2019-q4-advance-entries.HTML

Tiffany Wang
MACA Webmaster

02/28/2019: Adv. Entry for Q4

Adv. Entry List for Q4 as of 02/28/19 02:44PM: http://masschess.org/…/Advance…/2019-q4-advance-entries.HTML

Tiffany Wang
MACA Webmaster

02/10/2019: Prize winners at the Gus Gosselin Grade Championship

Prize winners at the Gus Gosselin Grade Championships, held February 10th in Westford, Mass.

High School / Grades 9-12 Section

1st Anton Barash 3.5-0.5
2nd-3rd Suraj Ramanathan, Kevin Haas 3-1
Top 9th Grade Alex Yu 2.5-1.5

Grade 8 Section

No entries.

Grade 7 Section

1st Aaron Li 3-1
2nd Holden Chalfant 2-2
3rd-4th Dennis Jin, Jack Tompros 1.5-2.5

Grade 6 Section

1st Noah Brauner 4-0
2nd Kaustubh Kislay 3-1
3rd-4th Peter Kouznetsov, Sarayu Mudundi 2-2

Grade 5 Section

1st Franklin Lewis 4-0
2nd Leonard Sweeney-Barrett 3.5-0.5
3rd Brian Li 3-1

Grade 4 Section

1st Tyler Cummins 4-0
2nd-4th Oskar Zoffer, Paul Tompros, Kiran Weerapana 3-1

Grade 3 Section

1st Maya Figelman 3.5-0.5
2nd-4th Adriano Perola, Shouri Mosaliganti, Nikolay Avdokhin 3-1

Grade 2 Section

1st Ryan Sun 3.5-0.5
2nd-3rd Austin Fischl, Dattasai Kilari 3-1

Grades K-1 Section

1st Christine Nguyen 3.5-0.5
2nd-3rd David Figelman, Rafael Celtruda 3-1

Tied players are listed in tiebreak order.

The tournament was directed by Bob Messenger, Alonzo Ross, Dmitry Barash, and Steve Frymer.

Bob Messenger
Chief TD

02/9/2019: Final Adv. Entry for 2019 GGG

Adv. Entry for 2019 GGG (as of 02/09/19 09:08PM): http://masschess.org/Events/Advance_Entry/2019-ggg.htm

Tiffany Wang
MACA Webmaster

02/8/2019: Adv. Entry for 2019 GGG

Adv. Entry for 2019 GGG (as of 02/07/19 09:03PM): http://masschess.org/Events/Advance_Entry/2019-ggg.htm

Tiffany Wang
MACA Webmaster

02/4/2019: Massachusetts Chess Association Call for Nominations

The Massachusetts Chess Association is now accepting nominations for the annual election of its 12-member board, to serve from June 2019 to June 2020. Members may stand for election for one of its 4 officer positions (President, Vice President, Treasurer or Clerk) or 8 Director positions. The submission deadline for nominations is February 15, 2019. In order to be eligible to run, memberships must be valid through the end of the upcoming term (June 2020).

For more information, please review MACA's current bylaws (http://www.masschess.org/about/MACA-Bylaws-2015.aspx) or visit the Elections FAQ at http://www.masschess.org/resources/faqs/chess_faqs.aspx?faq_type_uid=5

Please e-mail nominations and questions to director6@masschess.org.

Tiffany Wang
MACA Webmaster

01/29/2019: Massachusetts Chess Association Election Registration

The annual MACA elections will occur in May 2019. Registered voters will receive either a paper ballot or an e-ballot link at the end of April, with results being announced at the Massachusetts Open on Memorial Day weekend. REGISTRATION IS REQUIRED FOR BOTH VOTING OPTIONS.

If you registered to vote in prior years, you do not need to register again unless your address has changed. New members who joined MACA after March 2018 will need to register to vote in this year's election.

Members can register for an online or paper ballot (not both) as follows:

TO REGISTER FOR AN ONLINE BALLOT: Email election@masschess.org with full name and unique email address by February 28, 2019.

TO REGISTER FOR A PAPER BALLOT: send a letter to Bob Messenger at 4 Hamlett Dr. #12, Nashua, NH 03062, postmarked no later than February 23. You can send an email to election@masschess.org to check on your registration status.

To vote, MACA membership must be valid as of February 28, 2019. For more information, please visit http://www.masschess.org/resources/faqs/chess_faqs.aspx?faq_type_uid=5

Tiffany Wang
MACA Webmaster

01/27/2019: Prize winners at the Third Spiegel Cup Qualifier

Prize winners at the Third Spiegel Cup Qualifier, held January 27th in Westford, Mass.

