Fallon Chess Club

Belated congrats to the top finishers in our late fall weekly USCF-rated class tournaments!

Elite class winners (above left with Coach Sana): Reyansh Mane, Ryan Banerjee, Albert Zhao, Stefan Asghar-Ristanovic, and Krish Desai (Varchasv Garg not pictured)

Winners from Varsity A/B: Assistant Coach Dash Nagata, Advaith Sheela, Aarav Nayak, Andy Kim, Abhirim Leburu, Dev Vignesh, and Samrath Bhatia.

USCF-rated results: https://ratings.uschess.org/event/202512040303?section=0

(There were no rated games in the high-performance 1300+ class taught by GM Enrico, though student/assistant coach Leo Ni finished undefeated in non-rated games).

We then celebrated the end of the session with our typical 'fun' tournament. In the High-Performance class, Leo Ni and Arjun Shenoy defeated the duo of Coaches GM Enrico-Fred on time in a simul. In the other multi-class bughouse tournament, the top-finishing teams were:
1) Sebastian Karagozlu-Advaith Sheela tied for first with Dev Vignesh-Krish Desai with 7 points
Samrath Bhatia-Adhyan Banuri tied with Andy Kim-Coach Sana for third with 6 points
Brandon Kim-Coach Eric in 5th place with 5 points

Our Thursday after-school tournament training class at John Green Elementary (aka Fallon Chess) starts again on January 15th.

Register here:
GM-led High-Performance class (1300+ or equivalent): https://emeraldhillschess.jumbula.com/EmeraldHillsChess20252026Session/GMLedHighPerformance1300Class

Elite and Varsity A-B Classes: https://emeraldhillschess.jumbula.com/EmeraldHillsChess20252026Session/FallonChessClub202526NewLocationTournamentTrainingNowOpentoALLTriValleyStudents

Questions? [email protected] or [email protected]

We had a great first week of the international award-winning, nationally-ranked Fallon Chess Club last Thursday.

Now in our 11th year, we’re continuing our FIDE-recognized program on Thursdays 3:30 to 5 PM at nearby John Green Elementary, providing the same affordable, high-quality lessons taught by passionate teachers from the community and assisted by student volunteer coaches. This is followed by competitive weekly USCF-rated games with trophies for top finishers.

Thanks to our parent volunteers for the smooth first class - Shweta Gundala, Sowjanya Manne, Wendy Ng and Dash Nagata.

Assisting Coaches Eric and U.S. Women’s Open Champion Coach Sana this year are two student volunteer assistant coaches - nationally-ranked (1900-rated) Fallon 6th grader Leo Ni, and Emerald HS student/Fallon alum Viren Sethi.

If you’re looking for the original Fallon Chess Club that has had 500 members in the past ten years, produced seven nationally-ranked players, won the state championship twice and was 2023 K-6 and K-8 national online champion, join us.

https://bit.ly/4moowbY

Questions? [email protected]

Are you looking for the internationally-awarded, nationally-ranked Fallon Chess Club? You've come to the right place. Our club has been run continuously for the last 11 years by passionate local Dublin residents and parents. Our coaches are highly-ranked and include national champions. We've hosted world-class GMs every year for simuls including US champion Sam Shankland, local phenom Christopher Yoo, and more. We've won many dozens of team trophies, including 2023 K-6 and K-8 National Online champions, 2022 K-6 and K-8 National Online runners-up, and many more (see our bio).

We've produced more than 500 tournament players, including 7 nationally-ranked individuals. Dozens of our alumni have come back to earn community service volunteer hours as assistant coaches. And we were awarded the 2025 Silver award from the International Chess Federation, FIDE, for scholastic chess excellence.

This year, our fun, competitive and affordable club will continue on Thursday afternoons 3:30-5 PM at nearby John Green Elementary, making it open to students from ALL OVER the Tri-Valley that compete in USCF-rated tournaments or aspire to do so.

Learn more and register: https://emeraldhillschess.jumbula.com/EmeraldHillsChess20252026Session/FallonChessClub202526NewLocationTournamentTrainingNowOpentoALLTriValleyStudents

Questions? Email [email protected] or [email protected]

We have won a 2025 Silver award for school chess excellence from FIDE - International Chess Federation.

