Indy Chess

We had to withdraw one of our club members from Saturday's championship. Rest in peace, Dick.

Richard Arnold, 1947-2026
Father of 5, Vietnam veteran, peak 1900+ player

USCF profile: https://ratings.uschess.org/player/11486070

Obituary: https://www.dignitymemorial.com/obituaries/indianapolis-in/richard-arnold-13021116

"A service honoring Dick’s life and legacy will be held on September 10, 2026, at 12:00 p.m. at Crown Hill Funeral Home, with visitation one hour prior to service. Following the service, he will be laid to rest at Oaklawn Memorial Gardens during a graveside ceremony beginning at 2:00 p.m."

Richard Arnold Obituary - Indianapolis, IN Celebrate the life of Richard Arnold, leave a kind word or memory and get funeral service information care of Crown Hill Funeral Home & Cemetery.

♟🍁FALL BREAK Checkmating Patterns Camp Returns!
Registration is LIVE! ♟🍁

It's a two-half-day camp (kids attend both days):
Option 1: 9a-12p Mon-Tues, Oct 12-13
Option 2: 9a-12p Thur-Fri, Oct 15-16
USCF-rated tourney add-on 12p-3p second day of each camp (incl. lunch)
(Before Care as early as 8am)

@ St. Thomas Aquinas School
4600 N Illinois St. | Indianapolis, IN 46208

indychess.org/events

Coach Chap will be the instructor to present, review, then drill on 36 of the most common checkmating patterns in chess. Format is like summer camp, with recesses in the gym between the four lessons. Recommended for kids rated up to 1200.

This aligns with the Fall Breaks of IPS, St. Thomas/IHM/SJOA/St.Monica/St Barn., Cold Spring, Carmel Clay, and more! (Unfortunately does not align with Washington Township.)

indychess.org/events

We're not sure if you can take the Club Champion title from last year's victor Nate Criss, but only 16 spots remain for contenders to sign up before the tournament sells out!

Registration: indychess.org/events
Players: tinyurl.com/indychess

Club Championship
Saturday, 9.12 | St. Paul's (6050 N Meridian St.)
4ss, 60+10, $1,175 guaranteed

Scholastic Sunday--our monthly kids tournament--had 60 players in a new location we were trying out at St. Barnabas School.

We don't know if the kids had more fun in the rounds, or between rounds trying to beat Laura Escobar (1800+) in the Skittles Room to earn free entry to next month's tournament! (None did...this time)

This event was the first where we ignored grades in school, and paired only by rating. The new sections are Casual/Unrated, Under 500, U800, U1100, and Premiere/1100+. It helps make the sections more competitive, and we had many new trophy recipients!

Without further ado, here were the winners...
[Rated results: https://ratings.uschess.org/event/202609060053?section=0]

PREMIERE/1100+
1st: Apoorva Patel (2.0/30)
T2nd: Jayden Peters, Rishik Kollu (1.5/3.0)

U1100
1st: Sriviraja Valavala (4.0/4.0)
T2nd: Zachery Walker, Abhiram Maddela, Seunggyun Jung (3.0/4.0)
T5th: George Cimera, Aariv Doshi, Enkhsaruul Undrakh-Orgil (2.0/4.0)
Biggest Upset: Jashan Bola

U800
T1st: Ananya Arunraj, Srivanth Valavala (3.5/4.0)
T3rd: Griffin Merritt, Andrew Yang, Brooks Kerr, Abhiram Dharinipragada (3.0/4.0)
Biggest Upset: Abhiram Dharinipragada

U500
1st: Declan Landgraff (4.0/4.0)
T2nd: Shanvi Sugali, Santi Castellanos, Ridhi Kollu (3.0/4.0)
T5th: Austin Vempeni, Chocka Arumugam (2.5/4.0)
Biggest Upset: Edward Meriwether

CASUAL
1st: Zeke Schoettle (4.0/4.0)
2nd: Luke Nalley (3.0/4.0)
T3rd: Gavi Hansotte, Krithik Nampally, Olivia Zhuang, Anna Thach (2.0/4.0)
Sportsmanship: Vihaan Nutalapati

Huge thanks to Jegyun Jung for volunteering as TD-in-training, TD Jerika Eppel for running the floor, and TD Noah Chapuran for running the pairings. We're also grateful to St. Barnabas students and parents for offering concessions with everything from nachos to pretzels to pizza!

Next month we return to St. Monica School on October 4. Register at indychess.org/events.

Looks familiar!

This young chess player is Madison Brown, representing Indiana as state champion at the Ruth Haring Invitational in Grand Rapids last month. You gotta enlarge the picture to notice the chessboard reflected in her eyes. 🇺🇸

♟️ In our school clubs' first month, veteran players compete in the "Placement Tournament" to establish a club ladder. 🪜 Then once a month--just like chess clubs did much more before the rating system was invented--we hold "Ladder Match Day." That's where players challenge the player above them to try to move up the ladder. At the end of the semester, we give prizes to the highest ladder player in each grade level! 🏆

We love it when teachers walk by on Ladder Match Day because they inevitably ask, "How on earth do you get those kids so quiet and focused on chess?!" It's not us coaches! On those days, the kids tell each other to be quiet. 🧠🤫

Our Pawns to Queens girls group met again last night to level up on workbooks and then play a bughouse arena.

Every workbook they finish earns 20 points; every weekly zoom solving puzzles earns 5; every Scholastic Sunday competition earns 20.

In December the girls get to cash in the points for merch at the Indy Chess online store, and last night they gave ideas for what hoodies they want us to create. We're still working on "Purple knight with a mohawk losing its mind in a patch of flowers with rainbows in the background."

Thanks to some huge supporters stepping up last December, this group remains completely free for participants!

Save the date: 2nd annual Girls City Chess Championship is Saturday, December 12. We sent in a ticket to Weather requesting no snowstorm this year.

MORE THAN FORTY PLAYERS are already registered for our Scholastic Sunday event this weekend! BUT REMEMBER, there are some significant changes...

1) This month only, it's on the south side at St. Barnabas School Gym at 8330 Rahke Rd. (It returns to St. Monica on Oct. 4.)

2) In response to feedback, the sections for Scholastic Sunday tournaments moving forward (i.e., for all future events) will be...
♟Casual/Unrated
♟Under 500 (USCF-rated)
♟Under 800 (USCF-rated)
♟Under 1100 (USCF-rated)
♟Premiere/1100+ (USCF-rated)

Still 5 trophies per sections | Still $50 gift card for Premiere winner.
Register today at indychess.org/events!

Three weeks in, and these two beginners just played their first complete chess game, supervised by the school's club champion to help correct illegal moves. We love the season when our school chess programs take off!

We have our first sponsors/teams of the 4th annual Corporate Chess Challenge--a benefit for our Title I school programs. Thank you to CohenMalad, LLP (title sponsor), Milliman, and Eli Lilly and Company for signing up to compete to be playfully crowned "Indy's Smartest Company!" Learn more: indychess.org/ccc