Age 14 & Under Section

1st Vineeth Nareddy 3.5-0.5
2nd-3rd Derek Jin, Bernie Xu

Age 11 & Under Section

1st Brandon Ni 4-0
2nd-3rd Ansh Yadawad, Kevin Li 3.5-0.5

Medals: Justin Li, Isabella Lai, Eric Li

Age 8 & Under Section

1st Dhairya Mehta 4-0
2nd-4th Shouri Mosaliganti, Steven Feng, Rayhan Riaz 3-0

Booster Under 1200 Section

1st-3rd Amit Piryatinsky, Armaan Mehta, Nikolay Avdokhin 3-1

Booster Under 800 Section

1st Jayden Wu 4-0
2nd-5th Yan Barash, Peter Kouznetsov, Koustav Datta, Milan Castelino 3-1

Booster Under 400 Section

1st Rohan Madhukar 4-0
2nd-6th Seth Feigenbaum, Alex Kuriakose, Vyom Shah, Tristan Wyma, Brynn Bennett 3-1

Tied players are listed in tiebreak order.

The tournament was directed by Bob Messenger, Nicholas Sterling, Dmitry Barash, and Steve Frymer

Bob Messenger
Chief TD

01/26/2019: Final Q3 Adv. Entry List

Final Adv. Entries for Q3 as of 01/26/19 09:45 AM: http://masschess.org/Events/Advance_Entry/2019-q3-advance-entries.HTML

Tiffany Wang
MACA Webmaster

01/24/2019: Adv. Entry for Q3

Adv. Entries for Q3 as of 01/24/19 10:28 AM: http://masschess.org/Events/Advance_Entry/2019-q3-advance-entries.HTML

Tiffany Wang
MACA Webmaster

01/13/2019: Prize winners at the Winter Team Challenge

Prize winners at the Winter Team Challenge, held January 13th in Westford, Mass.

Grades K-12 Section:

1st Kings of Newton (Michael Mi, Aaron Lu, Mark Chudnovsky, Amit Piryatinsky) 4=0
2nd-5th Boston Latin School (Anton Barash, Luke Randolph, Gavin Randolph, Austin Wang),
     ChessMinds (Saanvi Tiruveedhuls, Sai Sneha Yerra, Sophie Rosenholtz, Prachi Dayal),
     Buckingham, Browne & Nichols (Karthik Padmanabhan, Samuel Gloss, Spencer Solit),
     Concord-Carlisle Chess Club (Henry Booth, Lucas Kamon, Holden Chalfant, Evan Ning) 2.5-1.5

Grades K-6 Section:

1st Bay State Chess Kings Team #1 (Leonard Sweeney-Barrett, Ryan Sun, Oskar Zoffer, Antonio Feng) 4-0
2nd Future Masters 2 (Suhavi Tiruveedhula, Ramaiza Sohail, Alden Kuo, Kaustubh Kislay) 3-1
3rd Newton Knights Team #1 (Hernan FitzGerald-Lara, Aaditya Aryan, Chris Qiao, Max Zhu) 2.5-1.5

Medals: Imad Aboo (Wahid Liyakath) 3.5-0.5,
Felix Hentschel (Park School), Kiran Weerapana (Mr. K's Wellesley Chess Kids), Wahid Liyakath (Wahid Liyakath) 3-1

Grades K-3 Section:

1st Future Masters 1 (Dattasai Kilari, Shouri Mosaliganti, Sabrina Li, Christine Nguyen) 4-0
2nd-3rd Future Masters 3 (Rayhan Riaz, Adhirit Prabhugee, Amy Nguyen, Malin Kuo, Eilam Kuo),
Concord-Carlisle Chess Club (Austin Fischl, Max Currie, Stephen Knight, Richard Huang) 3-1

Medals: Aiden Lee (Funky Owls Team C), Alan Zhang (Newton Knights Team #3) 3-1

The tournament was directed by Bob Messenger, Nicholas Sterling, Steve Frymer, and Dmitry Barash.

Bob Messenger
Chief TD

01/12/2019: Adv. Entries for Winter Team Challenge

Adv. Entry List for Winter Team: http://masschess.org//Events/Advance_Entry/2019-WinterTeam.htm

as of 01/12/19 1:37PM
as of 01/11/19 3:40PM

Tiffany Wang
MACA Webmaster