Fullerton Host Lions present winners of the City Scholastic Chess Championship

By Pete Baron on June 2, 2023

The 16th annual Fullerton City Scholastic Chess Championship, sponsored by the Fullerton Lions and the Fullerton School District, was held on May 5 at Ladera Vista Jr. High. Dewain Barber supplied all boards, sets, keychain piece prizes, and supported awards.

We had a new tournament director this year and only one volunteer from the local chess club; at the same time, we had the largest number of signups ever (80); even with 17 no-shows, it was the largest ever. Due to these complications, the tournament ran less smoothly than in the past and lasted longer.

Nine different grade-level tournaments were run (K-7 and 8-12 flight), plus a “SuperChamp flight” to determine the best scholastic player in Fullerton, the city’s 2023 SCHOLASTIC CHESS CHAMPION.

This year a significant number of participants were from Arborland Montessori (9) and Fisler (8). Other schools with more than two players were Acacia & Sunset (5 each), Parks (4), and Golden Hill (3). Three city champs hailed from Laguna Road; no one else had more than one.

In 2nd & 3d place trophies, Arborland Montessori was utterly dominant with 5; no other school had more than 2!

Trophy winners – city champions:

Kindergarten

1. Jack Hodgson (Raymond)

2. Liam Choi (Fisler)

3. Kaylie Yao (Arborland M.)

1st GRADE

1. Harvey Sim (Covenant Christian

Academy)

2. Rayan Shah (Arborland M.)

3. Steven Apostol (Sunset)

2nd GRADE

1. Ryan Cho (Laguna Road)

2. Luke Hodgson (Raymond)

3. Lucas Villegas ( Arborland M.)

3rd GRADE

1. Elin Eo (Laguna Road)

2. Eamon Pirraglia (Arborland M.)

3. Avi Parekh (Arborland M.)

4th GRADE

1. Jayden Baek (Acacia)

2. Henry Haselton (Golden Hill)

3. Allen Shaw (Acacia)

5th GRADE

1. Joshua Sun (Sunset Lane)

6th GRADE

1. Elliott Lee (Laguna Road)

2. Ethan Hong (Laguna Road)

3. Elijah Kim (Laguna Road)

7th GRADE

1. Ethan Cho (Parks Jr. High)

2. Jordan Galarde (Parks Jr. High)

3. Austin Kim (Fisler)

8th GRADE

1. Jeongmin Choi (Parks Jr. High)

2. Rayne Bhattanchary (Beechwood)

3. Leo Martin (Nicolas Jr. High)

Superchamps

1. Owen Tang (Oxford HS-9th)

2. Dylan Ardana (Parks Jr. High-8th)

3. Dylan Wang (Fisler-6th)

Other Participants: Kindergarten – Ukrit Gupta (Ivy Park Montessori); First – Caleb Edwards (Rolling Hills), Ethan Cuin (Fisler), Lino Islas (Richman), Wyatt McLean (AM); Second – Cooper Proctor (Orangethorpe), Noah Yam (Fisler); Third – Akeera Gupta (Hermosa), Jaime Jiang (AM), Jeongwo Choi (Hermosa); Fourth – Brandon Apostol (Sunset Lane), Jerry Jian (AM), Max Harper (Fisler), Ryo Cabrera (Golden Hill), Shawn Allen (Acacia); Fifth – Andrew Hodgson (Raymond), Brent Han (AM); Sixth – Aaruv Biyani (Sunset Lane), Reyansh Shah (Fisler); Eighth – Jeongmin Choi (Parks Jr. Hi); High School – David Perez (SHHS-12), Sergio Perez (SHHS-12)

Key: LR=Laguna Road, AM=Arborland Montessori

Photos from the tournament and an updated 15 past “Fullerton Chess Championships’ Wall of Fame” can be found on http://www.fullertonlionclub.org after 6/10.