99 players joined us for our April Oceanic Chess Gala II tournament. We barely missed out on triple digits, but it was a strong turnout considering the other great tournaments happening at the beginning of April (Seaside, Chess for Success). More than a third of the entries were provided for free: 33 for female players and 6 for low-income/rural players. 8 players participated in their first USCF-rated tournament.
Shoutout to Newport High School, led by Coach Trevor! They braved the 3.5-hour (!) one way school bus ride to Portland to play the tournament.
Congratulations to our following winners:
Section C (U400)
- Even score medalists: Kester Saju, Krystal Vu, Aarav Vats, Nora Saha, Siddhartha Berkey, Winter Turner, Benjamin Nguyen
- Plus score medalists: Eduard Borochkin, Mark James, Vardaan Sharma, Vinisha Bestha
- 5th place: Jayden Katayama
- 4th place: Oliver Robinson
- 3rd place: Josiah Robinson
- 2nd place (perfect score): Yunhan Xiao
- 1st place (perfect score, best female player overall): Naomi Chen
Section B (U700)
- Even score medalists: Andrew To, Ishaan Manda, Aleksei Fomin, Isabel Smith, Akshara Annamareddy, Alexander Leal-Martinez, Dev Patnam, Angel Saju, Aarav Hegde
- Plus score medalists: Saanvi Shah, Rajvi Das, Kagan Sacket, Boshen Han, Alokk Patlola, Reed Miller
- 5th place: Aadya Kadali
- 4th place: Sophia Nguyen
- 3rd place: Shaarav Khetan
- 2nd place: Colin Kimberly
- 1st place (perfect score): Pranesh Ganesh
Section A (U1000)
- Even score medalists: Namish Vikaskiran, Aabha Khanolkar, Heath Larsen, Raina Paul, Lasya Vemprala, Amartya Kadali, Vijval Jupudi, Emilia Smith
- Plus score medalists: Jack Bogle, Nikhil Astekar
- 5th place: Gabriel Fidel
- 4th place: Vincent Xie
- 3rd place: Beowulf Laughlin-Koch
- 2nd place: Eevie Tare
- 1st place: Riana Paul
Open (1000+)
- Even score medalists: Liam Salinas, Dallas Samson, Olivia Maokhampio
- Plus score medalists: Raymond Zhao, Ezra Wise, Alicia Le, Pragit Arunkumar
- Tied 3rd place ($15): Sohrab Sabet
- Tied 3rd place ($15): John Hart (given to next-highest finisher)
- Tied 1st place ($60, perfect score): Tyler Cheng
- Tied 1st place ($60, perfect score): Robert Chappell
- One touching story: Mr. Hart generously donated his prize money to the next-highest finisher, Raymond Zhao. In his words, the smile on a kid’s face is worth much more than money 😀
The USCF rating report can be found here.
Below are some photos from this tournament. More photos can be found here.