FIDE's Chess in Education Commission highlighted our "excellent infrastructure, comprehensive teaching materials, diverse chess events, qualified chess teachers, and active program promotion and inclusive programming...The program shows a remarkable commitment to promoting educational chess, both within the school and in the community."

Thanks to all of the parent and student volunteers and coaches over the past decade that have helped this club help more than 500 members reach their over-the-board potential, learn critical thinking skills and resilience, and forge lasting friendships.

Now in its 11th year, Fallon Chess Club has a new home - nearby John Green Elementary!

Our affordable tournament training chess club remains on Thursdays after school and is now open to Gr 4 and above from around the Tri-Valley.

Fallon Chess begins Sept. 18. Learn more and register: https://emeraldhillschess.jumbula.com/EmeraldHillsChess20252026Session/FallonChessClub202526NewLocationTournamentTrainingNowOpentoALLTriValleyStudents

We had an amazing week at the World Schools Chess Championship in Washington DC, magnificently organized by FIDE - International Chess Federation and the International School Chess Federation.

Coming in as a last minute wild card, we outperformed our seeding and expectations by defeating the top teams from Chile and Kenya, drawing a powerful-but-shorthanded Kyrgyzstan team, and narrowly losing to Czech Republic after time pressure undid the winning positions we had on all 4 boards.

All of our players - Reyansh Nuti at board 1, Naman Jain at 2, Anika Prasad at 3, Rayan Jain at 4, and Arnav Solan at 4/5 - competed excellently and achieved major individual upsets.

The highlight was Naman Jain unleashing a prepared 2 pawn gambit in the French defense to surprise and upset a 2000-rated Candidate Master from Kyrgyzstan. Rayan Jain also defeated a 1600-rated player from Kazakhstan and achieved an even 3-3 record.

Our player of the tournament was Arnav Solan, who went 4-2 (plus 1 forfeit win) to win the 3rd place individual medal for his board. All of our players earned first-time FIDE ratings higher than their current USCF ones. Arnav also defeated a Women's Grandmaster in a simul, while Rayan drew her.

Fallon finished tied for 39th out of 55 teams (43rd on tiebreak) in our first international competition. The winner, India's Velammal School, had an average rating of 2210, and two International Masters on their team. Velammal has produced 20 Grandmasters, including world champion Gukesh Dommaraju and FIDE No. 4 Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa.

Congrats to The Harker School of San Jose for taking third place!

We also got advance notice that Fallon Chess will be winning an award from FIDE's Chess in Education Commission for a top school chess program - see the photo of our team (competing) with top FIDE officials and Coach Eric Lai behind them.

Thanks again to FIDE and the International School Chess Federation for putting on the best tournament we have ever played, and all of the cultural interchange moments both big and small we got to experience, from the Olympic-style opening team march, to the pomp of our closing awards ceremony, and the conversations in the game lounge, sports field, and cafeteria.

https://s2.chess-results.com/tnrWZ.aspx?lan=1&art=8&flag=30&snr=2&SNode=S0&tno=1226551

Fallon won its first match today at the FIDE World Schools Championship in Washington DC, defeating a team from Chile led by efficient wins by Arnav Solan and Anika Prasad and a hard-fought draw by Rayan Jain.

Follow our games this week as our team competes against school teams from 50 countries around the world!

https://worldschoolteam2025.fide.com/live-game/

Five players - Naman Jain, Reyansh Nuti, Anika Prasad, Arnav Solan and Rayan Jain - will be traveling to Washington DC this weekend to compete in the FIDE - International Chess Federation World School Teams Championship from Aug 2-7. Fallon will be competing against nearly 60 other teams representing 50 countries from all around the world! Wish us luck!

WORLD SCHOOLS TEAM CHAMPIONSHIP 2025 – WORLD SCHOOLS TEAM CHAMPIONSHIP 2025, United States of America, Washington

We held our year-end party on Thursday, celebrating our tenth year as an after-school enrichment activity sponsored by the Eleanor Murray Fallon Middle School PFC.

