I am happy to report that we have started 2023 with a “bang,” as almost all TCA regions organized Scholastic Championships, which culminated in well-attended Texas Scholastic Chess Championships (Super State). A month before Super State, my expectations were of possibly surpassing 900 players, given that another scholastic event was being held during the same weekend in the McAllen area. But we easily surpassed my expectations, with over 1,200 players at Super State! Thanks again to our players, coaches, parents, organizers, tournament directors, and Regional Directors. Please visit our Facebook page for coverage of these events and many other Texas tournaments! As previously mentioned, our TCA Administrator, Deborah Shafer, continues to do an amazing job, so please visit and “like” the page.
We used Super State to select our Texas representatives for the GM Arnold Denker National Tournament of High School State Champions (FM Sharvesh Deviprasath), the Dewain Barber National Tournament of Middle School State Champions (Logan Shafer), and the John D. Rockefeller III National Tournament of Elementary School State Champions (Vijay Srinivas Anandh). In addition, the top girl in the same three sections (WCM Ambica Yellamraju, Sunny Zhang, and Dhanvi Namala) will compete in an online Round Robin event with the winners of the same sections of the 2022 Texas Girls Championships (Kalia Yuke Wang, Sunny Zhang, and Suri Nguyen). Since Sunny won the Middle School Championship in both events, this will be a five-player Round Robin, soon to be announced, to determine the Texas representative at the WIM Ruth Haring National Tournament of Girls State Champions, so stay tuned for that! The four scholastic players representing Texas will join FM Chris Land, the winner of our Senior Championship and our representative at the John T. Irwin National Tournament of Senior State Champions, at these events which will take place in Grand Rapids, Michigan, July 29 – August 1, in conjunction with the 123rd Annual U.S. Open Chess Championships. We wish our Texas players the best!
In addition to players earning the right to represent Texas at the National Invitational Championships, players in the Super State High School Championship earned $6,200 in TCA scholarships! These winners were FM Sharvesh Deviprasath ($1,200), Rohit Gundam ($1,000), Ganesh Kumarappan ($1,000), WCM Ambica Yellamraju ($1,000), Rithik Polavaram ($1,000), and CM Rohun Trakru ($1,000). Congratulations to them and to all participants of this event!
Also covered in this issue is the Texas Women’s Chess Championship, organized by GM Bartek Macieja and the UTRGV chess team. But there is much more thanks to many of you and our Texas Knights Editor Jeff French, so please read on! Oh, and start making plans to attend the Texas State and Amateur Championships which will take place in Irving on May 26 -29, and the Southwest Open which will take place in Houston, September 1- 4.
Once again, my thanks to all the players, coaches, parents, organizers and tournament directors who make this happen.
With best regards,
Franc
