Monday, November 27, 2023

San Diego Chess Club gets many awards at the American Open Scholastic !

 November 26th, 2023



Last weekend many SDCC players traveled to Anaheim to participate in the 58th American Open. The event featured a regular tournament with 269 players and scholastic tournaments with 563 players. San Diego Chess Club was well-represented with 42 scholastic players who put the name of the club as their team.  Many other San Diego  players participated in the regular, non-scholastic portion of the event as well.


At the American Open Scholastic tournament, the San Diego Chess Club team won 9 team trophies. To qualify for a team trophy, at least 2 players from the same team needed to participate in a given section. Unfortunately, in some sections, the San Diego Chess Club had only 1 player and was not eligible for any team awards.


The tournament has been rated by USCF.

Google Spreadsheets posted by ChessPalace with individual/team standings


Here are our team placements across both Varsity (2 days) and Junior Varsity (1 day) sections:


1st place V K6 OPEN represented by Sarthak Gattani, Francis Ordanza, HIro Uchiyama, and Jeffrey Chen

3rd place JV K-5 U800 represented by Aiden Yan, Renae Chen, Dylan Liu and Eric Oen.

2nd place JV K-2 U400 represented by Ryan Yu and Elliott Yan

2nd place JV K-9 OPEN represented by Koroush Asadi Morales and Smaran Mukkavilli

2nd place JV K-9 U1000 represented by Henry Fletcher, Ainysh Khanna and Kyan Bach

3rd place JV K-2 U200 represented by Binh-Minh Le and Patrick Huang

3rd place JV K-9 U700 represented by Morgan McCarty, Avery Bazan and Marsha McCarty

3rd place JV K-6 U900 represented by Raul Borsella, Hunter An, Renae Chen and Robert Marder

3rd place JV K-12 U1200 represented by Martin Valkanov, Vinson Nguyen, and Bolivar Rascon

















The scholastic tournaments were conducted in 21 sections. Some sections were large (60 players) and some were small (10 players). The placements were determined on tie breaks.


  • 1st place in Varsity K3 Open - Miller Zhang
  • 1st place in Varsity K6 Open - Sarthak Gattani
  • 3rd place in Varsity K6 Open - Francis Ordanza
  • 3rd place in JV K9 U1000 - Henry Fletcher
  • 3rd place in JV K5 U800 - Aiden Yan
  • 3rd  place in JV K2 U400 - Ryan Yu
  • 4th  place in JV K12 U1200 - Martin Valkanov
  • 4th place in JV K6 U900 - Raul Huseynli Borsella
  • 5th place in JV K9 U700 - Morgan McCarty
  • 5th place in JV K2 U200 - Binh-Minh Le
  • 6th place in Varsity K6 Open - Hiro Uchiyama
  • 6th place in JV K9 OPEN - Koroush Asadi Morales
  • 6th place in JV K6 OPEN - Rustam Zokirov
  • 7th place in JV K6 U900 - Hunter An
  • 8th place in JV K9 OPEN - Smaran Mukkavilli
  • 8th place in JV K3 U500 - Alexander Oen
  • 8th place in JV K2 OPEN - Sashwat Raj Nirmal
  • 9th place in JV K12 U1200 - Vinson Nguyen
  • 9th place in JV K3 OPEN - Cameron Twu
  • 10th place in Varsity K12 Open - Ryuta Nunez
  • 10th  place in JV K2 U400 - Elliott Yan
  • 13th place in JV K9 U1000 - Ainysh Khanna
  • 13th place in JV K6 U900 - Renae Chen
  • 13th place in JV K5 U800 - Renae Chen
  • 14th place in JV K3 U500 - Agniv Das
  • 14th place in JV K5 U800 - Dylan Liu
  • 16th place in JV K5 Open - Brian Xu
  • 17th place in JV K6 U900 - Robert Marder
  • 18th place in Varsity K12 Open - Luke Posson
  • 20th place in JV K3 U500 - Yoon Seo
  • 21st  place in JV K12 U1200 - Bolivar Rascon
  • 21st place in JV K6 U900 - James Kased
  • 21st place in JV K2 U200 - Patrick Huang
  • 25th place in JV K9 U700 - Avery Bazan
  • 26th place in JV K5 U800 - Eric Oen
  • 27th place in JV K9 U1000 - Kyan Bach
  • 30th place in Varsity K12 Open - Christopher Wang
  • 37th place in JV K6 U600 - Anika Macha
  • 38th place in JV K9 U700 - Marsha McCarty
  • 42nd place in JV K5 U500 - Mila Valkanov
  • 48th place in JV K5 U500 - Yerin Seo
  • 61st place in JV K6 U600 - Avika Khanna