Besides highlighting our many team and individual triumphs, we shared all the ways our ~70 club members can continue to improve his summer and for the graduating 8th graders to compete and stay involved in the long run.

Thanks to the coaches, parents, and other volunteers that made this another successful season.

Coaches: Kaushik Bakhandi, Sana Tsogtsaikhan, Derick Fogt, Eric Lai, Red Tengco (substitute)
Student Assistant Coaches: Shivish Aneja, Aavi Bharucha, Bhargava Ogireddy and Dhruv Torney
Parent Volunteers: Bhavna Jain, Shweta Gundala, Sowjanya Manne, Wendy Wing Ng
Eleanor Murray Fallon Middle School PFC Enrichment Leads Peggy Chook and Mittal Goradia

We then let the kids gorge on pizza, soda and ice cream, then have free play including challenging their coaches for gift cards!

Our highest-rated Coach Sana valiantly gave 1:5 or 2:5 minute time odds! Congrats to the following student winners - Aksh Prasad, Preron Chakraborty, Arjun Shenoy, Daksh Vijh, and Chris Jason Ephraim Raja!

See the picture-filled recap by Co-Founder and Head Coach Eric Lai, along with suggestions for improvement in this lifetime sport! https://bit.ly/4mb5Blk

They include:
Keep competing! Emerald Hills Chess will continue its monthly tournaments, including this Saturday’s May 17 Tri-Valley Open (100+ players registered competing for $500 in cash and 40+ trophies). https://caissachess.net/online-registration/index/6364

Join week-long summer camps or weekly tournament-training classes at Emerald Hills Chess, taught by the same coaches at Fallon https://emeraldhillschess.jumbula.com

Join Emerald High School’s student-led chess club

Serve as a coach or floor TD for Fallon and Emerald Hills Chess. These are volunteer-to-paid positions

Contact us if you/your child is interested!

Congrats to the winners of our final Late Spring weekly USCF-rated club tournament, which we awarded at our year-end party yesterday!

We held five in-class tournaments during the year, awarding trophies to the top finishers. Many players boosted their USCF ratings by multiple hundreds of points, and gained valuable practice for state and national competitions.

We had a very high bar for our final tournament - winners had to score at least 2.5 out of 4 points through wins or draws (no byes) and tie for top 3 in their section.

Rated results: https://www.uschess.org/msa/XtblMain.php?202505088312.0-16626116

We also gave out gift cards to the top Spring finishers in our Tuesday online tournaments on Chess.com. Top overall prize winners were Arnav Solan, Nolan Woo, Anika Prasad, Naman Jain, and Wesley Yim, with many other members winning prizes, too.

Our Tuesday night tournaments will stop during the summer, but the Friday night tournaments at Emerald Hills Chess continue - join the club and play there!

Seven Fallon team members competed at the massive 4,600-player SuperNationals scholastic championship this weekend in Orlando, Florida.

All of our players fought hard, playing seven rounds at the grueling Game/90 minutes + 10 second delay time control, which created games lasting 2-4 hours each! All were in contention for individual medals until the last 1-2 rounds.

In the end, Fallon placed ninth in the country in the highly-competitive K-8 U1400 section, thanks to our four scorers: Aryaman Majumder, Rayan Jain, Reyansh Nuti, and Gloria Beichen She.

That approximately matches our 2019 Nationals showing, when Fallon placed 8th in the K-8 U1250 and 12th in the K-8 Championship.

Fallon barely missed out on a Top 25 team trophy in the K-12 U1200 section, as our short-handed team (Pranav Mehta, Arnav Solan, and Naman Jain) placed 29th.

Congrats to our individual medal winners:
Aryaman Majumder (5-2, tie 14th in the K-8 U1400)
Fallon alum-moved-to-North Carolina Tejas Kunduru (5-2, tie 15th in the K-12 U1600)
Future Fallon player Adhvik Nuti (5-2, tie 19th in K-6 U1000),
Future Fallon player Neel Mehta (5-2, tie 19th in K-3 U600).