The last event of a crazy November was the 46th Exton Commons Event. This is a traditional 4-round, 3-section, 1 to 5 on Saturday afternoon type tournament that we do once a month – the next one is December 9th. With the National Chess Congress going on, this tournament focused on more beginner kids by having an Under 700 and Under 300 section to go along with the Open section.
Mohit Maringanti led the Open section. Mohit was the highest-rated player by about 400 points, so the pressure was on him to win all his games. He did and won first place and $100. His brother, Ashrith, came in second with a 3-1 score. In third and fourth were the two Puranikmaths, with Achintya taking third on tiebreaks. Of note was Pranav’s result. Pranav had broken 700 in the G/15 event the previous weekend and, on that basis, decided to challenge himself and play up in the Open section. He scored a solid 1.5 – 2.5 and picked up another 100 points.
In the Under 700 section, he left his brother at home but brought his A-game and won with a 3.5-0.5 score. He drew only the third-place winner, Michael Huang, and beat the second-place winner, Swanik Gandhe. Swanik beat Michael and two others, losing only to John. Michael won third on tiebreaks, as Arjun Patil also had a 2.5- 1.5 score to finish fourth.
The Under 300 section had only players who were either entirely new or just provisionally-rated. Gad just edged Vansh Jain, a new player, for first as they both scored 3.5 – 0.5, tying each other. In third place was Vihaan Dhumal, who had a 3 – 0 score.
Amazingly, this event outdrew the Under 900 section of the State G/15 Championship! State championships, even the divided kind, should be of great use to high school kids or almost any children applying to anything, so I will have to work on spreading the word about the value of such tournaments. The next will be the G/75 at the end of January (beginning of February for the Under 1600 and Open sections.)
The event, which I accidentally entitled Open, can be found at – US Chess MSA – Cross Table for OPEN (Event 202311254422)
